The World Bank’s 2025 Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) Africa Report has issued a resounding wake-up call: governments must urgently improve service delivery to meet the needs of their growing populations which would play a pivotal moment for governance and development across the African Continent
By Jaheim T. [email protected]
For Liberia—hosting the CPIA Africa report launch for the first time—the message was as local as it was continental. Despite some positive signs of reform in fiscal management and social protection, the region’s average CPIA score remains stagnant at 3.1, unchanged from 2023. The report highlighted a deeply uneven landscape, where governance failures and institutional weaknesses are undermining the effectiveness of reform—even in countries trying to do the right thing.
The CPIA is a tool used by the World Bank to assess the quality of policies and institutional performance in International Development Association (IDA)-eligible countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the findings from the 2024 calendar year paint a concerning picture: public services across the region remain weak, fragmented, and unevenly distributed.
According to the report infrastructure is underdeveloped, stifling economic opportunity, educational quality is low, leaving youth without the skills to thrive, with health care systems are fragile and often inaccessible and administrative services are poorly delivered, limiting ease of doing business and daily governance.
These failures have had tangible social consequences. Across the continent, 2024 saw a surge in youth protests and a growing rejection of political incumbents, fueled by frustrations with poor service delivery, unemployment, and the perception that government institutions are distant, unaccountable, and ineffective.
“Confidence in a government’s ability to efficiently transform public resources into essential services is fundamental to fostering a shared purpose with citizens and improving trust,” said Andrew Dabalen, the World Bank’s Chief Economist for Africa. “Populations across Africa are clearly asking for more from their leaders to enable them to realize their aspirations.”
In Liberia, the CPIA launch was more than a formality—it was a mirror. Deputy Finance Minister for Fiscal Affairs, Anthony Myers, reflected on the country’s performance: “Knowing our score, and knowing where we should be, provides an incentive for improvement.” While acknowledging that the current standing is below expectations, Myers emphasized that areas with higher performance can serve as a blueprint for lifting weaker sectors.
Liberia has seen encouraging progress in areas like fiscal consolidation and the strengthening of social protection policies. However, like many Sub-Saharan African countries, core issues such as infrastructure, public education, and health care remain critically underfunded and poorly delivered.
The country’s new development blueprint, the ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development, is now seen as a crucial opportunity to align national priorities with the insights of the CPIA report.
“Time is of the essence,” said Georgia Wallen, World Bank Country Manager for Liberia. “The CPIA is ultimately about informing and spurring policy action. For Liberia, this is the time to accelerate results—and it’s Liberia’s moment to shine.”
Wallen emphasized that tangible public services—like access to energy, clean water, education, and health care—have a direct impact on how citizens perceive their governments. “These services shape trust and citizen satisfaction,” she said, highlighting the urgent need for governments to connect policies with everyday realities.
She noted that the CPIA evaluates key pillars such as human resource development, property rights, social protection, and labor, which all play a role in influencing the “intangible” elements of governance—trust, confidence, and social cohesion.
But Wallen also reminded the audience that real change does not happen in policy documents alone.
“Policies, institutions, and service delivery don’t just happen,” she said. “They depend on the daily work of civil servants—and that work matters.”
But as Dabalen reminded the gathered policymakers and stakeholders, the challenges facing African governments extend well beyond borders. In Liberia, many of these shortcomings are all too familiar. In neighborhoods across Monrovia, clean water remains scarce. In rural counties, students still learn under trees, and clinics operate without basic medicines. These are not just statistics—they are lived experiences that shape public trust.
“This is a continent where the population will double in our lifetimes,” Dabalen said. “All these people—those alive now and those yet to be born—need services in order to flourish. That’s why there is an urgency for governments to become more efficient and inclusive.”
Dabalen emphasized the pressing need for institutional reform, decentralization, and collaboration between local governments, central authorities, and the private sector. Without this, he warned, Africa’s demographic dividend could become a burden.
“It’s not just about building infrastructure. It’s about making people feel the impact of these services in their daily lives,” he said. “A simple ramp for someone with a disability may seem small, but it reflects whether a government is truly inclusive.”
The report does not shy away from the external headwinds facing the continent. Africa is navigating a turbulent global environment—rising geopolitical tensions, a shift in global trade dynamics, shrinking foreign aid, and unsustainable debt levels.
“Many countries in Africa today are spending more on servicing debt than they are on health and education combined,” Dabalen noted. “In the short term, this is disruptive. In the long term, it’s unsustainable.”
As traditional donors scale back commitments and international aid architectures evolve, African governments are being urged to rely less on external lifelines and more on internal reforms. The CPIA, according to Dabalen, serves as a powerful tool not just to allocate IDA funds—but to signal readiness for private investment.
“Investors are watching,” he said. “When they see a country committed to reform, to transparency, to building strong institutions—that’s when the billions in private investment will follow.”
“The gains from internal reforms far outweigh the marginal increase in IDA allocations. These reforms signal seriousness, and that signal is what attracts capital, creates jobs, and builds public trust.”
The CPIA report is both diagnosis and prescription. For countries like Liberia—and others across Sub-Saharan Africa—it serves as a call to move from promise to performance.
The next step is implementation. Strengthening local governance, improving transparency, building institutional capacity, and expanding inclusive, quality services are not optional—they are essential to sustaining peace, building prosperity, and restoring public confidence.
And if African governments answer this call, Dabalen believes the payoff will be enormous.
“This is not about impressing donors,” he said. “This is about proving to your citizens that the state works for them. That’s what creates legitimacy. That’s what builds a future.”
