Monrovia, Dec. 17 (LINA) – The Liberia Institute of Public Administration (LIPA) will now engage more in capacity development as part of its strategic plan to enhance quality education, the Director General, Professor Alex B. Yonly, has disclosed.
The new LIPA Director General made the disclosure recently in an interview with the Liberia News Agency at his office.
Professor Yonly said his vision is to engage LIPA more into capacity development than capacity building as was the case in the past.
The LIPA official said the institution started in the last few decades from scratch in terms of manpower and human resources development when there was more support from donor agencies to assist the institution which empowered it to look more into capacity building.
Capacity building, in his words, is looking more into building upon what you have and making sure that you can enhance skills.
He said for now his leadership will look more into the direction of capacity development, stressing that he will ensure that they increase and improve the skills of existing manpower.
Professor Yonly said the collaboration of LIPA and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) is one of the ways this goal can be achieved.
Recently, the LIPA boss was in Ghana to forge collaboration with GIMPA, and during his visit attended the GIMPA graduation ceremony where students graduated in Public Policy and Public Sector Development.
He said the good thing is that both institutions have extensive collaboration in terms of curriculum and manpower development, where Liberia is expected to participate in all of the programs at GIMPA in Master’s Degree training.
He is encouraging Liberians to take advantage of the training programs at the Master’s Degree level.
And somewhere down the line, he said LIPA will be talking about how it can extend its services to incorporate the award of master’s degree.
Professor Yonly said that the five to six years Strategic Plan is in its development stage and that they are seeking support to see how they can incorporate it in their training, to ensure that they can grant the Master Degree either in Strategic Management or Public Policy.
LIPA is the government arm in capacity building and its mission is to provide capacity building support for sustained quality service delivery through training, research and consultancy.
The institution was established in 1969 by an Act of the National Legislature and became fully operational in 1972 with the purpose of training public and civil servants.
