Liberia County Development Agenda
Three factors have guided and stirred the fifteen Liberian counties to galvanize and take concrete action to change their standard of living since the end of the Civil Conflicts. The Civil War destroyed bridges, roads, houses, hospitals, schools, and turned everyone life outside down and killed and maimed hundreds and thousands. It was a mad war; a pyrrhic victory even for the warlords. It brought untold sadness to the world. The Liberian government could not rebuild the entirely ruined counties alone. And a sustainable solution to rebuild the country will have to come through emic and etic, from county residents, including the Liberian Government, stakeholders, NGOs, philanthropists and donors. The various Liberian counties used the Participatory Rural Appraisal methods or District Development Consultation Meetings (DDCM), Poverty Reduction Strategy process, and the Millenium Challenge Group criteria to identify and analyze their problems, adopt a universal County Development Agenda (CDA), and decide to take action on four pillars namely Security, Economic Revitalization, Governance and Rule of Law, and Infrastructure and Basic Services. The critical areas for all fifteen counties included paving of all primary roads and most secondary roads to connect agriculture communities to market; construction and rehabilitation of health facilities with proper staffing and affordable services; and much-expanded education services.
The Institute has learned that most counties are yet to achieve those areas critical to improving their standard of living.