Accelerating Women's Economic Empowerment in Liberia

UN Women Regional Offices for West and Central Africa, along with Eastern and Southern Africa, organized a joint learning week event with members of the Pillar on Women Economic Empowerment (WEE). The WEE Learning event took place in Abuja, Nigeria from 9 to 13 September 2024. 

Countries in attendances included Nigeria, Malawi, Cote d’Ivoire, Burundi, Kenya, Niger, Mali, Senegal, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Liberia, South Sudan, Mozambique, CAR, South Africa and UN Women Regional Office for West and Central Africa (WCARO) and UN Women Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa (ESARO). 

Also present were the UN Women Chief for Economic Empowerment and the UN Women Country Representative for Nigeria. The learning event was meant for experience sharing from UN Women Country Offices in these regions, and how the WEE portfolio could aggressively scale up programs and adopt new ones for the economic development of women everywhere. The theme of the learning week event was “Accelerating the progress of WEE in Sub-Saharan Africa amidst changing contexts”. 

Highlights of Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) Flagship Programs

The UN Women’s week- long learning event provided the opportunity for collective reflections on strategies, reforms, and mechanisms that the Organization would adopt to support, implement, and accelerate women’s economic empowerment and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Resource mobilization: Let's be honest, finding funding was a major hurdle for almost everyone. ‘The key takeaway’? The need to work together, share what we know, get the word out, and team up with the government. It's a multi-pronged approach!

Additionally, it is beneficial to leverage public private partnership to increase funding for WEE flagship programs on Affirmative procurement.  Like Nigeria, Lagos and Kaduna State, seek partnerships with the African Development Bank for the replication of the African Development Bank Women Procurement Compliance Incubator to Support Women-owned Businesses to participate effectively in procurement in Liberia. This idea could be replicated using the opportunity of the implementation of the 2018 new local government law of Liberia. 

Opportunity for the establishment of an inter-agency program on the AcfTA implementation, ensure gender responsiveness of the domestic trade policies, and collaborate with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) to train women-led businesses on the suitable opportunities that exist. 

Care Economy also Known as Unpaid Care – Entry Points.

UN Women to partner with Ministries of Gender, Children and Social Protection; Finance Development Planning; and Labor to ignite national conversations on the care economy through multi-stakeholders’ dialogue and workshops. The Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) will be encouraged to initiate a time-user survey and a needs assessment survey for Liberia. 

In conclusion, Women's economic empowerment, as defined by UN Women, requires concerted action and strong commitment. Women remain key contributors to inclusive economic growth and sustainable development in Liberia. Advancing women's participation and concrete actions in the care, green, and blue economies, as well as in financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, and cross-border trade, will not only empower them but also lift a forgotten generation out of poverty. This will pave the way for a more equitable and prosperous Liberia, where every woman can fully realize her economic potential.