By Grace Q. Bryant
UN Women, with support from the Ford Foundation, is conducting a two- day regional consultations meeting with traditional and faith leaders on ending Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in Liberia.
The objective of the regional consultations meeting is to review previous commitments of traditional and faith leaders and contribute to a regional accountability framework, which will help to monitor the progress of eliminating VAWG and harmful practices in West Africa.
The Representative of UN Women, Madam Comfort Lamptey, said UN Women attaches significant importance to dignity, sanctity of life, and fairness, as values enshrined in many religious and community doctrines in Liberia, Africa, and many other parts of the World.
“These values are also reflected in the United Nations Universal Human Rights Declaration, which recognizes the inherent dignity, as well as equal and inalienable rights of all as the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world,” she maintained.
According to her, the one-day consultation with Cultural and Faith Leaders in Liberia is to examine the critical role of these leaders in addressing SGBV and harmful practices as one of the gravest forms of human rights violation. SGBV and harmful practices have detrimental impact on survivors, communities, and the whole society.
Madam Lamptey thanked UN Women Nigeria and the Ford Foundation for the three-year program, and for engaging Traditional and Cultural Leaders in the process for ending GBV by advancing advocacy, policy and social norms change in West Africa.
“Thank you, traditional and religious leaders, for being part of this convening, which will allow them to look back and gauge their progress in meeting the previous commitments made for ending SGBV and harmful practices, but also reaffirm these commitments in a regional accountability framework,” she expressed.
The program, which is held at Cape Hotel in Monrovia, runs from March 11-12, with the UN Women Representative Comfort Lamptey, government officials, Sweden Ambassador, Nigeria delegates, EU, chief Zoes, Traditional leaderships, and Civil Society Organizations, all in attendance.
Madam Anna Brzozowska, Team Leader of the EU delegation, said the primary objective is to address relations through different means in Liberia.
“We are working towards women empowerment and gender equality in all possible interventions, such as in our work with elections, where we ensure women not only vote but also get elected. When we intervene in the private sector, our main interest is to involve more women and create opportunities for growth, education, and independence. We are also ambitious in education and have a team working towards it,” Madam Brzozowska noted.
According to her, one of the major challenges they face is the task of involving more female students in the program, despite having sufficient resources and increasing the number of both teachers and students.
A representative from Gender in Liberia, Madam Ophelia Kennedy, said the ban was placed on FGN to monitor harmful practices and sexual reproductive health and rights. Traditional growth and practitioners were inventoried to identify the number of groups and their activities.
She disclosed that a draft bill has been submitted to the Legislature to end traditional practices and practitioner practices, and it’s currently in the committee’s room for review, stating, “As the Administrator, we’ll engage with legislators through the Committee on Gender and the Women Legislative Caucus Three”.
She continued that regional consultation is a valuable platform to exchange experiences, learn from each other, and strengthen regional cooperation to protect women, girls, and children.
Representative Moima Biggs Mensah noted that to advance the process, there should be a petition document written to the Legislature.
“We need your petition document, which the legislators are waiting for. Once the traditional people agree to the document, we can move forward and ensure that the necessary funding is provided in the budget. Our partners are also helping, but we need to do our part by providing necessary training to ensure the success of the project,” she emphasized.
“We cannot leave everything to our partners and must play our part to ensure that the children’s needs are met. It is important to create a proper petition that reflects our culture and is supportive of the process. Let’s work together to make this happen,” she stated.
The meeting is part of a project “Traditional and Cultural Leaders for Ending GBV by Advancing advocacy, Policy and Social Norms Change in Nigeria and West Africa (LEAP)” led by the UN Women Nigeria Country Office, and funded by the Ford Foundation in Nigeria.
The project aims at meaningfully partnering with powerful agents of social change to shift underlying structures of power within communities, end harmful practices, address religious misconceptions, and transform cultural norms surrounding violence against women and girls (VAWG).
These consultations are expected to review previous commitments of traditional and faith leaders and contribute to a regional accountability framework, which will help to monitor the progress of traditional and faith leaders in eliminating VAWG and harmful practices in West Africa.
The consultations will be held in Liberia, Senegal, Niger, and Sierra Leone.
