whether respondents are able to correctly name their local councilor, as additional proxy of the frequency of constituents’ interaction with a local councillor. We also include an indicator of whether respondents are aware of any “projects (anywhere in the district / city) the local council is doing or has done?” We also include an indicator of the number of times within the past week that the respondent listened to the radio. We believe this is a good proxy to measure information availability given qualitative evidence that radio is the premier tool for communities to obtain access to information about their local council’s development plans (Larizza and Glynn, 2011; Zhou, 2009).

# **Consequences of the War**

In a recent study on Sierra Leone, Bellows and Miguel (2009) find that individuals whose households directly experienced more intense war violence are more likely to attend community meetings, are likely to join local political and community groups, and are more likely to vote. This study suggests that war has had positive long-lasting effects on citizens’ participation in collective action. We control for community’s exposure to war violence. Respondents were asked the following three questions about their experiences with war: (1) “Were you or any member of your household injured or maimed during the conflict? (2) Was your house (or part of your compound) ever burned down during the conflict? (3) Did anyone in your household flee the community because of the conflict?” Following Bellows and Miguel (2009), we created an index from these three variables and then aggregated the data to the enumeration area. As shown in Figure 4 our measure is reliable and consistent with official historical accounts of the geography of civil war in Sierra Leone (Truth and Reconciliation Commission 2004). As indicated, the effects of the war were concentrated in the eastern and southern districts, where a higher percentage of households were made refugees or had houses that burned down during the conflict. Over time, however, the war spread across the country, forcing people to abandon their communities (the Western peninsula was the only area not affected by this massive internal displacement).

During the war, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) successfully targeted traditional authorities (Paramount Chiefs) as well as members of their households (Bellows and Miguel, 2009; Keen, 2005; Richards, 1996). Bellows and Miguel (2009) find that traditional authority households are statistically more likely to have experienced violence during the war. Thus, we include a control for whether respondents are a member of a ‘ruling house’.

# **NGO Service Provision**

Although NGOs provide a large portion of essential goods and services in Sierra Leone, there is no comprehensive data of the locations of NGO and non-state actor projects. The only measure of non-state actor service provision that is available is a question on the NPS that asks community leaders whether an “NGO (not government, Local Council, or MP) has done any projects since the end of the war (Feb 2002) that this community benefits from?” We aggregate the number of NGO projects that the community leaders believe have taken place to the enumeration area. Albeit imperfect, the inclusion of this measure allows us to 13