There is new hope in Zimbabwe, or at least that is what everyone wants to believe. The opposition has joined a coalition government; formerly exiled opposition politicians are now in charge of education, finance, health, and other important portfolios. Yet U.S. and EU sanctions remain on key political figures, and the floodgates of aid have not yet opened. Cholera cases are over 80,000; by latest count, close to 4,000 people have died. While people hope for the best, they expect the worst, and with good reason.

Robert Mugabe celebrates his 85th birthday on Saturday, and unbelievably, he is still president of Zimbabwe. He and his ZANU PF party have lost every contested election in the past five years to Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC party; Mugabe and ZANU PF have overseen a cholera epidemic, the collapse of the Zimbabwean dollar (all trade is now done in foreign currency), the closure of all major schools and hospitals, and the exodus of perhaps a third of the country’s population.

A power sharing agreement was reached last month, but it is a weak compromise at best. Tsvangirai is prime minister, but Mugabe, who is backed by powerful generals like Airforce Marshal Perence Shiri, oversees all security forces. The police are supposed to be part-controlled by MDC, though practical power rests with ZANU PF. Police are still detaining at least 30 opposition politicians, and last week, they arrested MDC’s Roy Bennett for treason just before he was to be sworn in as deputy agriculture minister. While this charge has been dropped, Bennett still faces unsubstantiated charges of “terrorism, banditry and insurgency,” and remains in prison. It is a familiar place for the opposition politician, who was jailed for 8 months in 2004 for pushing Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa after the Mugabe crony verbally abused him in parliament.

Still, MDC knows it has limited time to demonstrate leadership before it is blamed (along with ZANU PF) for failing to restore Zimbabwe’s economy or improve the people’s health. MDC recognizes that the country needs outside assistance, and Tsvangirai is already preparing to meet with South African President Mothlante to request a $5 billion aid package. He may solicit Western support as well.

But MDC must tread carefully. In the past, Mugabe artfully used Western assistance to undermine MDC’s perceived legitimacy. When 40 MDC supporters were kidnapped, arrested, and tortured at the end of 2008, MDC received no regional help; MDC criticisms were reported almost exclusively in international media, alongside the denouncements of Western leaders. This ironically helped Mugabe, who claimed that MDC was simply the stooge of the West. ZANU PF Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu has shamelessly described Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak as a “genocidal onslaught on the people of Zimbabwe by the British.” Mugabe has claimed that Britain and the U.S. are using cholera as cover for an invasion.

Western donors have little assurance, meanwhile, that their resources would reach people in need and would not merely continue the despotic rule of ZANU PF. The private sector is wary, and will only engage along its own narrowly defined interests. To loosen the spigot of foreign aid (and ensure its best use), Tsvangirai must establish a transparent system for international donors to contract directly with the ministries he controls.

Post-conflict Liberia provides a model. Like Zimbabwe today, Liberia in the wake of Charles Taylor’s rule had seriously flawed governance structures. Corruption was rampant. The country was also in dire need of assistance. In 2005, the government of Liberia, along with international partners and Liberian civil society, created Liberia’s Governance and Economic Management Assistance Program (GEMAP) to offer a system of accountability for incoming revenue and government expenditures. Internationally-recruited advisors were posted in the financial offices of several key Liberian institutions; these advisers were required to cosign with Liberian officials for major transactions. Despite whispers of “neocolonialism” and slow progress in its first year, GEMAP has enjoyed significant success.

In April 2008, Antoinette Sayeh, then Minister of Finance for Liberia, praised GEMAP for helping to improve transparency and the performance of state-run enterprises ; Tom Woods, a senior official at the U.S. State Department at the time GEMAP was created, says that “since 2003, the U.S. has put $750 million into Liberia’s recovery and the country is a stable democracy making steady economic gains.”

Now is the time for Tsvangirai to spearhead a Zimbabwean Economic Management Assistance Program (ZEMAP). A ZEMAP would offer assurance to international donors and transparency to Zimbabweans eager to realize gains from foreign aid. MDC cannot afford to rely exclusively on its regional partners, who in the past showed little resolve in combating the ravages of Mugabe’s rule. And to attract the aid of the international community, MDC must demonstrate a compelling break with the policies that created those ravages—the corruption, cronyism, and poor governance of Mugabe rule. A ZEMAP would be a strong first step.

Roger Bate is the Legatum Fellow in Global Prosperity at the American Enterprise Institute.