The Liberia Working Group on women, Youth, Peace and Security in West Africa (WGWYPS-WAS) has launched its project titled, “Promoting meaningful participation of women in politics.”
The program was held yesterday in Monrovia in partnership with FAWE, WONGOSOL, FEJAL, Sisters Hand, Young Peace Ambassadors, IYED and SEARCH and graced by representatives of the Women Can Lead, the Women Legislative Caucus, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection as well as the UNDP.
Speaking at the opening of the program, Liberia’s WGWYPS-WAS’s Country Representative, Meima Sirleaf Karneh, explained that the program has been long overdue due to administrative constraints but was overjoyed that it finally kicked off.
She maintained that the working group on women, youth, peace and security is an organization of civil society groupings under the office of the Secretary General Representative to West Africa in Senegal.
She further stated that the platform promotes UN Resolution 1325 adding, the organization actively engages Ministries of Gender in the West African region as well as civil society organizations and parliaments.
”We have a working group in 16 counties in the ECOWAS region and all the chapters are very active,” she revealed.
She added that the working group was established 2014 in Liberia with some support from the civil society organization especially organizations that are into women peace and security leaderships and have been working closely with the Ministry of Gender to promote and monitor the national action plan on Resolution 1325.
”We were able to trained 40 persons in Gbarnga, Bong County early 2020 and also setup branches in several counties of Liberia and engage with local communities in during awareness on the Nation Action Plan,” she stated in her overview.
Meanwhile, the head of the Women Legislative Caucus, Representative Rosana Schaack called on women to support each other in women political participations beginning at every level.
According to her, men and women are said to be at a 50-50 ration in terms of population yet, when it comes to political leadership, women are used as campaign leaders stressing, “Women have not realized their potentials.”
“We want to applaud this organization for coming on board to offer training and advocate for increase in the participation of women, but one thing we want to make clear is that we are to maintain those in the eleven seats in the Legislature and as well add more,” she explained.
She assured that they will carry on awareness in various community to keep women as representatives and also encourage them to look for good women candidates in the district to support.