Monrovia – In an effort to strengthen links with counties authorities in Bong, Nimba and Grand Gedeh Counties, USAID Local Empowerment for Government Inclusion and Transparency (LEGIT) Project Capacity Development and Field Manager, Madam Judy Oduma, the LEGIT Field Manager, made a two day visit to Nimba County authorities and city authorities of Gbarnga City Corporation.
Madam Oduma’s visit to Nimba was to provide a LEGIT project overview with emphasis on its four components to the newly appointed County Superintendent, D. Dorr Cooper.
The meeting, which was held at Supt. Cooper’s Sanniquellie office, also discussed LEGIT’s upcoming county profiling exercise which will cover districts, non-LEGIT cities and township in the county to provide a detailed administrative profile of the entire county, an exercise that has never been previously done.
The profiling exercise will be to gather information on local government administration, physical facilities, staffing, budgeting, operations, service delivery and planning, which will be used as empirical tool to enable county authorities and the LEGIT project to have an in-depth understanding of the major aspects of governance and how these institutions are organized.
In response to Madam Oduma presentation, the Superintendent expressed his appreciation to have LEGIT as project in his county to support the government’s program on decentralization.
He acknowledged that there have been capacity challenges experienced since the civil war in Liberia and thus, the need for innovation, creativity and understanding of procedures cannot be overemphasized. The Superintendent concluded that Nimba County would make maximum use of the opportunity to cooperate with LEGIT at all levels for the smooth implementation of the project.
In a related development and as a means of finalizing the field visit to the counties, Madam Oduma visited the newly appointed City Mayor of Gbarnga City Corporation, Viola N. Cooper. Some members of her technical staff graced the meeting with Madame Cooper and it was held at the Corporation’s office in Gbarnga City, Bong County.
The meeting aimed to provide an overview of the LEGIT project and share the achievements made thus far plus upcoming activities lined up for future months that include the township, district and city profiling of Bong County.
Madam Oduma also used the opportunity to discuss the LEGIT baseline survey that is nearing completing and the LEGIT grants training exercises recently held in Gbarnga.
She said, with the outcome of these results, to continue, the project would become more vigorous in addressing the capacity gaps of the county and city staff, and improving performances at these respective local government authorities in collaboration with the Mayor and the City Council.
For her part, Mayor Cooper expressed in a few words her clear understanding and appreciation of the project and expressed the City authority’s commitment to work and cooperate with the LEGIT team in the city.
LEGIT is a USD $10 million USAID supported project that seeks to increase the accountability, transparency and effectiveness of sub-national governments’ resources in three of the fifteen counties of Liberia-namely; Gbarnga City, Bong County, Ganta City, Nimba County and Zwedru City, Grand Gedeh County. LEGIT provides support to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Governance Commission as they lead, monitor, and coordinate the implementation of the Government’s decentralization agenda.