– As Naymote Partners Releases Weah Meter Report
By: Jerromie S. Walters
The President Meter, also known as the WeahMeter, is a democratic monitoring tool that is used by Naymote Partners for Democratic Development. This tool has awarded the administration of President George Weah 95%, based on their steps toward gender equality.
The current report, which is the fifth edition of the President Meter (WeahMeter), demonstrates that the ruling establishment has made progress by acting on all 8 promises pertaining to gender equality. This is shown by the fact that the report was released this year.
According to the report, before the President assumed state power, he made eight (eight) promises regarding gender equality, and actions are currently being taken on all eight of the various promises.
In Naymote’s report on the years of the George Weah administration, key promises highlighted included commitments to support and strengthen existing acts and regulations on violence against women and to curb sexual and gender-based violence by the year 2022, to establish in communities across various counties a viable adult literacy program for rural farming and market women, and to review existing gender policies and strengthen them where necessary to ensure gender equality in private and public institutions.
Additionally, we were to engage with traditional leaders in the process of ending all forms of harmful traditional practices in Liberia; to establish gender and social inclusion Units in all government ministries and agencies; to propose an anti-female genital mutilation bill; and to prioritize female political participation in electoral processes and key positions of government. All of these goals were to be accomplished while prioritizing female political participation in electoral processes and key positions of government.
It also indicated progress made by the government in achieving these promises, including the following: that the government made information on the statuses of strengthening policies available to the public. It also provided women with agriculture programs in various counties, through which women are immensely contributing to the production of food crops through planting, weeding, and harvesting of food; the signing into law of the Domestic Violence Act (DVA) in 2019 by His Excellency; the revising of the National Gender Policy of 2018-2022 (NGP) as progress made to strengthen existing acts and regulations on violence against women; and the establishment of an adult literacy program for rural farming and markets.
Among other things, the government has taken action by creating gender and social units in ten (10) security institutions and some ministries, making a $USD6million roadmap available to reduce sexual and gender-based violence, declaring rape a national emergency, appointing a special prosecutor for rape, establishing a national sex offender registry, establishing a national security taskforce on SGBV, and allocating USD$2million to step up the fight against sexually transmitted
In spite of the points raised within the report, there is still a great deal more to be done regarding the problem of gender equality as well as violence based on sexual orientation and gender.
However, the President Meter (or WeahMeter) also indicates that the President made a total of 292 promises, and out of that total amount, only 8% (24 promises) have been fully implemented by the government over the course of the past five years. This indicates that the majority of the President’s promises remain unfulfilled.
The majority of the Manifesto’s promises that have been fulfilled are those that fall under Pillar 2. (Economy and Jobs).
In essence, it accounted for 56% of all the promises that were fulfilled. In particular, promises relating to the development of infrastructure received a high completion rate, with such promises accounting for 38% of all completed promises. The completion rate for Pillar 1 of the Manifesto, “Power to the People,” which includes a total of 106 promises, is the lowest of any of the pillars at 8%.
“The ‘Economy and Jobs’ theme accounts for nearly half (48%) of all of the promises, and the vast majority (81%) of all of the promises that fall under this theme relate to infrastructural development projects. Following the theme of ‘Economy and Jobs’ are issues pertaining to fundamental services and social welfare, such as health, education, gender equality, and the empowerment of young people, among other topics. These issues are grouped under the theme of ‘Power to the People.’
Furthermore, it states that the theme of ‘Economy and Jobs’ are those on basic services and social welfare issues (health, education, gender equality, and youth empowerment, amongst other things), which are categorized under the theme of ‘Power to the People.’
The promises that fall under this category account for 36 percent of all promises. The report also indicates that fewer promises were made under the themes of ‘Sustaining the Peace’ (five percent) and ‘Governance and Transparency,’ and that it is completed nine percent of the time.
According to the findings of the evaluation, the implementation of 91 promises, which accounts for 31% of all promises, was taking place during the reporting period.
According to the findings of the report, only 39% of the commitments have been made any kind of effort toward fulfilling (the sum of those completed and those with ongoing activities).
In addition, it reveals that nearly two-thirds of all promises, 61% or 177 promises, were categorized as “Not started/ not rated” due to the fact that the government had not begun work on their implementation, and there was no information available on the status of those promises. This was shown by the fact that there was a lack of availability “.
Only one of the ten commitments made by the government regarding ‘Physically Challenged and Senior Citizens’ was followed through on, which suggests that the government did not place a high priority on fulfilling these commitments.
This is the fifth iteration of the President Meter (WeahMeter) project, which monitors and reports on the fulfillment of commitments made by President Weah and the government of the CDC.
The President Meter, also known as the WeahMeter, is a tool for monitoring democratic processes that is utilized by Naymote Partners for Democratic Development.
Its goal is to encourage political accountability and transparency as a means of strengthening the social contract that exists between Liberians and their elected officials.
In addition, it seeks to improve communication between the people and the government by informing citizens about the performance of the President relative to the promises he made during the period under review.
Naymote Partners for Democratic Development has been tracking presidential promises and reporting annually on the status of their implementation over the course of the past five years, which began in January 2018 and will end in December 2022.
These promises, according to them, were articulated in the election manifesto of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) in 2017, as well as in several campaign speeches before the election, the inaugural address, and in policy statements (like the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development, PAPD), as well as presidential addresses.
Naymote Partners for Democratic Development has suggested that it is time for the government to lead internal processes of self-evaluation and prioritize specific sectors for implementation prior to the end of the government’s mandate. This comes as the government led by Weah is nearing the end of its six-year term in office.
However, they are of the opinion that it is of the utmost importance to keep the promises that were made regarding governance, accountability, and anti-corruption. This is due to the fact that these issues were focal points in the many policy speeches that President Weah gave during the campaign for the presidency and after he took office. The fulfillment of commitments made in these spheres is essential to the fortification of institutions and the establishment of the groundwork necessary to fulfill all other commitments.
