-UN Women Liberia Country Representative rallies GoL
By Jerromie S. Walters
As the observance of Women’s Month continues, Madam Comfort Lamptey, the UN Women Liberia Country Representative wants a more targeted approach within Liberia’s national budget to address gender-specific priorities and combat the pervasive poverty faced by women and girls.
In a remark at the commemoration of International Women’s Day on Friday, March 8, 2024, Madam Lamptey emphasized the urgent need for Liberia to allocate adequate funds and focus public spending on tackling the challenges faced by women. She drew attention to the country’s ranking of 164 out of 191 on the Global Gender Inequality Index.
She underscored the pressing need for concrete actions to bridge the gender gap and uplift the status of women. “We need to put our money where our mouth is and we need to ensure that we target public spending to end poverty that faces women and girls.
While acknowledging Liberia’s strides in advancing gender equality, Madam Lamptey reiterated the importance of implementing gender-responsive budgeting practices to ensure that resources are allocated strategically to benefit women and girls.
Madam Lamptey highlighted the multifaceted nature of gender disparities across political, social, and cultural realms, stressing the importance of empowering women to fulfill their potential. She noted with concern the prevalence of poverty among women, citing an absence of comprehensive data on the extent of poverty in Liberia as a significant obstacle to addressing this issue effectively.
Madam Lamptey: “International Women’s Day provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the work that still lies ahead of us in building a more equal country. To illustrate the importance of this work, I’d like to share a statistic with you. On the Global Gender Inequality Index, Liberia is ranked 164 out of 191 countries so we have a lot of work to do.”
In her opinion, this ranking highlights the urgent need to address the disparities that exist in political, social, cultural, and all spheres of life. “In particular, we must work to close the gender gap and ensure that women are able to realize their full potential.“
She believes that addressing women’s poverty is crucial as statistics show that more women are living in poverty than men. However, she noted that one of the challenges to this is the lack of data that informs of the extent of poverty in Liberia.
As a crucial step towards progress, Madam Lamptey urged the government and its partners to prioritize the collection and utilization of accurate data to inform poverty-alleviation strategies. She emphasized the significance of investing in robust data collection mechanisms to drive evidence-based policymaking and foster sustainable development efforts.
As a call to action, she says the government and its partners need to invest in gathering data and using it to tackle poverty. “One of the first things we have to do as a call to action is to invest in getting better data that can help us to address poverty.
Madam Lamptey: “Indeed Liberia has made and continues to make some progress, we do have gender budgeted unit at the Ministry of Finance and other line ministries. We need to resource them, we need to capacitate them and we need to target the national budget to address gender priorities. In health, education, social services, and so on.”
She rallied the government to consider in the budget, the need to support some of the institutions and platforms that are involved with heightening women’s rights and flagging challenges that confront them.
“I want to make the call out for the national budget to also support some of the institutions and platforms.” This, she says will enable them to do their work more effectively.
To empower women further, she says the government and her partners need to provide support to women’s associations and organizations. In her opinion, these groups play a vital role in advocating for women’s rights and government support will also enable them to address poverty eradication across the country.
“I think we also need to invest in women’s associations, Women’s organizations. We need to resource them so that they can better advocate for and support poverty and education across the country. We need to be able to support these platforms so that they can do a better job.”
Furthermore, she stressed the need for investment in women’s leadership, which she says is essential in driving the development agenda. “We need to make sure that we are investing in women’s leadership across all. Women’s leadership is needed to drive the development agenda.
With this, she hailed President Boakai’s step in appointing women and expressed optimism that it would continue. “We want to acknowledge the greater efforts that have been made by HE President Boakai to appoint women to prominent positions and we look forward to seeing more women appointed, particularly at the local level.”
She called for collaborative efforts to enhance data-driven decision-making and foster inclusive policies that support women’s empowerment and socio-economic advancement across the country.
Lamptey, “We take this opportunity to honor and celebrate the numerous contributions women have made throughout history. Let’s take a moment to recognize the remarkable achievements of women and continue to strive towards gender equality.”
International Women’s Day is celebrated globally on March 8th to honor and recognize the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The global theme for International Women’s Day 2024 is “𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐈𝐧 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧: 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬” and the national theme is “Empower Her, Empower All.”
IWD is also a day to advocate for gender equality and women’s rights. The day has been observed for over a century and is an opportunity to reflect on progress made, raise awareness about ongoing issues, and inspire further action towards a more inclusive and equal world for all genders.
A recent UN Women’s report shows that more women are living in poverty overall than men. It says currently, more than 10 percent of women globally are trapped in a cycle of extreme poverty, living on less than USD 2.15 a day. At the current rate of progress, as many as 342 million women (8 percent) will still be living in extreme poverty by 2030.
The report reads, “Women’s poverty is fuelled by discrimination in the world of work, limited access to resources and financial assets, and deep-rooted stereotypes that limit women’s participation in education, decent employment, and decision-making while burdening them with a larger share of unpaid care and domestic work.
Gender equality is a powerful catalyst for reducing poverty and driving sustainable development. With equal access to opportunities and decision-making for all, societies can create healthier and just economies.
