Liberia has established a new Local Government Association as part of the Cities Alliance Liberia Country Programme.
The Association of Mayors and Local Governments Association of Liberia (AMLOGAL) will be formally launched on 28 June, coinciding with the Cities Alliance Liberia Country Programme Steering Committee meeting.
It provides a united voice for mayors and local government associations in national policy discourses and processes throughout the country at an opportune time. Liberia is in the process of implementing its Local Government Act and the country’s first National Urban Policy, which is being developed by UN-Habitat with Cities Alliance.
The Liberian government is also rolling out the implementation of the Liberia Decentralization Support Programme, which is designed to transfer certain public responsibilities from the central government to local governments for effective planning and service provision. To realize this goal, local governments must have the capacity required to assume their new roles.
The new Association is a step in the right direction. It will help local governments address these capacity gaps and constraints, and deepen their commitment to repositioning themselves for the tasks ahead. It is also a way for Liberia’s local authorities to buttress the central government’s efforts to achieve national development within the context of Vision2030, Liberia’s National Development Plan to attain Middle Income Status by 2030.
Over the past year, Cities Alliance and United Cities and Local Governments Africa (UCLGA) provided funding and technical assistance to create the new organisation. Liberia’s last Association dissolved in the 1980s after former President Charles Taylor’s militia took the country into civil conflict.
