The challenge

The people of the Republic of Liberia are struggling to rebuild their livelihoods in the aftermath of a bloody civil war and decades of autocratic mismanagement and neglect.  Despite an abundance of natural resources and a relatively small population of 4 million, Liberia is caught in a vicious cycle of poverty and conflict. From the start of the war in 1989 until 2003, the country’s gross domestic product per capita fell by 76%. 

The Liberia Agency for Community Empowerment (LACE) was established by the Community Empowerment Act pursuant to Chapter 50B of Title 12 of the Liberian Code of Laws as of July 22, 2004.

The objectives of the Agency are to improve the living standards of poor communities through the provisions and strengthening of basic social services and to promote a community-based approach in sub-project identification, preparation, implementation, administration, and maintenance. The agency has been funded by multilateral donors including the world bank, the European Union, the government of japan, etc. as well as the government of Liberia.

The Intervention

From 2009 – 2013, VOSIEDA worked with LACE with funding from the World Bank and the European Union on several projects as a Community Facilitator for Liberia’s central county of Bong. Program activities included community facilitation, social mobilization, project, and financial management, procurement, monitoring and evaluation, targeting selections of projects, distribution of project inputs, capacity building workshop, etc.

Key facts

Sector: Capacity Building and Knowledge Transfer
Domain: Fragile State and Instrument of stability
Benefiting zone: Liberia
Nature:  Performance base contract
Duration: 2009 – 2013
Status: completed