ABSTRACT: The study sought to examine the role of local governance towards rural development in Maryland County, Liberia. The study objectives were; to ascertain the relationship between Accountability of local governance and rural development in Maryland County, to determine the relationship between Transparency of local governance and rural development in Maryland County, to assess the relationship between Rule of law of local governance and rural development in Maryland County. This study used a correlational research design. The study population was 253 and these included Maryland County Local Government top officials, local government staff and people of Maryland County. However, a sample size of 155 respondents was determined using the Slovene’s formula. The researcher distributed 152 questionnaires, only 148 were returned and the remaining 3 respondents were interviewed. The researcher used purposive and simple random sampling methods. Both primary and secondary data were used. Primary data was collected from the respondents through self-administered questionnaire and key informant interview guide. The data was presented in tabular form with frequencies, percentages and descriptive statistics. The males were 85(57.4%) and females 63(42.6%), this implies that the number of men was higher than that of women due to societal beliefs that men are more hardworking than their female counterparts are. The study concludes that Systems of accountability embody the entirety of positive and negative motivational factors that push units and people in government to behave responsibly in the performance of their duties and in expending resources. This study strongly recommends autonomy for local governments in such a way and manner that enhances its performance of constitutional and ancillary roles. Local governments should strive to raise and maintain revenue that would enable them deliver projects and services that guarantee quality living to the grassroots. This has the potency of reducing the incidence of rural-urban drift.

KEYWORD: Local Government, Local governance, Rural Development, Rule of Law, Transparency, Accountability.