South Sudanese women leaders acknowledge the success of Liberia women
By Jerromie S. Walters
Since the climax of the 2023, general elections and the peaceful transfer of power, Liberia has been hailed globally and this time,nations are also being attracted to visiting the West African state while the women of Liberia have not also been excluded from this global recognition. This has been made visible with the testimonies of South Sudanese women leaders following a south-south learning and experience-sharing visit in Liberia, by a high-level delegation of South Sudanese women leaders and electoral stakeholders, ahead of South Sudan’s first general elections since independence.
Thursday, March 28, 2024, the South Sudanese women leaders and electoral stakeholders opened up to WomenVoices, concisely on how the interaction with Liberia’s electoral stakeholders influenced their perspective on the role of women in politics and the electoral process, and what best practices from Liberia’s electoral process can be applied to enhance women’s political participation in South Sudan’s upcoming general elections.
Dr. Angelina Bazugba, the Dean of the National Transformational Leadership Institute expressed their (The delegation) admiration for the manual relationship Liberian women have managed among themselves across all levels. She says they are hoping to achieve this and other positive things the women are doing before their general elections comesDecember.
Dr. Angelina Bazugba, “We are so excited to see how women in Liberia have been able to unite themselves. We have seen the solidarity, how women across the sectors, women in uniform, women in the public sector, women from CSOs, all of you are coming together irrespective of your political lines or whatever sector, you have been able to come together just to achieve the women’s cause. That is women getting into leadership, women getting into decision making. Yes, we are aware of the challenges, but we know that once we continue to stick together, at one point we will get there.”
She added, “We were taught about situation room, we are aware of what else you were able to do interns of reaching women from all levels, from the national level to the grassroots level. These are some of the issues that we want to learn and we are looking forward to learning and we can see how we can do it ahead of our elections.”
“We were looking forward to getting some lessons from elsewhere and we looked at Liberia as one of the advanced countries in terms of democracy. You have been there before us but also we look at South Sudan as the youngest country in the region so definitely when you talk about learning, you will always want to look at the person who is more advanced or in the very simple way to say is you are looking for a wise man or elder who you can learn from,” Dr. Angelina Bazugba stated.
Madam Amer Manyok, the Chairperson of Women Block of South Sudan, a Civil Society Organization (CSO) in South Sudan, and one of the many women on the experience sharing visit here in Liberia opened up on her experience. “What I have learned and is the best experience that we can also share is that women decided to say we need peace in our country and therefore, they mobilized their community to put down the guns and said no to bullets and yes to ballot.”
She says progress can never exist amid war or violence as such, Liberian women’s role in helping maintain the country’s peace remains a paramount lesson that they too can adopt and help in heightening peace in South Sudan.
“The second thing I also gained as something that we can go and practice in our country is that the Civil society organization came together, despite their differences to aid the electoral process through awareness and other initiatives.” She says it is good for Civil Society organizations in South Sudan to adopt this, to help the process of having peaceful elections,” she articulated.
Manyok: “We will try our best to carry out the advice that we have given us. Especially the advice that we took from the Gender Ministry. That number one, we the women and people of South Sudan, need to unite.” She acclaimed the commitment of the UN System here in Liberia, since their arrival.
At the same time, Amer Manyok went on to recognize the warm reception they received from Liberians, at every government and private institution they visited throughout. ” Every institution that we have gone to they have welcomed us whelmedly. And they gave us all the information that they have as a tool that will help us.”
Joyce Makei, a Development Practitioner, member of the South Sudan Women Coalition for Peace and one of the delegates on the experience-sharing visit tells WomenVoices that as part of a whole new experience they have gotten, they have taken a key interest in the need for them to breed more young women into national leadership.
The South Sudanese women concur with the Liberian women that mentorship of young women is clothed with the proclivity to enhance a larger participation of women in politics. She anticipates, “We hope that the lessons we have learned here, our women parliamentarians, part of the group that we came here with, will be in the position to attract other young women to get into the political space.”
Joyce Makei works with Civil Society Stakeholders in South Sudan.
South Sudanese trip to Liberia
Days ago, a high-level delegation of South Sudanese women leaders and electoral stakeholders, supported by UN Women, arrived in Liberia for a south-south learning and experience-sharing mission ahead of South Sudan’s first general elections since independence.
Scheduled from March 23 to March 31, 2024, the delegation aims to interact with Liberia’s electoral process, particularly focusing on women’s political participation and movement building, to draw valuable insights for the upcoming general elections in South Sudan slated for December 2024.
The visiting delegation comprises representatives from key South Sudanese institutions such as the Political Parties Council, the Transitional National Legislative Assembly, the Judicial Reform Commission, the National Transformational Leadership Institute at the University of Juba, the South Sudan Women’s Coalition, the Centre for Inclusive Governance, Peace and Justice, the National Press Club of South Sudan, and the UN Women South Sudan Office.
It’s a vivid fact that the exchange of experiences between the South Sudanese and Liberian counterparts displayed strategies employed to overcome barriers hindering women’s involvement in public life and to prevent violence against women during elections, drawing from the recent successful electoral processes in Liberia.
Over the last few days, the delegation met with Government officials including the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, the National Elections Commission, the WomenLegislative Caucus of Liberia, the United Nations Country Team in Liberia, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Liberia’s 2023 elections and transition
Liberia held its legislative and presidential elections on October 10, 2023. Due to a legal mandate that requires 50 plus one percent votes for a presidential candidate to be declared winner, a runoff was held on November 14, 2023. This process brought Mr. Joseph Nyuma Boakai to power as Liberia’s 26th president.
The commitment of the women of Liberia in protecting stability in the state can’t be ignored. From their indescribable involvement in unarming rebels to ensuring that Liberia triumphed through the civil war, the remain of Liberia still remain relentless in making sure that they are empowered and their voices are heard. The have never also reneged on standing in solidary with one another.
