In War's Aftermath, a New Model of Progress

David Hena stands in front of what will soon be a bustling marketplace. Photo: Dan Sadowsky/Mercy Corps

Montserrado County, Liberia - From all appearances, Jinnita is an unremarkable Liberian village. Its thatched-roofed mud huts are commonplace around here. Most of its working-age residents, like most Liberians, eke out a living by farming staples such as cassava, rice, spicy peppers and yams.

But this ordinary village, tucked into the lush Liberian countryside, is at the forefront of the political change that has begun to permeate this tiny West African country.

Long before Liberians choose their first post-civil war president on Nov. 8, the leaders of Jinnita elected a 42-year-old school principal, David Hena, to lead its newly organized community development committee - and push local development forward after nearly a quarter-century of inertia.

The latest example of Jinnita's participatory decisionmaking process is located about 100 yards from the array of rusted zinc-roofed buildings that mark the village entrance. A rectangle of poured cement marks the foundation of a sheltered marketplace that will soon be filled with vendors selling everything from oranges to toiletries to clothing to prepaid mobile-phone cards, replacing the roadside cluster of rickety, open-air stalls that are no match for rainy-season downpours.

To Hena, the new market - and the public process that led to it - symbolizes the start of a new era of sustainable progress in a village populated by poor, illiterate farmers struggling to recover from 14 years of war. "We are improving," says the tall, lean Liberian with a confident nod toward the future marketplace.

Encouraging Accountability and Transparency

In more than 100 communities across Liberia, Mercy Corps is working alongside villagers like Hena to organize effective local governing structures. Such work involves helping residents select a diverse group of leaders to represent them in making development decisions, and training those selected in the basic tenets of good governance, project management and conflict resolution.

Installing effective self-government is a key part of a program Mercy Corps calls Diompilor, or "togetherness" in the local Kisii language, a collection of self-improvement programs and infrastructure upgrades designed to give Liberians the tools they need to build a more peaceful and prosperous future. Job training, literacy classes and building construction are also important components of the program, which is sponsored by USAID and the World Bank.

Decisions about what projects to undertake are left to the community development committees, a process that not only ensures fairness and representation, but also introduces the concepts of transparency and accountability - long absent from the country's national politics - to village-level government.

"If people in the village are able to manage their resources as a group, and the leaders report back to the group as to what they did, it leads to a realization that people in the federal government should be able to do the same thing," says Vaanii Kiazolu, a Mercy Corps field program coordinator.

Village Priorities: A New Market

Jinnita, home to about 3,000 people, was identified as a potential site for the Diompilor program back in March 2004. Twenty-two members were elected to the development committee, including businesspeople, young adults, women and the town chief - who is traditionally the sole arbiter of village decisions but welcomed the group's formation.

Hena was selected to chair the group, and led the initial discussion to prioritize community needs. One was moving Jinnita's popular Tuesday market - which draws shoppers from 50 nearby villages - to community-owned land where a permanent shelter could be built and no rent payments would be required. The community would benefit from a bigger market featuring a wider assortment of goods, more customers for their produce and more revenue from the fees charged to vendors. Everyone agreed it was a good idea.

Four villagers showed up every day to dig the foundation and haul gravel and water to the site. Mercy Corps supplied materials and hired contractors to build the structure. By October, a 40-foot-by-75-foot footprint had been filled with concrete. Soon, the makeshift bamboo stalls of the old market will give way to tables running the length of a long, zinc-roofed building.

"Now we host a weekly market that happens every Tuesday," says Hena. "But when this is built, it will be daily."

Sense of Unity Brings Hope

Other income-generating projects for Jinnita are in the works. Using a small cash grant from Mercy Corps, villagers bought a 55-gallon drum of kerosene along with a wheelbarrow, funnels and measuring cups to sell small portions of cooking oil to individual households. They've also planted a field of rice, both to feed villagers and to sell the excess at market. If there is money made from any of these business enterprises, Hena explains, the community - through its representatives - will determine where the profits will be spent.

The group decision-making process has helped foster an atmosphere of cooperation, say villagers. "Before, people did their own thing," says farmer David Slocum. "Now, we're all working together."

He and others hope the cooperation leads to a health clinic, a new school and further opportunities to develop new businesses. "We could not do this on our own," says Hena. But with Mercy Corps' help, they are well on their way to self-sufficiency.