By Amos Harris
PAYNESVILLE – A first-year assessment of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s flagship ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development (AAID) has revealed sluggish progress, weak coordination, and significant transparency gaps. According to the “President Meter Report 2025,” less than one percent of planned interventions reached full completion during the administration’s first twelve months.
Released on Monday, January 13, 2026, at its headquarters in Paynesville, the report by governance watchdog Naymote Partners for Democratic Development provides the first independent, evidence-based evaluation of the AAID’s implementation between January and December 2025.
Naymote Executive Director Eddie D. Jarwolo disclosed that the assessment tracked 378 interventions across 52 core programs and six strategic pillars of the national development plan, which was originally launched by President Boakai on January 15, 2025. The findings paint a sobering picture: only three interventions, representing a mere 0.8 percent, were fully completed. While 165 interventions (43.7 percent) showed some level of progress, 76 interventions (20.1 percent) have not yet started, and 134 interventions (35.4 percent) could not be assessed at all due to a total lack of publicly available data.
Naymote concluded that 55.5 percent of the AAID interventions are currently inactive or untraceable. The organization warns that this lack of visibility undermines public confidence and raises serious concerns regarding government accountability and the effectiveness of state institutions.
Performance across the AAID’s six pillars remains mixed. Governance and Anti-Corruption, Environmental Sustainability, and Infrastructure Development recorded the highest activation rates at 56.9 percent, 56.7 percent, and 55.3 percent, respectively. These gains were largely driven by digital governance initiatives, donor-supported climate programs, and visible energy and road projects. Conversely, the Human Capital Development and Economic Transformation pillars—central to job creation, education, and social welfare—emerged as the weakest performers with activation rates of only 36.7 percent and 35 percent. Naymote attributed these shortcomings to chronic underfunding, weak inter-ministerial coordination, and inadequate reporting systems.
The assessment also highlights a persistent failure in service delivery beyond the capital. A review of County Service Centers revealed that more than 60 percent of core government services remain unavailable outside of Monrovia. This reinforces long-standing criticisms that the administration’s commitment to decentralization remains more rhetorical than real.
Despite the critical overall outlook, the report acknowledged limited but notable successes where political will and resources were aligned. These “pockets of progress” include the establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court office, the rollout of biometric national ID registration reaching over 710,000 citizens, the introduction of pilot e-procurement systems, and targeted investments in agriculture and tourism.
Commenting on the trajectory of the agenda, Naymote warned that the current pace of implementation is grossly insufficient to meet the AAID’s 2029 targets. At the present rate, the organization estimates that implementation would need to accelerate more than twentyfold to remain on track. To avert failure, the report calls for urgent corrective measures, including the establishment of a dedicated AAID coordination secretariat, mandatory quarterly public reporting by all implementing agencies, and a deeper decentralization of resources to the counties.
The President Meter Report 2025 was produced under Naymote’s Democracy Advancement Program, with support from the Embassy of Sweden and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). Naymote clarified that the views expressed are solely those of the organization. The watchdog announced it will continue to monitor the agenda quarterly through 2029, engaging civil society and the media to ensure a sustained push for results-driven governance.