Liberia: The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has expressed excitement over the signing of a financing agreement between the World Bank and the Government of Liberia to support the Liberian woman empowerment project worth 44.6 million United States Dollars.
The agreement was signed early Monday morning July 4, 2022, by the minister of finance and development planning, Samuel D. Tweah, Jr. and World Bank country manager here, Dr. Khwima Ntara.
following the ceremony at the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ministerial Complex in Congo Town, the Minister of Gender Wilehmina Saydee Tarr expressed excitement that government was able to get the leadership of the World Bank in signing the project with the support of Country Manager Dr. Ntara.
The LWEP is worth US$44.6 million of which US$17.8 million is an IDA Grant and US$26.8 million is an IDA credit that will be implemented in all 15 political subdivisions of Liberia.
Minister Tarr disclosed the project will involve several government actors, including Education, Agriculture, and Health.
“We want to be sure that we can take care of our girls, our women and also we want to be sure that we’ll empower people innovatively and differently”, she said.
She explained that the agricultural component of the project will not only be about farming but empowering businesswomen who are in cooperative and other innovative waves of empowerment.
In the area of education, the government wants to ensure female students remain in school, adding, whichever way we can to ensure that we have a high risk of retention, especially in counties where girls are dropping out of school due to enrolment in Sande Bush and early
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marriage.
“Just fighting against social norms that have to do with sexual and gender-based violence where people feel that is okay, what is intimate partner violence, whether it is just domestic violence or sexual violence; those are things that we will continue to fight.”
Minister Tarr said with the help of the project, government will strengthen the fight against SGBV and provide safety for girls and women. Editing by Jonathan Browne
