41015 No. 107 /March 2007 Liberia Rapid Social Assessment In post-conflict Liberia, `community' is a deeply contested notion reflecting historical inequalities, a crisis in intergenerational relations and the breakdown of rural institutions. A Rapid Social Assessment, conducted in 2004, cautioned that promoting Community-Driven Development on the basis of generalized assumptions about community participation and cohesion risked exacerbating these cleavages. A Social Assessment Update carried out in 2006 confirms that these risks remain valid despite changes in community dynamics and institutional responses. This note summarizes the main findings of the Rapid Social Assessment Update. Liberia Rapid Social Assessment The RSA assessment concluded that In 2004, the World Bank and United Nations "community" in Liberia is a deeply contested Development Programme commissioned a notion, the years of conflict having destroyed Rapid Social Assessment (RSA) to provide much of the social capital (trust and capacity guidance to a range of agencies addressing for collaborative action) that existed at a community reconstruction activities in post- community level. Assumptions of social war Liberia. The RSA provided analysis of cohesion, community participation and the socio-cultural, institutional, historical, consensus underpinning community-driven conflict and political context of Liberian development were suggested as overly society and analysis of the constraints and idealistic. The RSA recommended that CDD opportunities posed by the context for operations take measures to prevent resources conducting Community Driven Development being the cause of conflict within (CDD) operations. communities and to ensure that vested interests not dominate planning and implementation processes. The report also recommended that community development activities not be too narrowly focused on infrastructure reconstruction to the exclusion of other aspects that support reinforcing social cohesion. The principal recommendations of the RSA included: · CDD activities should contribute to the rebuilding of positive social relations through community-led definition of participatory structures and processes for the prioritization, Bushrod Island Bridge--Scene of heavy fighting in 2003 Credit: Joanna de Berry · planning and implementation of local resolution components into CDD development activities; projects; · CDD initiatives should facilitate · Promote principles of citizenship and community-led analysis of local representation in local government conflicts and appropriate conflict processes. resolution mechanisms; Current Social Dynamics and · CDD initiatives should promote Community Relations in Liberia responsive and accountable Social dynamics and community relations in interaction between citizens and local Liberia have been made more volatile by the governance structures. return and reintegration process. The cessation of open hostilities, and the uneasy peace imposed by UNMIL forces, have Liberia Rapid Social created the conditions for hundreds of Assessment Update 2006 thousands of displaced civilians, and tens of In June 2006, the World Bank commissioned thousands of ex-combatants, to return to the an update of the Liberia Rapid Social villages and towns they left during the war. Assessment. The aim is to identify how far However the resettlement process remains the recommendations of the original RSA problematic. Two major tensions persist in remain valid by assessing the changing and the return process and these undermine current social and institutional dynamics that community cohesion: ethnic and religious influence CDD. The Update includes a tensions; and the lack of integration of former review of the extent to which key ex-combatants. stakeholders have reacted to the recommendations of the RSA and aims to Ethnic and religious tension is particularly provide recommendations for the ongoing acute between ethnic Mandingo and those improvement of CDD programs in Liberia. who took an anti-Mandingo position during the early-mid 1990's, when Charles Taylor's The Update confirms that the concerns of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) RSA still remain relevant, particularly in light promoted anti-Mandingo violence in Lofa, of persistent tensions over return and Nimba and Bong Counties. reintegration. Evidence suggests that responsiveness of development agencies to these dynamics is still lagging, yet there are important opportunities to build on emerging community cohesion and to engage with a new forum for local government involvement. This note summarizes select findings of the Update. It substantiates the key recommendations of the RSA Update, which stress a continued need to: · Improve representation and participation in local and community development processes; · Build stronger peace building, conflict Bong County Credit: Joanna de Berry analysis, mediation and conflict 2 The legacy in these Counties is a climate of requires a degree of political will and suspicion and hostility evident in the return transparency of process that, some suggest, is process. The most common conflicts are over yet to materialize. land and property ownership, `cultural' and `religious' disrespect and ongoing debates Ex-combatants and the larger group of young over whether the Mandingo are truly people up-rooted by the war are the most Liberian. These tensions are becoming vulnerable to future militia recruitment. manifest in the resettlement of previously Peace in Liberia will hinge on their successful mixed populations along ethnic lines in Lofa, reintegration into the wider society, yet there Nimba and Bong Counties, and the forcible remain significant social barriers to eviction of groups through land and property reintegration. grabbing, and threats of violence. Many ex-combatants feel "rejected by society". Many ex-combatants say they can not return to their homes in rural areas for fear of retribution for deeds committed during the war. Furthermore, many observed that their participation in public works programmes meant they were easily identified as ex-combatants and that this further ostracized them from the wider social group, meaning that their only social interaction tended to be with other ex- combatants, for example in the "ex-com ghettoes" of Monrovia. The specific targeting of ex-combatants for mass employment and skills-training programmes therefore may Monrovia Credit: Daniel Owen have implications for social cohesion and community development in Liberia. Some In some towns in these Counties commercial ex-combatant respondents complained that and residential properties in the town centre the ex-combatant label prolongs their are owned (with title-deed) by Mandingo alienation from wider society and jeopardizes citizens, but have been illegally occupied their reintegration prospects. during recent years whilst the owners have been in refuge in Guinea. The displaced Resentment to ex-combatants is exacerbated owners stated that they are afraid to return, by the perception among other population fearing harassment. Because of this, ethnic groups that all the NGO help goes to ex- segregation also persists. combatants, and not to their victims. For other ex-combatants, their participation in The land and property disputes associated mass employment programmes has resulted with these tensions are not easily solved. in them adopting the ex-combatant role as a While many of the disputes are localized, and livelihood strategy. Interviews with Town can be settled through local mediation, others Development Committee members, ex- are of a more serious nature and involve combatants and NGOs attempting to appropriation of housing or retail premises transition from targeted mass employment and large cash-crop plantations, often projects to community development established by the owners over generations. initiatives, reveal that it is now commonplace Resolution of these disputes requires an for ex-combatants to refuse to participate in understanding of Land Law that, typically, contesting parties do not have. It also 3 community initiatives, demanding instead In some rural communities, younger people that they are paid for their efforts. are assuming a prominent role in If the premise that social cohesion is development-related decision-making. important for the transition from war to Alongside the Town Chiefs and traditional peace, the alienation of ex-combatants and elders, the (predominantly male) youth young people from the wider society is an representatives offer their views on local issue that must be addressed. The absence of development priorities, and participate in sense of `belonging' is, therefore, an planning activities. While these discussions important issue. Ex-combatant respondents, mainly relate to practical issues such as town when asked how they might be accepted back cleaning, rehabilitation of housing stock and in to rural society, spoke of the need for a agricultural lands and `brushing' of roads and process to "broker" their reintegration at Clan paths, they also include debates about local and village levels. development priorities. Reforming Positive Community Relations The extent to which these new attitudes are emergent is unclear and needs further While the return processes are characterized research, and it should be recognized that by tensions, there are nevertheless elsewhere traditional authority figures encouraging examples of new attitudes to continue to dominate development-related local decision-making and reintegration that decision-making processes, and youth, could offer replicable models for the women and minority ethnic groups are strengthening of positive social capital in excluded; consequently, their development CDD operations. aspirations and their willingness to participate in activities are constrained, and their There is some evidence of emerging disenchantment with the restraints on their community cohesion between generations and progress intensified. However, the social across ethnic groups. Some communities have transformation dynamic taking root in the remobilized forms of cooperation such as post-war period is an important asset on Town Development Committees to organize which CDD can build. reconstruction of housing, rehabilitation of farmlands and communal `town cleaning' days. Innovative Approaches to Reintegration There are also important developments in the reintegration of ex-combatants at the community level. Local conciliation processes are important in the successful reintegration of ex-combatants and returning populations. Religious and traditional authority leaders have undertaken processes that "cleanse" individuals and "purify" Clan lands by "honoring" those civilians who died in the bush during the war (but received no proper burial) and "cleansing" the District of the atrocities committed during the war. A USAID project supported a series of such A New Marketplace Credit: Joanna de Berry ceremonies during 2005. The ceremonies 4 were entirely planned and organized by Loma issues presented by the report, the RSA fell and Mandingo elders (male and female) and off many institutional agendas. youth representatives from the immediate locality, and from the dispersed populations in Had a process of engagement on relief to Monrovia and Guinea. The ceremonies were development transition issues been established, it announced in IDP camps throughout Liberia, ex- would have helped create a donor environment combatant `ghettoes', and in towns and refugee more conducive to the earlier incorporation of camps in Guinea and were conducted at sodality social cohesion-oriented thinking in programme shrines and Mandingo Mosques . The events had funding strategies. a major impact. Estimates are that up to 10,000 ex-combatants traveled to participate in the The Liberia RSA was researched in mid- ceremonies; many have remained in the District, 2004. Since then community development in and rates of civilian return to the District Liberia has been strongly donor driven. And increased dramatically in the months after the the main emphasis of the donor community events as word spread. The ceremonies were not has been on provision of basic infrastructure, only essential for the successful reintegration of essential services and promoting security and ex-combatants, but also for the re-establishment stability ­ primarily through large-scale of harmonious relations between the Loma and public works programmes providing Mandingo communities. employment and / or skills training for ex- combatants. While the language of Institutional Responses to the participation permeates much of the Challenges of Community Development development agency activity during the last 2 years is Liberia (and considerable efforts have Responses to the been made in this direction in difficult Recommendations of the RSA circumstances), INGO and NGO Community development activities offer the representatives interviewed in June 2006 for most direct opportunities to foster emergent the RSA Update were fairly candid in their attitudinal change and innovative approaches assessment of progress made. to cohesion. Yet development agencies in Liberia have yet to offer a consistent response Institutional Opportunities to the recommendations of the original RSA Ultimately, the provision of basic services, on these issues. Partly this is due to and the development of a sense of national operational and organizational constraints, in identity, must emerge from interactions particular the operating environment of an between citizens and the State. Such emergency response, the rapid staff turn-over typical in such contexts and the want of an organized forum to bring together interested parties. The RSA was conducted and launched at a time when the DDRR process was in its early stages; in large areas of the country it had not yet commenced, combatants were still under arms, the security situation was unstable, access to many areas of the country was limited and levels of civilian displacement still high. As might have been predicted, many of the participants in the RSA launch moved-on within the subsequent 12-month period and, for want of LACE, the World Bank implementing partner on community an ongoing process of engagement on the key development Credit: Joanna de Berry 5 interactions require representative structures Town Development Committees, and local and processes. CBOs), the DDC structure will operate at a remove from local structures, and will fail to For the foreseeable future, international and generate the community-level legitimacy local development agencies are likely to play necessary for its proposed role as interlocutor a significant role in the provision of basic between citizens and service providers. infrastructure and the delivery of essential services. This role will diminish over time as Conclusions and Recommendations central government develops the capacity of its local government administrations to play a To respond to community tensions and to greater role in service provision. Although a build upon emergent positive social relations decentralization policy is yet to emerge in the Update recommended a new impetus for Liberia, the Government of Liberia has local and community development in Liberia. indicated that it sees community participation CDD operations are an appropriate way to as being fundamental to this process. CDD foster cohesion at the local level but the RSA initiatives can contribute to achieving this Update suggests that they still need to provide goal by establishing structures and processes more attention to the following key areas at that connect citizens with local authorities the local level: and providers of development services and by i) Improving representation and promoting coherence in the planning and participation in local and implementation of development activities. community development processes. Given persistent ethnic and religious The newly developed District Development tensions in Liberian communities, it is Committees (DDCs) provide one possible imperative to ensure that all framework within which these aims can be ethnicities, religions, generations and achieved for interaction between citizens, genders are represented in local service providers and local government development decision making. This authorities. The DDCs have recently been will prevent local development endorsed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, favoring one set of people to the and have been established in each District of detriment of others. In particular, 10 of Liberia's 15 Counties (expansion to the CDD operations should ensure the other 5 is ongoing). DDCs are composed of inclusion of ex-combatants and other fourteen members including the district returnees. A growing body of commissioner and sectoral office holders and evidence indicates that continued elected representatives of chiefs, elders, targeting of assistance to ex- women, youth and CBOs. combatants heightens resentment towards them and prolongs their The quality of this interaction will depend alienation from wider society in partly on the capacities of those appointed to Liberia. representative roles, partly on the ii) Working within emerging local representative basis of the DDC membership, governance structures. To establish and partly on the ability of citizens to create principles of citizenship, and utilize representative structures and representation and participation in participatory processes through which they local government processes, local and will interact with the DDCs, local authorities community development projects and service providers. The RSA Update should increasingly engage and build reveals concerns that, without a programme the capacity of local government of capacity-building for citizen's groups officials and structures to plan, below the level of the DDC (e.g. Clan and implement, monitor or supervise. 6 Development agencies should seek to iii) Strengthening coordination of local build upon and strengthen the DDC and community development. The structures where they exist. newly established Working Group on Local and Community Development is iii) Strengthening peace building, including community-led conflict the mechanism through which the analysis, mediation and conflict Government of Liberia liaises with resolution. Community development donors, UN agencies and NGOs on project design and funding criteria community development matters. should also include conflict analysis Managed under the auspices of the and resolution components that Ministry of Public Works, the key engage communities in identification functions of the group include policy of local conciliation processes formulation, information sharing and appropriate to each ethnic and / or monitoring and evaluation. Membership religious section of the population. includes representation from six Line Development agencies should work Ministries, five international donors and with the various organizing UN agencies and a representative each community committees to explore the from the INGO and local NGO possibility of developing their communities. This forum could be capacity to act as a conflict mitigation strengthened by greater inclusion of resource on an ongoing basis within CDD field-based practitioners to their own District, and as advisors to exchange of information about, and subsequent projects in newly experiences of implementing, identified areas. community development approaches, with a specific emphasis on capturing These initiatives should also be backed by field-level experience. stronger measures at the central level: i) Improving capacity for conflict resolution over land disputes. Capacities to deal with land and property conflicts within the judiciary and the Ministries of Internal Affairs and Lands, Mines and Energy are stretched, and the fact that many land title records have been lost or destroyed during the war compounds the problem. Whilst direct support is beyond the scope of CDD activities, donors may wish to discuss with the relevant authorities the potential for a programme of technical support to the formulation of a Land Administration Reform Programme, including District and County-level surveying and Schoolchildren, Lofa County Credit: Dan Owen mapping initiatives. There are also This note was prepared by Daniel Owen and Jo de Berry. It is ii) Opportunities to provide support to based on the report: Liberia Rapid Social Assessment Update-- local organizations with specialist Phase I, by Steve Archibald (IDL Group, June 2006). This note skills that will help mitigate land and may be found online at www.worldbank.org/cdd and additional copies can be requested via e-mail: socialdev@worldbank.org property disputes. 7 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT NOTES Social Development Notes provide a concise overview of good practice and lessons learned from Bank social development activities, as well as a forum for the discussion of social development ideas and issues that are relevant to Bank staff, clients, NGOs and other donors. Additional copies of previously published Notes can be found online at www.worldbank.org/socialdevelopment or by contacting the Social development department at socialdevelopment@worldbank.org. Publication Publication Number Title Date 106 What Role for Diaspora Expertise in Post-Conflict Reconstruction? Lessons from July 2006 CPR No. 25 Afghanistan, and West Bank and Gaza 105 Post-Conflict Security Sector and Public Finance Management: July 2006 CPR No. 24 Lessons from Afghanistan 103 The Dynamics of Conflict, Development Assistance and Peace-building: February CPR No. 23 Sri Lanka 2000-05 2006 102 Report Cards As A Tool For Empowering Communities In The Fight March 2006 Against HIV/AIDS In Cameroon: A Work In Progress 101 Conflict and Recovery in Aceh: An Assessment of Conflict Dynamics and August 2005 CPR No. 22 Options for Supporting the Peace Process 100 Examining Inclusion: Disability and Community May 2005 Driven Development 99 Guatemala: The Role of Judicial Modernization in Post Conflict February CPR No. 21 Reconstruction and Social Reconciliation 2005 98 Guatemala: The Role of Judicial Modernization in Post Conflict October 2004 CPR 20 Reconstruction and Social Reconciliation 97 Zambia: Issues of Scaling Up in Peri-Urban Areas October 2004 96 Scaling-up a Community-Driven HIV/AIDS Program in Malawi October 2004 95 Local Conflict in Indonesia: Incidence and Patterns July 2004 CPR No. 19 94 Rwanda: The Impact of Conflict on Growth and Poverty June 2004 CPR No. 18 93 Colombia: The Role of Land in Involuntary Displacement February CPR No. 17 2004 92 Redefining Corporate Social Risk Mitigation Strategies February CPR No. 16 2004 91 Redefining Corporate Social Risk Mitigation Strategies February 2004 8 9