UL Professor Wins Research Award

University of Liberia

Associate Professor Alfred K. Tarway-Twalla of the Institute of Population Studies at the University of Liberia, has won Africa's best researcher's award for the month of April from an international research group known as the Global Development Network (GDN).

The research article, which puts the Liberian academician over hundreds of researchers from Africa, is titled "Factors Influencing Contribution of Informal Businesses to Private Sector Development in Liberia."

According to a release, the purpose of the research is to determine major factors influencing the contribution of grassroots (mostly informal) businesses to post-conflict socio-economic development in Liberia. The Central Region of Liberia (CRL), comprising Bong and Margibi counties, was the sampling frame and geographic focus of the research.

In a letter to Prof. Tarway-Twalla, Dr. Dina Mannaa, the East & Southeast Asia Regional Coordinator of GDNet said, "Congratulations for having your paper published on our knowledge-base; the paper is very interesting, focusing on social developmental issue.

On behalf of the GDNet team, we would like to thank you so much for contributing to our knowledgebase", Dr Mannaa indicated, and added: "I would like to take this opportunity to inform you that we have decided to feature you as the researcher of the month on the Africa Window and we will feature your paper also as the main one on the window, of Africa monthly bulletin."

Accordingly, GDN, which supports southern researchers to contribute and debate ideas in development thinking, policy and practice, divides the world into seven regions. The regions are as follows: Africa, MENA, South Asia, East and Southeast Asia, Latin America, CIS and CEE. The winners region are as follows: Africa Region - Alfred K Tarway-Twalla of Liberia; MENA Region- Shahab Ghobadi of Iran; South Asia Region- Gajendra Kumar Maharia of India; East and Southeast Asia Region - La Phuong of Vietnam; Latin America Region - Jose Valle of Peru; CIS Region -Dauren Aidarkhanov of Kazakhstan; and for the CEE Region - Olga Rastrigina of Latvia

The research article which led to the GDN Africa's researcher of the month award to Prof. Tarway-Twalla was written from a competitive research grant provided by the TrustAfrica - Investment Climate and Business Environment Research Fund, and the International Development Research Center (IDRC). The research funds were administered by the Liberia Agency for Community Empowerment (LACE).