Gender, Partners End 2-Day Nat’l Young Women & Girls Conference

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP) in collaboration with partners, has concluded a two-day National Young Women and Girls Conference with over 150 participants drawn from the 15 sub-political divisions in attendance.
The two-day conference was designed by MGCSP with focus on reviewing progress made against recommendations and key actions that came out of the 2018 Young Women and Girls Conference, creating an environment for young women and girls to network with different stakeholders and share their experiences as well as to increase young women and girls’ knowledge to make better decisions, take on leadership roles and avoid risky behavior.
The National Young Women & Girls Conference which ran from August 6-7 is an annual gathering of young women and girls and this year’s gathering was held under the theme: “Building the Future of Liberian Women.”
The conference was arranged by the Ministry of Gender with support from partners to also afford young women and girls the platform to gather and discuss issues affecting them in their respective communities and develop concrete action plans to address those issues. The meeting highlighted other areas of increasing young women and girls’ capacity in accessing their sexual reproductive, educational, cultural and economic rights.
During the conference, participants deliberated on key life changing discussions such as basic leadership skills, public speaking and confidence building, and understanding the SGBV referral pathway amongst others. At least nine facilitators were available to lecture on the various topics.
The conference objective was to enhance the effectiveness of efforts to reduce the number of deprived girls and young women, improve their wellbeing and capabilities, and thereby catalyzing change for communities, the broader society and the economy.
Other activities at the two-day National Young Women and Girls Conference included session on how the participants can engage policy makers on the implementation of international and national policies/laws that support their rights, panel discussions on adolescent sexual and reproductive health and Rights, holding of interactive discussions with inspiring leaders to talk about the challenges they faced and how they have worked towards overcoming them and realizing their goals.
Additional discussions highlighted the experience sharing session among participants on issues affecting them and practical actions that could be taken to address those issues, documentary video session on inspirational stories from girls and young women on how they have thrived to overcome challenges they faced in their lives, exhibition of creative skills and talents and action planning session on key recommendations and follow up actions deriving from the conference
The NYYWG conference was attended by a cross section of local and international non-governmental organizations including UNICEF, GIZ Liberia, Plan International Liberia, UNAIDS, FAWE, BRAC and Reocomm Foundation amongst others.