On June 22, 2022, the Board of Directors of the World Bank (WB), approved a financing package aimed improving the economic livelihoods and access to social services for women and girls in Liberia.
In a press release issued in Monrovia, the Bank said the project will initially target about 267,200 beneficiaries from 750 communities “that will be selected based on particular needs and that as lessons are learned on what approaches work better and capacity is built, the programs will be scaled up to more communities and beneficiaries.”
In other words, the financing package targeted several communities to foster positive social norms, and strengthen the Liberian government’s capacity to advance women and girls’ empowerment in the country.
Styled: “Liberia Women Empowerment Project (LWEP)”, according to the World Bank, is “financed by the International Development Association (IDA) in the amount of $44.60 million ($17.80 million grant and $26.80 million concessional credit).”
The Bank indicated that the LWEP will address, in a comprehensive way, the various key constraints and barriers that women and girls in Liberia face in realizing their full potential.
In particular, the project will empower women and girls by providing them with grants to start and expand women-led businesses across various sectors and providing them with the relevant training and mentoring so that they are successful in such businesses.
Indeed, we, at THE INDEPENDENT, wholeheartedly and enthusiastically welcome the World Bank initiative that seeks to address various key constraints and barriers that women and girls face in Liberia in realizing their full potential.
That the project supports positive changes in social norms, behavior, and attitudes that create a conducive and safe social environment for women and girls, and empower them make individual and collective life changing decisions including access to economic opportunities, education, and health services,” is to say the least, gratifying and represents a genuine and sincere desire by the World Bank and its partners including IDA to liberate Liberian women and girls from the cesspool of poverty, misery and socio-economic deprivation in which they had been entangled for decades.It is also in due consideration of the significance of this financial package for women and girls, most of whom are struggling at the bottom of Liberia’s economic ladder that we, at THE INDEPENDENT, also reserve no molecule of hesitation in calling on implementers of said package including the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, along with other concerned line ministries and agencies, to live up to the high expectations of not only the World Bank and its partners but Liberian women in general.
In other words, the financing project should be considered a golden opportunity for the Government of Liberia (GOL), through the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and its collaborating line ministries and agencies charged with its implementation to truly, sincerely, patriotically and transparently strengthen the capacity of relevant national institutions to enable them effectively and efficiently design, implement, and scale up programs that empower women and girls across the Liberian nation.
Just as the World Bank and IDA, we too firmly believe that “investing in our women and girls is not only the right thing to do, but a smart thing to do in that it can have the same transformational impact on a country’s development as investing in hard infrastructure.”
Indeed, we, as a government and nation, must prudently ensure effective and sustainable ways of empowering women and girls by using a community-based approach involving community members.
In the words of Khwima Nthara, World Bank Liberia Country Manager, “We would like to commend the Government and its leadership for taking full ownership in seeing the need to invest big in Liberia’s women and girls.”
Frankly, addressing social and livelihood services for women and girls as well as gender related norms and behaviors in Liberia, while also supporting the government’s plan to strengthen core institutions that work on Gender,” cannot be overemphasized.
Indeed, investing in women and girls, building their capacity, among others will surely enable them to gain access to education, health, and business empowerment to contribute effectively to the growth and development of the Liberian economy and by extension, sustainable peace, democratic governance and national prosperity.
