State of Land Information in Liberia – An Open Data Assessment
December 2023
This State of Land Information (SOLI) report from the Land Portal assesses the state of land data in Liberia against principles of land data openness, land information availability and accessibility, and overall good land governance. The report is one of a series produced by the Land Portal, featuring in-depth analysis of country level land information and making recommendations for targeted interventions to improve compliance with international open data standards. The authors note that public access to government information is generally poor in Liberia, despite constitutional and legal protections. The authors cite the Global Data Barometer Liberia score of seven out of 100 in its 2021 land module, compared to a global average of 25 out of 100. Liberia scored zero for the openness of its land tenure data, 12 for its land use data and 15 for its gender and inclusion uses of data. They note that digitized spatial information exists within some government agencies, and some public bodies have proactively disseminated information to meet their legal obligations. For example, the mining cadaster is comprehensive, but that the Liberia Land Authority offers very little information online. The authors find that land registration and information systems keep improving, but there remain serious gaps in data availability, and they argue that there is a need for more robust infrastructure to support land governance. The report’s overall conclusion is that land data is only slightly open in Liberia.