Ministry of Local Government to Host High-Level Policy Dialogue on Local Governance and Decentralization
IPNEWS: The Ministry of Local Government (MoLG), in collaboration with the Governance Commission, will convene a two-day High-Level Policy Dialogue on Local Governance and Decentralization on Wednesday and Thursday, August 26–27, 2026, at the JNB Conference Hall, Ministry of Local Government, Monrovia
The dialogue brings together heads of key Ministries, Agencies, and Commissions (MACs), along with County Superintendents and County Service Center Coordinators from all fifteen counties, to accelerate the devolution of administrative, political, and fiscal powers mandated under the Local Government Act (LGA) of 2018.
The establishment of the Ministry of Local Government in September, 2025 succeeding the former Ministry of Internal Affairs marked a historic step in Liberia’s governance reform, creating a dedicated institution to lead the national decentralization agenda. As part of this effort, County Service Centers (CSCs) were set up across all fifteen counties to serve as one-stop shops for documentation, permits, licenses, and certificates.
Despite this progress, CSCs continue to face operational bottlenecks, chief among them the continued centralization of approvals in Monrovia. Many local offices of national MACs remain dependent on central sign-off for routine services, undermining the intent of decentralization and delaying service delivery to citizens.
Following the President’s July 4, 2025 directive on devolution, this High-Level Policy Dialogue will build executive consensus among MAC heads on the legal necessity of devolving powers to local governments, identify the legal, administrative, and technical barriers delaying devolution within individual MACs, produce a time-bound Devolution Action Plan specifying which authorities such as license approvals, sign-offs, and revenue processes will transfer to county representatives, and by when and re-launch a National Inter-Ministerial Committee on Local Governance and Decentralization to monitor and troubleshoot implementation going forward.
Participating institutions span revenue and economic services (including MFDP, LRA, MoT, NTA, and MOL), infrastructure and land services (including MPW, LLA, MPT, and MFA), and social services and environmental services (including MoH, EPA, FDA, the Gender and Social Protection Ministry, and CNDRA), among others.
The dialogue is expected to produce a standardized Devolution Action Plan mapping timelines, technical prerequisites, and training needs for each transfer of authority, immediate steps toward reduced transaction costs for citizens once local sign-off authorities are activated, a signed Inter-Ministerial Devolution Resolution committing participating MACs to hand over specific authorities to County Service Centers under county government leadership within an agreed timeframe and the formal launch of a High-Level Inter-Ministerial Committee on decentralization, to be officiated by the Vice President of the Republic of Liberia, alongside the Joint Resolution Matrix on Devolution.
Day one will feature technical presentations on the LGA 2018 and current bottlenecks, followed by agency-specific breakout sessions to map devolvable functions and requirements. Day two will culminate in an executive plenary session where MAC heads will finalize and sign the Joint Devolution Resolution and implementation matrix.
