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Beyond Numbers: an Assessment of the Liberian Civil Society

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Beyond Numbers: an Assessment of the Liberian Civil Society 1 Beyond Numbers: An Assessment of the Liberian Civil Society A Report on the CIVICUS Civil Society Index 2010 Foreword By: Dr. Amos C. Sawyer Chair; Governance Commission In this report, one will find the unsung story of the challenges and triumphs of an emergent, but fast developing, civil society sector in Liberia. ! AGENDA CIVICUS Civil Society Index Analytical Report for Liberia 2 FOREWORD The concept of civil society gained greater visibility in the discourse on good governance that occurred after the end of the Cold War. Increasingly, international development organisations began to emphasize the importance of good governance as a driver of development, and to recognize civil society as one of the partners and key actors in decision-making good governance processes. Despite the important role that civil society is expected to play in ensuring good governance, there are very few works that provide a helpful understanding of the place of civil society in a theory of governance, or that serve as a practitioner’s guide to promoting this issue. The paucity of literature on civil society in Liberia is even more acute than what one finds in many other countries. Beyond Numbers: An Assessment of the Liberian Civil Society, A Report on the Civil Society Index 2010 is a good start at providing an instrument for appraising the state of civil society in Liberia. It notes objectively the strengths and potential of civil society and also many of civil society’s challenges and shortcomings. Many of these challenges and shortcomings pre-date the 14 years of civil war, just as many of the strengths of civil society today are built upon pre-war accomplishments by the organisations of associational life of pre-war Liberia. For example, the successful fight to remove the property ownership qualification for voting from the statutes of Liberia was won in the 1970s, paving the way for thousands of young people and others who do not own real property to have the right to vote. Another example is the struggle in the 1970s to maintain the age of consent at 16, instead of 13 as was proposed by the Tolbert government. Today this victory provides legal protection for thousands of young people, especially young girls. Since this publication provides an aggregate assessment, its usefulness may be limited when applied to any specific civil society organisation. Nonetheless, many of its general findings on the internal organisational challenges, non-existent or weak linkages, human resource deficiencies, and other issues, are applicable to almost all civil society organisations in Liberia. Moreover, as this publication provides an indicative index, it gives us an important tool for comparative analysis of the nature and performance of civil society organisations across countries. All of us who are working on issues of governance reform in Liberia, with a view to deepening the participation of civil society in the governance partnership and strengthening the legitimacy of the institutions and processes of governance, will benefit from this publication. Our thanks to AGENDA, and its associates, for giving us this publication. Amos Sawyer Chair, Governance Commission of Liberia CIVICUS Civil Society Index Analytical Report for Liberia 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We extend profound thanks to CIVICUS for placing confidence in AGENDA, and for the technical support provided by Jacob Mwathi Mati, Julia Sestier, Megan MacGarry and Jennifer Williams to carry out this enormous, multifaceted action-research exercise. Several other persons, institutions, and groups participated in making this work successful. We are more than grateful for their immense contributions, which included time, patience, and material resources. This work signifies that when people work together they can achieve their objectives. Unending praises go to the Almighty God, for His wisdom and His guidance of the project through the first phase of our civil society intervention in Liberia. It was difficult, but through the storm there was always comfort in knowing that He was on our side. We are highly appreciative of the support received from our partners TrustAfrica and Humanity United for their financial assistance and insightful suggestions. We are also indebted to the Civil Society Advisory Committee (the umbrella body of the Liberian civil society), through its Chair, Lancedell Mathews, for the support that we received from civil society in general, especially from organisations that shared their experiences with us. Special commendation goes to Mr. Sidi Diawara, Civil Society Specialist for TrustAfrica, for believing in our sincere aspirations, for sharing his time and wealth of experience, and also for his personal involvement in following the project throughout. We are humbled by his patience and inspired by his expectations. Words are inadequate to express our gratitude. The Board of Directors and Management of AGENDA wish to congratulate all of the staff who worked tirelessly throughout for the success of this initiative: Blamo Kofa, David Baysah, J. Diana Moore, Carolyn Myers Zoduah, Jenneh U.M. Paye, and G. Jasper Cummeh III. This is just the beginning of many different initiatives that are bound to come. The Board also extends special gratitude to the Center for Media Studies and Peace Building for the level of support it provided to AGENDA in the early days of this project. As this research is action-oriented, we would like to thank the Governance Commission, the NGO Coordination Unit of the Ministry of Planning, the Civil Affairs Section of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), the Civil Affairs Unit of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and many others who have shown interest in the results of this research and the post-research reform actions aimed at strengthening governance in civil society. We give specific thanks to Hon. Elizabeth Mulbah of the Governance Commission for her support of this initiative to improve civil-government relations. Lastly, we want to thank all those who took time out of their schedules to respond to the various surveys and other exercises that were conducted during this research. Let us all hope that change is soon coming to civil society. AGENDA 2010 CIVICUS Civil Society Index Analytical Report for Liberia 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD............................................................................................................................................ 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................................................................... 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS......................................................................................................................... 4 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES....................................................................................................... 5 LIST OF ACRONYMS ........................................................................................................................... 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... 6 I CIVIL SOCIETY INDEX PROJECT AND APPROACH............................................................. 8 1. PROJECT BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................. 8 2. PROJECT APPROACH ................................................................................................................... 9 3. CSI IMPLEMENTATION ............................................................................................................. 11 4. LIMITATIONS OF CSI STUDY.................................................................................................... 12 II CIVIL SOCIETY IN LIBERIA...................................................................................................... 14 1. CONCEPT OF CIVIL SOCIETY .................................................................................................... 14 2. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF CIVIL SOCIETY............................................................................ 14 3. MAPPING CIVIL SOCIETY ......................................................................................................... 15 III ANALYSIS OF CIVIL SOCIETY................................................................................................. 17 1. CIVIC ENGAGEMENT................................................................................................................. 17 1.1 Extent of socially-based engagement................................................................................ 17 1.2 Depth of socially-based engagement ................................................................................ 18 1.3 Diversity of socially-based engagement ........................................................................... 18 1.4 Extent of political engagement.......................................................................................... 18 1.5 Depth of political engagement........................................................................................... 19 1.6 Diversity of political engagement ..................................................................................... 19 2. LEVEL OF ORGANISATION........................................................................................................ 20 2.1 Internal governance...........................................................................................................
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