My work at the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA)

Some background on what I’m doing - I’m working for the Government of Liberia (GoL) at the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). MIA is in charge of local development within the country, as well as creating a decentralization policy to strengthen local government and capacity. They work closely with UNDP and other agencies in country. I’ll be doing a bunch of different things most likely, but primarily focusing on two main projects:

1. Develop a rural government management/accounting system (me?!?)
2. Develop a communal farming policy

These main projects are run through the Liberian National Decentralization and Local Development Program (LDLD), which was established with support from the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). So it’s a joint effort from these organizations – my two main counterparts are George Kollie, a Liberian working with MIA, and Mr. KNS Nair, from UNDP (his Indian name is too long to pronounce so he goes by his initials). So far, Ben Spatz, who set me up with the internship, has been a huge help getting me settled and letting me share his office, so that’s been nice.

The job will consist of treks to the provinces to check out projects and conduct interviews and research. I’m hoping for more travel up country than time in Monrovia, but even little stints out of the city will be nice.

Last week, I interviewed the Provisional Major of Monrovia, Mr. Peter Kerkula. That title may sound impression, but even he admitted his lack of governing power. Monrovia is autonomous from the National Government, and the municipality only really has any say over taxes and garbage, neither of which are successfully collected. The legal system is not strong enough to make people actually pay taxes, and the infrastructure is not in place for garbage to actually get collected. All the other details that a city government might have some say over, such as roads, schools, etc, are administered through the National Government and don’t consult with the municipality on those decisions. All very interesting stuff – pointing to the need for more effective government institutions.

Also went to a meeting about the 2 Millennium Development Villages (MDVs) in Liberia. MDVs are villages or regions infused with practical technology to help them meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). I'm not exactly sure how it works operationally, but hoping to learn more and check them out. . . I'm slightly skeptical of their impact, but would like to be proven wrong. The session ended with a discussion of one of the MDGs: Gender. Me and six African men in a room talking about gender. The argument: you can’t continue to talk about educating girls girls girls because young boys will start to feel marginalized. On one hand it was amusing to listen to these men talk about men and boys being marginalized, you could hear a hint of defensive-ness in their voices. But I actually agree with them. Especially in a post-conflict area where many of these boys have been forced to fight and have seen terrible things. Now, the concept of the MDGs is not to marginalize boys, but to give girls and equal chance at education. And that’s how it should be. However, it is often misunderstood at the local level (both in Africa and America) as just being about women and girls, and not being about how to create equal opportunities for all people. That’s a common misperception about gender in general – it’s not about creating policies and programs that solely benefit women, it’s about creating policies and programs that benefits all sectors of society, and give all people an equal chance to engage in education, income generation, etc. The misperception is a problem. (For more info on the MDGs: http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/index.htm)

Speaking of gender, I’m also hoping to be working with the Ministry of Gender and Development – going out to see some of their communal farming projects, hopefully on some longer treks. I hope that gives a clearer idea of what it is I’ve been doing and hope to do over the next couple months.

Off to work :)