Monrovia – On Wednesday, 25 June 2025, nationwide and worldwide stakeholders convened in Monrovia for a technical briefing hosted by the Ladies’s Legislative Caucus of Liberia. The session centered on electoral programs and methods to boost ladies’s political participation within the nation.
The occasion was organized in partnership with the United Nations Growth Programme (UNDP) and UN Ladies, drawing on technical experience from the United Nations Electoral Help Division (EAD) beneath the Liberia Electoral Assist Venture.
Led by UNDP, the undertaking is carried out in collaboration with UN Ladies and the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD), with funding from the European Union, Irish Help, and the Embassy of Sweden.
The briefing examined how gender quotas could possibly be carried out inside Liberia’s electoral framework to boost ladies’s illustration in elected workplaces. It additionally served as a platform to look at reform choices and generate momentum for inclusive legislative change.
A spotlight of the occasion was a technical presentation by Maarten Halff, Head of Electoral Coverage on the UN EAD in New York, who shared world views and reform fashions which have efficiently expanded ladies’s political participation beneath varied electoral programs.
In his opening remarks, UNDP Resident Consultant Aliou Dia underscored the significance of such platforms for deepening discourse on ladies’s political empowerment.
“We wish to see extra Liberian ladies coming into public life,” he affirmed, reiterating the UN’s dedication to inclusive democratic growth via its companies.
UN Ladies’s Nation Consultant, Consolation Lamptey, famous that inclusive parliaments yield extra equitable and efficient governance outcomes.
“Non permanent particular measures, together with gender quotas, might be instrumental in boosting ladies’s illustration—however they should be context-specific and well-designed,” she emphasised, reaffirming UN Ladies’s assist for data-driven advocacy.
Mr. Halff additional harassed the necessity for contextually tailor-made approaches. “An correct and extensively accepted prognosis of the challenges in political illustration is step one towards significant reform,” he famous.
Commissioner Josephine Kou Gaye of the Nationwide Elections Fee echoed this sentiment, calling for authorized and coverage reforms to make sure a degree taking part in subject. She additionally highlighted the position of civic training and assist programs for ladies candidates in closing the illustration hole.
The Minister of Gender, Youngsters, and Social Safety, Gbeme Horace Kollie, emphasised the strategic alignment and the essential position of male allies in enacting sustainable laws.
In the meantime, Cllr. Boakai Kanneh, Chair of the Regulation Reform Fee, advocated for a complete evaluate of Liberia’s electoral legal guidelines to underpin long-term reform.
Hon. Ellen Attoh Wreh, Chairperson of the Ladies’s Legislative Caucus, reiterated the group’s dedication to securing a gender quota forward of the 2029 elections—an goal central to the renewed legislative agenda introduced in Could 2025.
The discussion board introduced collectively lawmakers, electoral officers, authorities ministries, authorized professionals, and civil society actors to look at authorized pathways and catalyze the following section of advocacy for gender-inclusive governance in Liberia.
The Liberia Electoral Assist Venture is co-funded by the European Union, Irish Help, the Embassy of Sweden, and UNDP. It goals to strengthen nationwide establishments and processes that promote a extra inclusive and accountable democracy.
