USAID Governance and Economic Management Support project (USAID-GEMS) began an ICT Organizational Design project in November  2013 with the aim of understanding the current state of ICT within the Government of Liberia (GOL) and advising on the restructuring of the ICT competency in GOL. As part of the project, the USAID-GEMS ICT team conducted an IT Unit Assessment workshop at USAID-GEMS office for representatives of eight Ministries, Agencies and Commissions (MACs), which included: National Bureau of Concessions (NBC); Governance Commission (GC); Public Procurement and Concessions Commission (PPCC); Ministry of Justice (MoJ); Ministry of Health & Social Welfare (MoHSW); General Services Agency (GSA); Ministry of Post & Telecommunications (MOPT); Ministry of Finance (MOF). 

The workshop provided an opportunity to discuss the findings on the availability and placement of ICT skillsets in GOL, and to explore ideas on how to improve the current situation.  Given the GOL's intention to speed the introduction e-Government principles, there was recognition and acknowledgement by the participants on the need to reorganize GOL’s ICT professionals and infrastructure to provide the necessary platform.  These changes need to happen within the MACs, but also through the creation of new cross-government institutional arrangements. The collaboration within the workshop seeded and grounded the design of these changes, and helped develop a roadmap on how to use ICT to improve the performance of the public sector.