Multi-donor team start assessment mission

A multi-donor team is in Liberia on a four-day mission to see how best to respond to its reconstruction and development needs, UN sources in Monrovia told IRIN on Tuesday. The mission includes representatives of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, USAID, EU, Economic Commission for Africa, Dutch government and the UN Development Programme. Its agenda includes meetings with President Charles Taylor and officials of several ministries including Commerce, Health, Education, Justice, Finance and Planning as well as field visits outside Monrovia, the sources said. Sources said the findings of the mission, which leaves Monrovia on Friday, will inform donors on how best to deliver on pledges made at a conference in Paris in April 1998 at which 11 countries agreed to provide Liberia with US $220 million in the first phase of a two-year national reconstruction programme.