Liberian women in Nimba benefit from capacity building project

Several Liberian women in Nimba County have benefited from a capacity building project on climate change through the Global Environmental Facility Small Grant Program.

The project being funded by the UNDP small grant project (SGP) was implemented by the Community Sustainable Development Organization (COSDO).

Women of Kpiekpoa Town in Nimba County benefited from the initiative.

Climate change is an environmental phenomenon that is impacting all countries. Its effects are being shaped by [inescapable] and rooted gender inequality thus hampering the lives of women as compared to their male counterparts.

According to COSDO Executive Director, Bleh Gbeintor, women are more likely to live in poverty than men. But Gbeintor said women have less access to basic human rights like the ability to freely move and acquire land.

Gbeintor also said women face systematic violence that escalates during periods of instabilities, the situation she said the project seeks to address.

Climate change is a planetary phenomenon that has impacted all countries, but its effects are being shaped by pervasive and entrenched gender inequality.

Heat waves, droughts, rising sea levels, and extreme storms disproportionately affect women.

“The Paris climate agreement includes specific provisions to ensure women receive support to cope with the hazards of climate change,” said Gbeintor.

The COSDO Executive Director expressed optimism for the women of Liberia, specifically the project focus area. 

Gbeintor further indicated that gender inequality hampers women’s capacity and potential to be actors of climate action.

The local NGO boss argued that these gender inequalities, access to and control over resources, access to education and information, and equal rights and access to decision-making processes define what women and men can do and cannot do in a particular context of climate change.

The GEF Small Grant Program has empowered many lives and built communities in so many counties. This program has imparted the lives of the disabled Community, the Women and Youth of Liberia. 

The Community Sustainable Development Organization has been one of the many organizations that has greatly benefited from this initiative.

“We are grateful to the GEF SGP under the UNDP program in Liberia. We are also grateful to the Small Grant [secretariat] for all of the support given us during these difficult times in our Country,” Madam Gbeintor noted.

The COSDO secured a grant from the Small Grant program intended to impact the lives of rural women in Kpiekpoa Town Nimba County.

COSDO along with Humanity Care Liberia and Agriculture Relief Services (ARS) were the three organizations to implement the same project but at different locations in Nimba County.