Liberia

The Sustainable Development Institute’s (SDI) vision for Liberia is a country in which natural resource management is guided by the principles of sustainability and good governance that benefits all Liberians.

SDI works on a range of issues including natural resource governance and management, the environment, state and corporate social responsibility with regards to resource exploitation, economic and social justice for rural populations and democratic participation.

Our mission is to transform the decision-making processes relative to natural resources and promote equity in the sharing of benefits derived from natural resource exploitation.

The Sustainable Development Institute strives to:

• empower local people to exercise constitutional rights to participate in the decision-making processes related to natural resources in Liberia;
• train people to engage in community-based natural resources management by working with them to secure their ownership of and rights to manage and benefit from natural resources;
• provide the general public with verifiable and useful information about the overall management of natural resources in Liberia;
• promote and enhance citizen engagement with the government at the national and local levels on issues associated with natural resource extraction and trade;
• promote a culture of democracy and good governance in the communities where we work and contribute to the building of peaceful and just communities in Liberia.

In 2006 Silas Kpanan’Ayoung Siakor from SDI won the Goldman Prize for his work in exposing illegal logging in Liberia. Find out more