7 - Sub-national Evidence II: Evaluating the UN from the Bottom-Up

Summary

Liberia is both a hard and a crucial case for testing the effects of UN intervention on the rule of law after civil war. This chapter presents a mixed methods research design for evaluating the UN Mission in Liberia's (UNMIL) impact on Liberia both quantitatively and qualitatively. Drawing on original qualitative interviews and extensive quantitative survey data collected over fifteen months of fieldwork in the country, the chapter complements and extends previous assessments of UNMIL's role in Liberia by providing rich, highly granular data on exposure to UNMIL at both the individual and community levels over multiple years and in multiple Liberian counties. By combining surveys with in-depth interviews, the analytical approach described in this chapter substantiates and contextualizes quantitative findings with qualitative insights gleaned from Liberian citizens, local leaders, and government officials, as well as from UNMIL personnel.