Rwanda and Liberia have signed a five-year cooperation agreement to strengthen local governance, improve public service delivery and support economic development at the local level, drawing on their respective experiences in decentralisation and institutional development.
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The agreement was signed on Tuesday, November 10, in Kigali between Rwanda Cooperation Initiative and Liberia’s Ministry of Local Government. It seeks to improve the delivery of public services across Liberia’s 15 counties through digital transformation, stronger local government institutions and improved revenue mobilisation.
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The West African country has been pursuing decentralisation to bring public administration and services closer to communities. The new partnership is expected to help strengthen the systems and institutional capacity needed to translate that policy into better services for citizens.
The cooperation will focus on five areas, including digital transformation of Liberia’s County Service Centres, fiscal decentralisation and domestic resource mobilisation, natural resource value addition and local economic development, institutional partnerships and capacity building for local governments.
Under digital transformation, the two countries will explore how Rwanda’s experience with its digital public service platform Irembo can inform the modernisation of services in Liberia. The partnership will include institutional assessments and pilot initiatives in selected counties to identify practical ways of making services more accessible and efficient.
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The fiscal decentralisation component will focus on strengthening local revenue administration, tax registries and collection systems, enabling county authorities to mobilise more domestic resources to finance development priorities.
Cooperation will also cover adding value to natural resources and strengthening local economic activities, while institutional capacity development will involve exchanges between Rwanda Management Institute and Liberia’s Local Government Training Institute. The partnership is expected to support training, technical assistance and knowledge sharing.
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The Minister of Local Government, Dominique Habimana, who witnessed the signing ceremony, said the agreement builds on an existing relationship between the two countries and provides a framework for deeper and sustained collaboration.
"Through this partnership, Rwanda and Liberia will have an opportunity to deepen institutional exchanges, share experiences and learn from each other's approaches to local governance, public service delivery, local economic development and institutional capacity development,” Habimana said.
He added that the common ambition is to build capable and responsive local government entities that are closer to citizens, deliver better services and drive development in their respective communities.
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Liberia’s Deputy Minister for Local Government and Decentralisation, Edward Mulbah, said the agreement would help translate institutional learning into tangible improvements in services.
Referring to Liberia’s Local Government Act of 2018, Mulbah said decentralisation requires more than transferring authority and resources to local governments; it also requires the systems and capacity to deliver services at community level.
He emphasised that lessons from Rwanda would be adapted to Liberia’s own circumstances.
"We will adapt, not photocopy, because Liberia is not Rwanda,” he said.
The agreement builds on exchanges through which Rwanda Cooperation Initiative hosted 22 Liberian delegations between November 2018 and June 2026. The visits covered areas including land and tax administration, public finance management, digital public services and institutional development.