Delivered by UNDP Liberia Deputy Resident Representatve Violet Baffour

Honorable Ambassadors, Government officials here present, staff (lecturers and management team) from across Africa and the world of the Young Political Leadership School Africa, the Young Leaders  from 7 West African Countries representing the future of Africa. Distinguished Experts and Resource Persons etc.

I am delighted to be a part of the Young Political Leadership School Africa 2021 and have the privilege and honor to bring you warm salutations from the UNDP Liberia family.

Today marks an important day as we’ve gathered here to share with these amazing young people what UNDP does in promoting Gender in Politics: The Role of UNDP.

The topic “Gender in Politics: the role of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)” means a lot to UNDP Liberia  globally and it underpins our programmatic design and intervention.  While this is a corporate requirement, I hold this dear to my heart as a person;  because it affects the lives of women and it is also indispensable to the imperative of nation building.

In 2020, the world commemorated the 20th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) on women, peace, and security, and  the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Beijing+25) , the most visionary agenda for the empowerment of women and girls.

Globally, UNDP 2021-2025 Strategic Plan has six recommended solutions refer to as as “Signature Solutions” with the overarching goal of eradicating poverty. Considering that poverty, cannot be eradicated in absence of the critical role of women, Gender. The Gender Solution seeks to “Confront the structural obstacles to gender equality and strengthen women’s economic empowerment and leadership” . 

This stems from the principle that Gender equality and the empowerment of women (GEWE) are critical to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs), and they are vital to fully realizing the rights and potential of all persons, and most importantly achieving the underlying principle of the SDGs “leave no one behind”.  

Women’s political participation in Liberian comes with serious concern. Several studies have confirmed the thesis that the full representation of women in politics and decision-making processes, like other citizens, are beneficial to all (National Democratic Institute, 2010; Kamlongera, 2008; Klasen, 2005). The assumptions of classical liberalism, especially as exemplified in the writings of John Lock (Brikland, 2005) are consistent with the notion that the sovereign authority of a duly constituted government must derive from the consent of all sections of society, including women. 

This presupposes that a significant lack of women’s involvement in political and participatory processes contributes to an unfair and unbalanced system that obstructs democracy; thereby producing serious problems for all facets of a society’s development process.

Consequently, UNDP Liberia programmes and projects are aligned to addressing these challenges through our interventions on the ground.

While our programmes and projects are gender mainstreamed, I will endeavor to focus on why we are her today “Gender in Politics, the role of UNDP Liberia”. 

I am pleased to inform that UNDP has been a partner to Liberia since 1977 in creating the space for women political participation through the following: Policy and legal reforms, trainings for stakeholders, capacity building and advocacy for stakeholders including the National Elections Commission and Political parties. 

Why policy and legal reforms: In the absence of appropriate enforceable policy and legal reforms, women will remain marginalized. As a result of this, we have work with Civil Society Organizations, Women groups, and the Government of Liberia in developing these policies. For example, the development of  a Gender Strategic for the National Elections Commission which enables the Commission to do business from a gender perspective. 

Trainings and capacity building, UNDP Liberia has trained key stakeholders including the security sector, Civil Society organizations, political parties, and independent candidates during and after elections. These trainings have focused on providing the space for women political participation, including their right to be included in these processes. We continue to provide capacity building support to the National Elections Commission, while these processes may appear slow, gender has become a major factor in elections and with consistency from all stakeholders, including UNDP we will get there.  

UNDP was provided the opportunity to reassess progress made so far in achieving the agenda and to accelerate transformative change.

UNDP Liberia has constantly reviewed its Gender Corporate accountability through gender mainstreaming in programme portfolio and operations, building the capacities of the staff, creating a gender-responsive work environment and engaging in additional resources mobilization benefiting women. 

The impact of UNDP’s development interventions on gender in Liberia is effectively contributing to addressing, to a great extent gender inequality, issues of women political participation, women economic empowerment, and promotion and protection of the rights of women and those of people living with disabilities.  

Our Country Office programmes to date has been informed by significant efforts to ensure gender sensitivity and gender responsiveness, and the availability of UNDP Liberia Gender Strategy, as a corporate requirement, has helped in sustaining the gender momentum and interest built within the country office over time. 

UNDP Liberia, Gender strategy is meant to guide the gender mainstreaming in the implementation of UNDP Liberia Country Programme Document. It describes how the CO will establish a management system to integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment in its policies, operations and programmes, partnerships for the next five years. 

Eventhough there has been some progress on gender equality over the past 20 years, this change has been slow. The 2019 UNDP Human Development Report shows that gender disparities remain among the most persistent forms of inequality and that gender inequality is one of the greatest barriers to human development. 

At this rate, it will take an average of 202 years to close the gender gap in economic opportunity alone. This is compounded by new emerging factors, such as climate change and a backlash against women’s rights, which are hampering gender equality around the world.

It is important to engage women in political and economic decision making in the early stages of recovery – referencing UNDP Gender and Recovery toolkit “Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Crisis and Recovery Settings” (Through the use of innovative approaches UNDP will work along UN Women and other partners to create an initiative of knowledge sharing activities using sensemaking/solutions mapping)

We also ackonowledge the critical role CSOs play and the importance of working with CSOs - WPS is a grassroots-driven agenda and has the tireless work of civil society and local women peacebuilders to thank for its advancements. 

As compared to other democracies, Liberia has not taken enough steps to execute plans for promoting fair representation based on gender equality. The gap in the number between women and men in national governance and decision-making processes are wide. 

Regrettably, it is not well understood by Liberians that a greater inclusion of women in politics, a greater inclusion of women in the social economic and political life of the country, is most likely to create a brighter future for all. Undoubtedly, this could prove highly significant for Liberia’s reform initiatives.

Currently, the executive, for example, women make up 16% or 3 of 19 government Ministers while in the national legislature women make up only 3% of the Senate (only 1 out of 30 Senators is a woman) and about 12% or 9 women out of 73 members in the House of Representatives. Cumulatively overall, women account for 9.7% or 10 out of 103 legislators in Liberia.   

Also, point out that, localization of the National Action Plan (NAP) is essential for the promotion of women in politics and ownership.

Stress the need for safe and meaningful participation of feminist and youth movements from civil society and academia within the Country. Which help in addressing the gaps in both the women peace and security (WPS) UNSCR-1325 and youth, peace, and security (YPS) UNSCR-2250 agendas when it comes to inclusive participation of young women in politics and all aspects of preventing and recovering from conflict and building peace.

We acknowledge the Government’s effort towards the implementation of the UNSCR 1325 and developing the second national action plan which is aligned with the Government of Liberia’s propoor agenda for prosperity and development (Pillar 1 - Power to the People & pillar 3 - sustaining the peace) which recognizes the importance of protecting and promoting women and girls in politics and decision making.

UNDP also supports the National Elections Commission (NEC) and other national partners to ensure inclusive electoral participation. In February, NEC and civil society held inclusive consultations on electoral reform and for submitting to the legislature the draft amendments to improve women participation in the electoral and political processes, not only as candidates but also political party executives.

We must commend the Government and people of Liberia for recognizing chronic underrepresentation of women in politics and proposing legislation to improve gender balance and remove barriers in political participation.

It is worth noting that since 2016, Liberia has fallen in the world rankings in women political participation from 81st position in 2006 to 154th position in 2020. This is a worrisome development, and the Legislature now has a chance to revise this trend.

We also appreciate the efforts of the Legislature in formulating people-centered and progressive gender-responsive legislation and note that the reform bill submitted by the National Elections Commission, as well as Civil Society Organizations to institute enforceable 30% gender quota was put forward because of inclusive consultations by the variety of stakeholders.

Notably the Ministry of Gender as well as other executive agencies, deserve appreciation in promoting and advocating for inclusive political participation.

This is a unique opportunity for Liberia to address long-standing issue of underrepresentation of women, in line with international and regional conventions that Liberia has adhered to but also consistent with commitments made by His Excellency President George Manneh Weah, to ensure gender balance in political life and the PAPD’s stated objective.

The countries that incorporate gender quota have higher representation of women in Lower House, including in sub-Saharan Africa (e.g., Senegal – 43%, Guinea – 22.8%, Togo 18.7%, Niger 17%). In Uganda and South Africa, 35% and 61% seats respectively are held by women thanks to quota).

Women represent half of the population. Any form of exclusion has consequences for the abilities of the work force, therefore, affecting economic performance. The research shows that women in national parliament would have a significant positive effect on growth independent of the country’s level of income (e.g., the proportion of female seats in national parliament indicated a significant positive relationship with the GDP growth for South Africa). 

The Liberian Government, Legislature, and civil society must join the efforts in creating equitable space for women to participate in elections and politics. It is in the interest of the nation.

We hope that this meeting will bring all actors on the same page and strengthen the strategy and commitment to continue efforts for equality between men and women.

We anticipate that the Young Political Leadership School for Africa will further strengthen the women’s role in politics, especially young women, in a  nona non-discriminating and gender-sensitive manner including the elimination of violence against women and girls in politics.

UNDP is committed to working with the government of Liberia, other UN agencies and partners strengthen, prevent, and protect women and girls and other socially disadvantaged groups through strategic policy reforms and mechanism that promote the human rights of women and men and guarantee their security at both the national and the personal levels.

By this, it’s our hope and expectation that the Young Political Leadership School Africa will continue to engage the new generation of character-driven, socially conscious young political leaders who are accountable, responsive, and accessible to citizens’ interests.

I thank you.