To continue its support and commitment towards the empowerment of Liberian women and gender equality, this week UNDP in collaboration with UN Women held a dialogue session focused on gender equality with suppliers and partners. 

The dialogue session formed part of activities commemorating International Women’s Month under the theme “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress” and the session was meant to provide a platform for sharing best practices and initiate discussions and collaboration efforts on gender equality.

Speaking at the event, the UNDP Resident Representative a.i. Louis Kuukpen commended the suppliers and partners for honoring the invitation. He noted that the role played by women in bringing Liberia back to peace cannot be underwritten, over-emphasized, or underestimated as they were firm on politicians to sign the peace agreement.

Kuukpen said, “I have learned in the past 20 years that Liberian women have been instrumental in holding the peace candle and ensuring that the light keeps shining”. He added in a country where more than half of the population is women (according to UNFPA census 2023), development cannot be achieved without addressing issues that concern women.

The Publisher of Women Voices newspaper Helen Nah-Sammie spoke of the challenges the newspaper is faced with in recruiting more women reporters who are passionate about gender reporting for the print media. She said their workplace is a male-dominated one at 54% more than women.

Samuka Konneh of Vivacious Consultants said the company prioritizes hiring more qualified women than men. He said this is because, in their experience, women employees turn out to be more determined and vigilant when doing the work than their male counterparts. 

Suppliers and partners present at this dialogue were Women Voices newspaper, Musu Corporation, Office Ideas, Vivacious Consultancy, Techno IT, and the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

 During the discussion, participants voiced out that achieving gender equality is not a walk in the park especially for Liberia, as some women still feel like they are not worthy enough to perform certain tasks or to hold certain positions. In other instances, women are not given the platform they deserve.  

Attendants thanked both UN Women and UNDP for organizing the dialogue saying it has opened their minds to new perspectives of gender equality in the workplace including the ‘leave no one behind’ concept. 

Other activities relating to International Women’s Month held by UNDP, include educational outreach at higher learning institutions aimed at promoting gender equality and empowering women.

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