Liberia

February 22, 2017

Liberian Women are Getting Ready to Lead in 2017

When Liberians go to the polls on October 10, they will see more women on the ballots. That is, if 138 “women’s leadership boot camp” graduates have anything to say about it.

Although in 2005 Liberians elected Africa’s first woman head of state, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, women continue to be underrepresented as voters, political party leaders and activists, and elected officials. Less than 10 percent of Liberia’s legislators are women, and nearly 10 percent fewer women than men were registered to vote in the last election.

CHRISTOPHER FOMUNYOH

Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh is currently senior associate and regional director for Central and West Africa at NDI. He has organized and advised international election observation missions to Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Thank you for contacting the National Democratic Institute!

The National Democratic Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, nongovernmental organization that has supported democratic institutions and practices in every region of the world for more than three decades.

Since its founding in 1983, NDI and its local partners have worked to establish and strengthen political and civic organizations, safeguard elections, and promote citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.

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Liberian Lawmakers Watch: New Tools Shed Light on Parliamentary Performance before the General Elections

For the average Liberian, finding information on one’s legislator can be a daunting task. With no bill-tracking system or plenary record, citizens are often left in the dark about their lawmakers’ performance. Civil society groups face steep obstacles to advocacy because basic information is hard to come by. This lack of transparency about the bill-making process, committee membership, and hearing schedules make effective legislative engagement in Liberia a significant challenge.

Stepdown Training Toolkit on Legislative Engagement

This toolkit provides information and reference materials the National Democratic Institute (NDI) has used in conducting a series of legislative advocacy/engagement workshops in Liberia under its Building Citizen Centered Political Engagement program funded by the Embassy of Sweden (EOS). This toolkit provides reference and support materials, and allows its users to organize similar trainings to assist civil society groups and to lobby and advocate with individual lawmakers and the legislature as a whole on issues of importance to citizens.

Monitoring Reports of the Citizen Observatories in Grand Kru, Maryland, River Gee Counties, Liberia

The Monitoring Reports of Citizen Observatories on the quality of public elementary schools in three counties, Maryland, River Gee and Grand Kru, in Southeast Liberia was published by the Southeastern Women Development Association (SEWODA), a subgrant partner of NDI.

Residents in Liberia Organize to Fight Ebola through Education

In an effort to stem the spread of Ebola, which has claimed the lives of 4,408 of their countrymen, neighbors in rural Liberia went door-to-door throughout the month of January to raise awareness on how to treat and prevent the disease. They reached 5,000 people as part of a community-led task force established last October and organized by NDI and three community organizations.

NDI’s Pat Merloe Testifies Before Congress on U.S. Election Support in Africa

NDI Director of Electoral Programs Pat Merloe testified at a hearing, “U.S. Election Support in Africa” on March 18 before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations.

“Support for democratic elections in Africa should build longer-term democratic political dynamics that result in responsive, accountable governance,” Merloe said. “International election observation can play an important role in achieving peaceful, credible elections in Africa.”

Watch the hearing »