The Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Governance Commission, has concluded arrangements with International Partners for a four-year financial support of its National Decentralization and Local Governance Program.

Speaking at the signing ceremony of the 63-page Decentralization Support Program Document Thursday, Internal Affairs Minister Blamoh Nelson said, with the completion of the Liberia Decentralization Support Program (LDSP) document, it is now evident that the National Decentralization and Local Governance Program is ready for full implementation.

The LDSP is a successor to the Liberia Decentralization and Local Development (LDLD) program and the Country Support Team (CST) program that present the strategy framework and operational modalities for a five-year program of support to the decentralization of political, administrative and fiscal governance in Liberia.

Minister Nelson noted that the LDSP is clearly structured with a resource matrix with timelines output indicators in accordance with international standards to manifest government commitment to the implementation of the decentralization policy, saying, the program will significantly impact Rural Liberia and improve the lives of rural dwellers.

“The road we have travelled on with this document to come this far, is an international road as much as it a national road with which we had been trying to do it the right way by first creating a policy that calls for the decentralization of our government which was one of the tools that were required of us by everybody, followed by a concept note and now an implementation plan.” He stressed.

The Internal Ministry boss lauded the immense contributions of Partners, including:  The European Union-EU, United Nations Development Program-UNDP, Swedish Development Cooperation and World Bank amongst others, on behalf of the Liberian people.

Also Speaking on behalf of Governance Commission Chairman, Dr. Amos C. Sawyer, GC Commissioner Yarsuo Weh-Dorliea said that the Commission was very pleased that the long hard work into planning of the Program has now yielded fruit for the Decentralization process to begin in earnest.

Representatives of the international partners at the signing ceremony stressed their continuous support to Liberia’s Decentralization program ensuring that poor rural dwellers benefit most.

In support of Goal One of the Government of Liberia Agenda for Transformation, the LDSP will deliver the following four outcomes;

Citizens’ awareness and participation in reforms;

• Putting in place if a legal regulatory framework;
• Building capacities of institutions to implement decentralization reforms;
• Improvement of service delivery and accountability of local government.