Liberia, Africa's inspiration on gender equality

Liberia and gender equality

Published on 13 March 2009 in ISS Today

Earlier this week, coinciding with International Women’s day on 8 th March 2009, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia co-convened with President Tarja Halonen of Finland an international colloquium on Women’s Empowerment, Leadership Development and International Peace and Security in Monrovia.

This initiative is part of Johnson-Sirleaf’s campaign on gender equality and empowerment of women in Liberia. Indeed, Johnson-Sirleaf’s ascendancy into office in 2006 marks a significant turning point and an inspiration on issues of gender equality and empowerment in Liberia as well as on the continent. From the onset, she has not only been outspoken about women’s contribution towards development, gender equality and sustainable peace; she has gone on to demonstrate this commitment through the inclusion of women in government, strengthening of women’s organisations, encouraging women to participate towards national objectives and continued focus on the education of the girl child.  These initiatives and her campaign on Gender Equality have led to Liberia being selected and supported by Denmark as a model country for the implementation of Millennium Development Goal 3.

This week’s colloquium attracted 800 international participants including President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal. Various dignitaries were in attendance as well as scores of Liberians. For this effort, she is to be commended.

The purpose of the colloquium was to create a platform that brought together various international experts from all sectors. This is with the objective of creating a climate for concrete discussions and debates with the aim of having tangible, implementable follow up action plans. The following were the goals discussed:

1. To empower women to be more effective leaders by linking them with their peers from around the world and sharing best practices. To add credence to this goal, at last year’s World Economic Forum held in Cape Town, South Africa, one of the three issues that the Africa Gender Parity Group called for was, a comprehensive overview of the economic policies and programmes that have been effective in narrowing gender gaps in the region’s best performing countries and a transfer of these best practices to least performing countries. Governments, private sector and civil society alike have succeeded and thrived on the adoption of best practices. The benefit of the best practice approach is that it does not re-invent the wheel; it minimizes costs and obtains more buy-in through its proven track record. The discussions undertaken at the forum are expected to assist women, particularly those that lack country specific frameworks for women empowerment.
2. To support the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1325. At this colloquium, Liberia launched a United Nations-backed National Action Plan aimed at furthering gender equality, sustainable peace and security. This is a historical achievement given that it is one of the few countries to do so. The action plan draws on UN Security Council resolution 1325 which stresses the importance of equal participation in decisions concerning peace and security; protection of girls and women during conflict situations and involvement of women in peacekeeping operations. This forum was also tasked with the preparation of a colloquium statement from Presidents Johnson-Sirleaf and Halonen to the Security Council calling for stronger accountability mechanisms for 1325 and other measures.
3. To contribute to the achievement of MDG 3 on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women, including building capacity and resources of government and non-governmental institutions to work for women’s rights and economic empowerment. Liberia is currently a pilot for determining progress on MDG 3 and actively participated in last year’s Millennium Development Goals campaign in September 2008 in New York by co chairing the MDG 3 sessions with Denmark. Other countries in Africa that have made progress on MDG 3 are Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda. Rwanda is credited with the strides that it has made towards equitable female representation within parliament and the changes made in discriminative inheritance laws against women. South Africa adopted the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development in August 2008 and continues to work towards the implementation of the said protocol. Uganda has benefitted from an affirmative action policy to reduce gender imbalances in higher education, governance and politics, resulting in considerable strides towards gender equity, equality and empowerment. This progress is encouraging and provides an opportunity for cross learning and sharing which can be adopted at a national level.
4. To demonstrate the clear gender dimensions of climate change and environmental protection and sustainable development. Notwithstanding that challenges still exist on how to fully integrate climate change and gender, environmental issues nonetheless should involve a holistic socio-economic analysis that fully address gender relations. This is to understand the environmental dimensions and ensure that the consequential directives and actions promote gender equality. This may involve understanding the perceptions of women and men on the environment, a sex-disaggregated account of activities performed and their effect on the environment, the uses men and women make of natural resources, such as land and water among other pertinent considerations.
5. To Launch the Angie Brooks International Centre on Women`s Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace and Security, in Monrovia to support the implementation of action emergig from the colloquium through, inter alia, training and research.
   
   The Centre will support the implementation of actions emerging from the International Colloquium, through: training to empower current and future women leaders and research, analysis and advocacy on women`s leadership. The centre is being established in honor of the late Angie Brooks, Liberia`s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Africa`s first woman President of the United Nations 24th General Assembly, 1969 (see www.womenscolloquium.org). The challenge is for other countries to be willing participants in this process and aim to adopt and add value to their own respective national processes.

In conclusion, the tenacity and determination that President Johnson-Sirleaf has demonstrated with this drive, should not go unmentioned. Like any other Head of State, she is faced with the challenge of responding to the increasing priorities that continue to face her country. However, the fundamental point is that she has recognized that women’s empowerment is absolutely central to all developmental endeavors and this is a critical point that needs to be understood and emulated by other countries. She provides a refreshing perspective on new hope and possibilities for gender development on the continent at a time when it is much needed.

Doris Murimi, Deputy Director Institute for Security Studies, Pretoria.