Getting live on cspan two. We have a Simple Program and after a few introductory remarks will going to have a brief video. A picture is worth a thousand words that will give you a couple of those. Through todays conversation about schools in liberia and then will turn it over to minister warner and hell get his keynote address. Following that we have a fantastic panel today with seth andrew from democracy builders, amy black from cultural and development and. [inaudible] from International Finance corporation. Ill introduce them in detail when the panel joins me up here. We will have about 45 minutes of q and a time with some opportunity for the audience to join as well. For those following on social media we have a for our event and its developing world charters. You can comment and send questions which ill be checking on during the q a time. The event, is being live streamed into the full video will be posted online after we conclude today event. Of course, we are here today to hear from minister warner about liberias bold approach for school of reform. First, i want to give a little bit of context for those who dont already have it. Liberia is a west african nation, founded by freed slaves from the United States primarily in the 1800s and over the past decade, liberia has seen no small its fault. The 19 80s saw multiple could eat as and a cycle of violence and unrest that culminated in 1989 and the first of two civil wars that lasted for 14 years. Hundreds of thousands of casualties and more than 1. 3 million liberians displaced. The country stabilized in 2003, in some degree, and further in 2006 with the election of president. [inaudible] former World Bank Economist and eventual Nobel Peace Prize recipient under the President Library continue to stabilize and to build Democratic Institutions, difficult work after years of war and political instability. In 2014, the Ebola Outbreak head killing thousands of liberians and a difficult emergency and destabilizing events as the country which has come out trying to build Economic Growth and Democratic Institutions since then committing poverty and strength and an Education System that was shuttered for better part of the year. On many educational mentors liberia lacks behind with low levels of Primary School attendance and completion and low literacy and illustrative in 2013 nearly 25000 students took the university of iberian Entrance Exam and no one passed. This led the president to call the educated system en masse and she charged Education Minister george warner, who is here today with us, to chart and your course for liberian education. Mr. Warner has taken up the challenge and 2016 he announced a bold plan to partner schools with iberian program in which Independent School operators would run 93 Primary Schools that were partially funded by the governments. The program, is most ambitious forms do, has drawn criticism and praise alike. The consequences of Public School privatization and supporters cite the need for innovative change in a Failing School system. In 2016, 17, 28 iberian attendant 93 psl schools, those are partnership for liberian schools, run by International Energy providers. These educational reforms come at a time of Major Political change. In october, liberia will elect a new legislator and president and in the first democratic transfer of power since 1944. This will be a test of liberias Young Democratic institution and with the new administration on the horizon and bold reforms underway, liberia and its School Reform face great change and a great opportunity. Now, a picture is as good as a thousand words of we bring up the minister, we have a brief video to give you the context for the psl form. I hope that short video gives you some view on liberian schools and now id like to invite Education Minister, george warner, to come up and get his keynote for his release he taught at the high school and College Levels and the director general and liberian Civil Services in 2013 and 2015. He currently cochairs the moment task force and minister of education. During me in welcoming minister warner. [applause] thank you for the kind introduction. Thank you for welcoming us here. Im here today to discuss liberias experience with public, private partnerships in education. First, let me say that im honored to be here in behalf of the liberian government and are hesitant. As most of you know the president became the first democratic female president in them. In 2005 in that election was also another first for liberia was the first president ial election sense the rule and the devastating conflict that crippled our countries and took more than 200,000 lives. President will be leaving office in january of next year having served two terms. All departure from office respecting chris democratic limits marks another important that should not be overlooked. It will be the first peaceful transfer of power in my country since 1944. It will consolidate our postwar democracy. As the president ial campaigns gathers pace, and the events of the elections in just a few months time, i am struck by just how far we have come. When you pick up a newspaper or turn on the radio in liberia you will see and hear evidence of political debate. Its a vibrant and an engaged society. This is an achievement we should not take for granted. Though, i must say, occasionally, i remind myself that i am one in the line of fire of criticism. Beyond our democratic achievements of the past decade liberia has emerged as a post conflict success story. Innovation in the public, private partnerships have been introduced and are created collaboration in healthcare, human, philanthropy, infrastructure and education. We owe a debt of gratitude to the United States for serving as a partner along the journey. Through both democratic and republican administrations, war and return of peace and most recently, to the fight against ebola, the United States has been an essential partner. I want to think the American People for your steadfast support. I want to thank all who contributed to ending a bullet in my country and i know i speak on behalf of of not only the liberian government but also the liberian people when i say that we look forward to continuing our Partnership Long into the future. When you look at the democratic trend, not just in liberia but across the continent of africa, it becomes clear why International Partnerships and collaboration are more important than ever before. Today, there are 420 million africans between the ages of 50 and 35 and that number is expected to nearly double to over 830 million by 2050. This can be a democratic dividend with the potential to transform our economy or it can be a ticking time bomb which depends on one thingeducation. Ten to 20 million african youths enter the workforce every year and many without the liberty with the skills they need to succeed in finding gainful employment. Our Education System is failing to prepare our children for the jobs of yesterday, let alone the jobs of tomorrow. Too many of our young people sit with a hopeless future at home and clean the continent and risking their lives to find opportunity abroad. At the same time, countries across the continent has seen an increase in demand and pressures not only on our Education System but also healthcare and social services. In this context, African Leaders need to think outside the box and find innovative solutions. In liberia, this is exactly what we have done. We are educating the first generation of liberian children who have not no more or conflict. They are too young to have experienced the days when children, rather than going to school, were recruited as soldiers in the body conflict that tore our country apart. We hold the dreams and aspirations of this new generation in our hands. It is our responsibility to ensure that they have opportunity to succeed. That responsibility was front and center, in my mind, when i was appointed Education Minister by resident sirleaf in june of 2015. It is still what drives me every day. When i spoke to him at the ministry of education i already understood some of the challenges that i would face. I knew that our Education System was failing to educate the 35 of our young women and 21 of our young men who could not read a single sentence. I knew about the gender gap and that only 39 of women across liberia completed Primary School. I knew about the inequality in Education Access in our rural areas where only 26 of women and 58 of men were illiterate. I have read all the studies and knew all the stats and, as a former teacher myself, i had seen it firsthand. When i began traveling across the country, visiting schools, speaking to teachers, parents and children, it became clearer that both reform was urgently needed. Maintaining the status quo was not an option, we absolutely could not risk failing this or any future generation of liberian children so, we embrace the opportunity to implement old reforms and truly transform our Education System. We launched a threeyear plan that includes increasing professionalization of teachers and evaluation to ensure we stay on track to reach our goals. We have undertaken an aggressive project to identify and remove workers from the. [inaudible] to date, we have removed nearly 2000 workers which have led to 2. 5 million us dollars in annual savings that can be reinvested in education. We also launched an innovative, Publicprivate Partnership that is testing new models for improving liberian Public Schools. That program or psl for short is what im here to discuss today. As i mentioned earlier, psl has an important distinction from Charter School model that you have here in the United States. All the schools in the program remain within the Public School system and employ teachers on the government payroll. They also do not. [inaudible] not based on socioeconomic status or academic performance. Through the psl program we partnered with education providers, some local, some international, some nonprofit, some forprofit. Each has a different model but all with proven experience in delivering quality education and improving liberty in the outcomes. Those eight providers within the program are Bridge International academy, which was speak more of in the discussion. I have seen the operations in kenya firsthand and in uganda and was impressed by the learning outcomes they were able to achieve and i invited them to library a to partner with the government of liberia. A nonprofit which was already running an academy in monrovia, the capital of liberia, providing both education and Services Like healthcare, Psychosocial Support and a program for. [inaudible] another provider which also operates in sierra leone and has the focus, not only on providing education but also turning and supporting communities to manage and hold them to account. Brighton academy which also operates a network of schools in sierra leone and has a hold time approach of education. And ngo founded in on the that has experience working across africa. [inaudible] which runs a network of schools in nearby ghana and last but not least, the Liberian Youth Network and. [inaudible] both local and liberian providers. In the first year of psl, wheat which just concluded, these eight providers operated at 93 schools in 13 counties across liberia providing free quality education to around 27000 children. Following the first year we have seen some encouraging initial results. According to the line data with an increase in beneficial impact on future behavior including reviews absenteeism and greater time teaching. Teacher attendance rates are about 90 , on average, across all psl schools. They are a tie at 90 in the case of one provider. [inaudible] these should not be taken for granted but they are note minor achievement in the context such as liberia. To date, the program has also delivered much needed resources including desks, chairs, infrastructure, material, a teacher for every classroom and expanded teacher training opportunities. It has also generated a new appreciation for a longer school day all without charging any fees. Just this week, four of the eight providers in our psl Program Released their own midline reports assessing their efforts during the first year of the program and highlighting key successes in improving learning outcomes. It is deeply encouraging to see their commitment to evaluation and also their positive impact on crucial areas including literacy and numbers. Teacher training and engagement of parents, community and teachers learning, rigorous independent measurement and evaluation has been built into the program,. [inaudible] we are currently awaiting results of an independent assessment being carried out by the Global Development in partnership with innovations from public action. While we await the results, we move into the modest increase in the number of psl schools from 93 to 200 about 7 of liberian Public Schools. In the coming year, we will prioritize the most regions in the southeast liberia which have socioeconomic conditions that make it particularly acute. Psl is an innovation that has the potential to accelerate the provision of quality education and ultimately make it accessible to all of your and students in a way it has never been before. This program is strictly evidencebased. So, we will not move forward with any expansion until we have received the completed independent assessment and can judge the impact of psl on the students in the school system. As we assess what the future of psl will look like, what remains clear is that both action is needed if we are going to properly educate and prepare our children for the future. Study contributed by the institution where i was before i came here, they estimate that there is a 100 year gap between the developing world in the developed world when it comes to academic achievement. One hundred years. Were going to leap from that divide, innovation is an option, its a necessity. If the results are as compelling as we think they will be psl could serve as the model for highquality, lowcost education that can be scaled not only in liberia or even only in africa but around countries around the world that are recovering from conflict and crisis. We look forward to harnessing opportunities like today to share our story with partners across the globe and i look forward to hearing your questions about our experience and to a productive discussion. [applause] thank you minister warner. We also think the panel that you see before you with me time to join us today on this conversation. Next to minister warner is Alejandro Javier o is a Senior Education specialist on the health and Education Team in the finance corporation which the private sector arm of the world bank. There, he evaluates investments in private Education Companies and before joining isc, alejandro was a senior specialist at the World Bank Working with governments in higher education, Science Technology and innovation in the latin american and caribbean region before joining the world bank in 2006, mr. Alejandro was with Deutsche Bank in east asia. Thanks for coming, alejandra. Amy black, were lucky to have her. She is the executive Vice President of Global Education at results for development. Previously, ms. Black served as the Vice President of Growth Strategy and development for teachers for all which is a Global Network of more than 40 National Partner organizations that work to improve Educational Opportunities for marginalized youth. Before helping establish teach for all, amy was the executive director of the washington dc region for teach for america. Before that, she oversaw international to medications for the president s emergency plan for aids relief and spent two years as a president ial management fellow rotating for the state Department Offices including a six month stint in south africa. Thank you, amy for joining us. Last, but not least, seth andrew, if you know seth, that is seth and a blue hat down there at the end. If you dont know him, seth is the founder of democracy build