CENSAD Media Release
Since the end of its second civil war in 2003, Liberia has made great strides in building peace.
However, the country keeps grappling with its reconciliation process that remains flawed with regard to both pace and inclusion until today. Liberia’s 2017 Peacebuilding Plan (LPP) acknowledges that previous endeavors to achieve the objective of promoting genuine national healing and reconciliation have been unsuccessful.
This is particularly true when considering women’s marginalization. Previous attempts to enhance women’s roles in Liberia’s reconciliation process have remained largely unsuccessful. Yet, we still lack knowledge about why women’s exclusion prevails.
Along these lines, the Center for Security Studies and Development (CENSSAD), with support from a Research Consultant, has commenced a survey in six counties across Liberia to understand the barriers that have prevented women from participating in the peace building and reconciliation processes. The survey which is part of a wilder project tilted “Amplifying Local Women Voices: Understanding and Breaking Down the Barriers to Women Participation in the Liberian Reconciliation and Peace Building Process”, seeks to acquire systematic, in-depth knowledge about the drivers of Liberian women’s systematic exclusion from the reconciliation process.
More specifically, CENSSAD is conducting one-on-one semi-structured interviews with women residing in the 6 counties where the project is implemented in order to examine the barriers that underlie their neglect in the reconciliation process. Over the last three weeks, trained female enumerators have collected data from local women in Lofa, Sinoe, Grand Cape Mount, Nimba, Rivercess and Grand Gedeh Counties
This baseline serves as the fundament for the other major interventions, capacity building training workshops to sharpen the skills of the women to enhance their participation in the reconciliation processes, women led town hall meetings foster to intra-community dialogue among female population and local stakeholders to develop strategies and formulate recommendations about how to address the barriers identified during the interviews.
The project is supported by the German Federal Office’s Funds through the Zivik Funding Programme by ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen). The Zivik Funding Programme supports civil society actors worldwide in preventing crises, transforming conflicts, and creating as well as stabilizing peaceful social and political systems.