MNCs activities in less developed countries (LDCs) §are regularly contracted to undertake rural §development around their sites. Likewise, they §regularly fail. How can a profit-making MNC §encourage rural development in an undeveloped area §of a host LDC? The purpose of this research is to §investigate how an MNC could fulfill its contractual §commitment for local development in a way that §benefits MNC and also the involved parties. This §study concerns the urgent and interesting issue of §how MNCs manage their relationships with other §organizations in LDCs for local development. This §study followed ten years of a mining company (Lamco) §in Liberia which promised success in rural §development, had it not been for drastically falling §prices for iron ore and a civil war. Apart from the §MNC and the host government, a PVO and the rural §people were involved. The main result of this study §is that the use of an intermediary PVO is an §effective means for an MNC to fulfill its §contractual commitments related to rural §development. The empirical contributions discuss the §implications for MNCs, host governments, local §communities and PVOs.