Liberia

Liberia adopted its most recent National Action Plan (NAP) in 2019 for the period 2019-2023. The NAP was developed by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection through a participatory approach that included consultations with key line ministries, agencies and commissions, civil society organizations, women’s groups, youth groups, media, and international partners. The NAP is constructed on five main pillars, reflective of the key pillars of UNSCR 1325: prevention, protection, participation, relief and recovery, and coordination and accountability. Each of these pillars have dedicated outcomes, outputs, indicators and activities, which support the following goals: women and girls’ safety, physical and mental health and security are assured and are fully protected under legislation and policies that promote their empowerment and full participation at all levels, in building sustainable and inclusive peace and security in Liberia. The NAP includes a detailed monitoring and implementation plan as well as an allocated budget.

Liberia’s second NAP is preceded by one other NAP, adopted in 2009 and implemented for the period 2009-2013. The NAP was developed by the Ministry of Gender and Development in consultation with civil society actors. The NAP’s objectives are compiled under four thematic pillars: protection; prevention; participation and empowerment; and promotion. Each pillar has corresponding strategic issues, priority areas, outputs, and indicators; nevertheless, these actions do not have allocated funds. Liberia’s second NAP follows a similar thematic structure, compiling the overall objectives under five pillars: prevention; protection; participation; relief and recovery; and coordination and accountability. The NAP also includes a standalone section on lessons learned from the implementation of the first NAP and provides a more substantive engagement with contextualizing the WPS agenda within the historical and political framework of Liberia. The second NAP’s monitoring and evaluation mechanism is more detailed as well, specifically through the inclusion of timeframes and an allocated budget for each outlined activity.

Liberia reported on the implementation of its NAP, as well as WPS commitments, in its national reporting for Beijing+25 and in preparation for CSW64 (2020). Specifically, the country provided the following updates, among others:

With a goal of ‘a more peaceful, unified society that enables economic transformation and sustainable development’, the Government of Liberia is committed to compliance with human rights obligations as per treaties acceded. It has set national targets in the Social Cohesion and Reconciliation (SCORE)6 index to increase civic trust and co- existence from 52% to 70% and to reduce the index for violent tendencies from 19% to 5%. (p. 12)
The Peace Hut initiative was established after the civil war and during the first term of former President H.E Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, providing a safe space for women in rural communities to discuss issues that plague them especially relating to conflict resolution. There are over 36 Peace Huts established across the country … At the Peace Huts women mediate problems, run projects and businesses, and advocate for women’s rights. (p. 39)
The Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection with support from UN Women, provided training for 47 female candidates in campaign strategies; message development, mapping, debating and public speaking.
Also, 25 women were trained from September 25-28, 2017 in Gbarnga, Bong County, to serve as election observers in 25 selected districts across the country. The training was in collaboration with the Women Peace and Security Institute, with funding from Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center.
As an outcome of the Colloquium, a Leadership building platform through Mentorship was established for young women and youth. In this light the Ministry will be training 30 young leaders in leadership skills under the Theme: Unleashing the Leadership in Young Women and Youth. Currently, women comprise 12.3% in the House of Representatives and make up 10.0% in the Senate.
The Government of Liberia, as a High National Level Target in the PAPD (2018-2023), has committed to increasing the political participation of women at the national and local levels to reach a target of 30% by 2023.
In addition, prior to the passage of the Liberian Local Government Act in 2018, the Government implemented the Liberia Decentralization Support Program which provided training for women and girls leadership to participate in local governance. The Local Government Act is also gender sensitive as it exclusively provides 2 out of 7 members local assembly seats for women. In turn, women can compete for the remaining 5 seats. (p. 75)

The most recent armed conflict in Liberia’s history was the two civil wars, which took place from 1989-1997 and 1999-2003. The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was established in 2003 to support the implementation of the ceasefire and peace process, and departed in 2018, after 15 years in the country. Women have played a key role in Liberia’s peace and reconciliation efforts, in particular through the establishment of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. Women’s active campaigning led to the signing of the Accra Peace Agreement in 2003. While women were excluded from mediator and signatory roles, they represented 17% of witnesses. Additionally, the agreement had multiple provisions addressing women’s rights.

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National Action Plan (2019-2023)

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Liberia-2020 Commitments

Liberia-2015 Commitments

Liberia-2010 Commitments

CEDAW

1984

Global Gender Gap Index 2020

97 out of 153

Arms Trade Treaty Ratified

2015

Military expenditure (2019)

$17 million USD

Explore Liberia's National Action Plan

NAP Development

Civil society organizations (CSOs) were involved in the NAP development process, in particular, they participated in the following consultations: 1) Two awareness-raising workshops in May 2019 to raise awareness about UNSCR 1325 and promote leadership, ownership and participation of local communities; 2) Two-day monitoring and evaluation (M&E) workshop in May 2019 to review the NAP logical framework, implementing structure and cost activities.

Additionally, civil society members were also part of the 1325 working group that developed the new implementation structure for the NAP.

The lead agent in the development of Liberia’s NAP was the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP). However, representatives of the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Youth and Sports also participated in the NAP development process.

NAP Implementation

The implementation structure (pg 23) presents the various interlinked implementing bodies and lays out their roles and responsibilities (annex, pg 48 onwards). The National Steering Committee (NSC), Technical Working Group (TWG), Monitoring and Evaluation Learning Unit (M& EL Unit), County Task Forces, and District Champions, are responsible for implementing the NAP at various levels and have civil society and women’s groups representatives as their members.

Government Ministries and Agencies are involved in all the NAP’s implementation and coordination structure. All implementing bodies will report to the President of Liberia. For instance, the National Steering Committee (NSC) will be “co-chaired by the Minister of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP), the Minister of Justice (MoJ) and Minister of Defence (MoD)” (pg 48). The Technical Working Group (TWG) will be “co-chaired by the Deputy Minister of the Department of Gender at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning”. The TWG also has “Gender focal points of each government Ministry involved in LNAP WPS implementation” (pg 50).

NAP Monitoring and Evaluation

Civil society members are part of the NAP’s M&EL Unit, which plays a crucial role in the development of a detailed M & EL plan (pg 24). In the overall Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Framework of the NAP, CSOs are represented at the district, county, TWG and NSC levels.

The M&EL Unit primarily responsible for the NAP’s M & E will be co-chaired by senior representatives of the MGCSP’s M&E Unit and a senior representative of the Liberia Institute of Statistics Geo-Information Services (pg 51). The unit will also have M & E focal points from all ministries, representatives from the Governance Commission and the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services.

NAP Development

NAP Implementation

NAP Monitoring and Evaluation

The NAP is implemented from 2019 to 2023. It is expected to undergo a mid-term (December 2021) review and final evaluation (December 2023). Under each pillar of the NAP, the respective outcomes and indicators mention a particular timeline to achieve targets and activities.

For instance, In pillar 1 of the NAP i.e, Prevention, under the output “Legal and constitutional reforms to promote security of women, young women and girls enacted” one of the targets is to train 200 legislators, 200 government officials and 50 members from parliamentary committees, staff from the legislative drafting bureau “to develop, amend and implement legislation and policies in line with gender and human rights standards disaggregated by age, sex and region” (pg 26) by 2023.

The Liberian NAP is constructed on five pillars: Prevention, Protection, Participation, Relief and recovery, and coordination and accountability. These pillars address the government’s priority regarding WPS agenda and are aligned with “national policies and strategies, namely the PAPD, the revised National Action Plan on GBV (NAPGBV) 2018-2023, and the NGP (2018-2022) amongst others.”

For example: Pillar 3 i.e., Participation has the following outcomes and outputs (pg 36).

Outcome 3: Effective participation and leadership of women, young women, disabled and rural women at all levels of decision-making in peacebuilding, peacekeeping, conflict management and resolution and countering terrorism

Output 3.1: Implementation of measures to ensure women’s, young women’s and girls’ political participation and leadership in elections, political parties, constitutional and legislative processes
Output 3.2.: Laws and strategies regulating SSIs and the extent to which they promote participation and leadership of women and young women in these institutions are reviewed and appropriate actions taken
Output 3.3.: Women’s and young women’s participation and leadership in SSIs including armed forces, police forces and UN peacekeeping forces, promoted.
Output 3.4.: Women’s inclusion and participation in the justice sector, including the legislature and judiciary, promoted
Output 3.5.: Strengthened ability of women and young women leaders, women’s rights advocates, and CSO representatives to foster women’s leadership roles in peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts, mediation and negotiations and countering terrorism
Output 3.6.: Greater participation of women, young women, disabled and rural women in peacebuilding and conflict management and resolution processes, including national dialogues and transitional justice

Under each pillar, the NAP lists activities that will be implemented to achieve its overall goal, these activities will be mainly conducted through line ministries as part of their ongoing plans.

For instance, In pillar 4. Relief and recovery, to strengthen integration of gender perspectives into relief, recovery and peacebuilding intervention, following were the activities stated (pg 41):

National Disaster Management Agency of Liberia (NDMA) to integrate gender analysis into all post-disaster planning tools and processes; ensure recovery efforts provide equal economic opportunities for women including access to assets, such as land and credit; promote social protection, and sustainable livelihoods, prioritize women’s needs in key sectors such as transportation, shelter and health care, during and after disasters.
NDMA to incorporate gender analysis in the assessment of disaster risks, impacts and needs; address women’s unique needs and value women’s knowledge in disaster reduction and recovery policies, plans and programmes; strengthen women’s networks and organizations to facilitate women’s active engagement.
NDMA to provide capacity building for all relevant actors to mainstream gender in all Humanitarian/crisis response planning, frameworks and programming

In addition to indicating the activities for each output and indicator, the NAP also lists the budget, timeline and responsible parties that will carry out these activities.

Each pillar of the Liberian NAP has a set of outcomes, outputs and indicators dedicated to it.

For example, under Pillar 5: Coordination and accountability, to increase coordination, implementation, reporting and accountability on Liberia’s second NAP (pg 44), indicators are:

Liberia’s second phase NAP endorsed by the MGCSP and all other responsible parties and implemented
Annual Report on NAP implementation presented by President to the legislature

The NAP Monitoring and Evaluation Learning Unit (M&EL Unit) plays a crucial role in developing a detailed M&EL plan and is responsible for monitoring and evaluating the overall implementation of the NAP. At the national level the M&EL Unit reports annually to the President and Legislature. At the county level, the NAP county task forces report to the M&EL unit and they track and record progress of NAP activities at county level. At the district level, the district task force reports to the county task force and tracks and records progress of NAP activities from clans, chiefdoms, DAC officers and Town Advisory Councils.

The NAP estimates the costs to carry out activities under the five pillars. For instance, in pillar 2 of the NAP i.e. Protection, the Ministry of Health and Social Services is responsible for providing “necessary equipment and training for all MCH facility staff on GBV protocol for addressing health care needs (especially MCH needs) of survivors of SGBV”, which is estimated to cost USD 200,000 for 2020 to 2023 (pg 33).

“The NAP was costed using a genderresponsive budgeting (GRB) approach, as part of a two-day workshop that reviewed the NAP logical framework, including baseline, targets, data sources, responsible institutions and timeline information. Participants included government, CSOs, women’s groups, youth groups and media professionals” (pg 25).

Note on Liberia’s first NAP budget: “No government funding was dedicated to NAP implementation and international funds were committed to support the Ministry of Gender and Development (MoGD) and coordination, but not to support activities. The lack of resources led to insufficiently trained staff and activities left incomplete or never started at all.”

The NAP does not refer to or address disarmament issues and arms proliferation as a risk to the national implementation of the UNSCR 1325.