The politics of land based agricultural concessions and rural development: a case of Sime Darby Plantation in Western Liberia

Post-war Liberia has experienced a wave of large-scale land agricultural concessions in recent years. In principle, the goal is to transform rural livelihoods and promote economic growth through jobs creation and infrastructural development. However, those large-scale land con-cessions have not met the expectations of job creation and economic empowerment. Instead, public reactions to those concessions operations have threatened the peace and stability of the state. The disenchantments engulfing concession plantations in the country can be at-tributed to many factors, ranging from economic, environmental to social. Many authors have reflected on these issues, not enough studies have focused on the strategies and modes of design and award of these concession agreements. This study explored state-investors strategies in the design and award of concession contracts which led to continued protesta-tions and conflicts between local communities and the concessionaries. The research focused on the agricultural land concession between Government of Liberia and the Malaysian-based Sime Darby Plantation Liberia (SDPL). It argues that the conces-sion lacks public support because the State ignored basic principles of good governance in the design and award of the concession agreement. To substantial my argument, I adopted qualitative method to gather the perspectives of stakeholders on the concession design and negotiation. I further used four principles of good governance to analyse the findings in line with relevant literatures. The conceptual framework used in this study presents the four di-mensions as: participation, transparency, accountability, and legitimacy. These dimensions are based on what is require in the Public Procurement and Concession Act (PPCA) of Li-beria. The Findings indicate that not adhering to these principles in concessions arrangement can have negative implications on the relationship between local communities and Conces-sion Companies.