GYAC-Liberia to Launch Social Accountability & Tranperancy Project

The practice of governance in previous years has been centralized such that all decision for the benefit of the rural people including types of intervention and how it is carried out has always been directly controlled by authorities in Monrovia. The role and aspirations of the local residence have always been ignored or directly determined by politicians in Monrovia.

This culture off governance may have facilitated the high level of corruption, instigated endemic poverty amongst the populace and nurtured the country’s underdevelopment. The Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS), 2012 Richest Country Index alluded and confirmed these accounts. In 2006 President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf introduced the County Development Fund (CDF) during her inaugural address as a steep towards making rural development programs in Liberia community-driven initiatives.

This may be a successful way of transferring responsibility to the local people to decide, manage and implement their own community projects. The County Development Fund (CDF) is entirely government funded programs. The program has being ongoing for the past eight years with approximately twenty-four million United States Dollars spent.

As for the County Social Development Fund (CSDF) it is fund paid directly to counties by concessionaire (Companies). over US$300 million income is expected from mining companies for counties, US$23 million has been paid to counties as at 2011, over US$11 million already used reported to be poorly managed (Sustainable Development Institute (SDI)2012 Report).

The project is expected to help identify gaps, challenges and promote transparency, integrity and accountability in the implementation of community-driven projects.

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