Monrovia, Liberia –Authorities officers, civil society leaders, improvement companions, and youth advocates have dedicated to remodeling Liberia’s reproductive well being panorama from rhetoric to actuality.
By Joyclyn Wea, contributing author
The three-day nationwide sexual reproductive well being rights convention, organized by the Amplifying Rights Community (ARN) in partnership with a number of stakeholders, concluded with a unified message: the time for speaking has ended, and the period of motion should start.
“We spoke, we analyzed, we shared the painful reality. Now, I say, we should act,” declared Brittney Varpilah of LastMile Well being, the convention’s keynote speaker, capturing the urgency that permeated the closing classes.
Varpilah outlined three crucial pillars that should anchor Liberia’s path ahead in advancing SRHR: Energy to the individuals, funding with impression, and accountability.
She mentioned true change requires immediately funding youth-led and women-led feminist organizations and giving them everlasting seats at decision-making tables, not simply talking alternatives. “It means trusting communities to steer their very own liberation,” Varpilah emphasised.
“Matching highly effective phrases with tangible assets by elevated home financing for well being and rights, complemented by good, versatile funding from worldwide companions. “An funding in SRHR just isn’t a value for everybody right here,” she burdened. “It’s the smartest funding in Liberia’s peace and prosperity.”
She burdened the necessity to transfer past guarantees on paper to create actual mechanisms of accountability. “We have to be accountable not only for the variety of contraceptives distributed, however for the dignity with which they’re given. Not only for insurance policies handed, however for lives remodeled.”
Loretta Popekai, representing the Nationwide Civil Society Council of Liberia, challenged contributors to not let the convention’s momentum die. “Don’t sit on what you may have realized over the previous few days,” she urged. “What you may have realized from right here, you possibly can manage conferences, you possibly can focus on it on the group degree, on the college degree.”
Popekai outlined particular suggestions that emerged from the convention discussions:
- Enhance funding in sexual reproductive well being providers to make sure common entry for all people, together with marginalized populations
- Strengthen partnerships between authorities companies, civil society organizations, community-based organizations, ladies’s teams, youth teams, and well being suppliers
- Prioritize complete sexuality schooling in faculties and communities
- Advocate for insurance policies that take away limitations to entry, reminiscent of stigma, discrimination, and dangerous conventional practices
The convention notably showcased youth management, significantly younger ladies, driving change from mobilization to advocacy. “We noticed youth, particularly younger ladies, main the change from the taking part in stage to mobilizing, taking part, reinforcing, and reengaging to make sure that this convention is successful,” Popekai famous.
Dr. Nuntia Gbanlon Nuah, Deputy Minister for the Household Well being Division on the Ministry of Well being, reaffirmed the federal government’s dedication to translating convention discussions into concrete actions. “As a ministry, we reaffirm our dedication to translate the commitments made right here into concrete actions,” she acknowledged, emphasizing continued partnership with civil society organizations, counties, improvement companions, and younger individuals.
Representing Speaker Richard Koon, Cllr James Verdier, Chief of Workplace Workers, acknowledged the convention’s groundbreaking nature. “Within the final 30 to 45 minutes I’ve been right here, I’ve heard issues that for me rising up was an abomination,” Verdier admitted, noting how overtly discussing SRHR matters indicators societal progress and elevated consciousness.
Verdier pledged legislative assist: “Our workplaces stay open, and we stay up for an everlasting partnership.”
The convention broke new floor by piloting Hub of Participation (HOP) facilities throughout a number of counties, enabling grassroots voices to take part remotely. Coordinators from Nimba, Bong, Grand Gedeh, Gbarpolu, and Bomi counties facilitated native participation, with the Bomi HOP notably together with quite a few individuals with disabilities.
“It is a pilot that enables extra grassroots experiences to be shared,” defined Facia Harris, head of the 2025 organizing committee, urging unity amongst organizations and initiatives. “We are able to obtain extra if we unite. We deliver all of that experience and all these voices and companies collectively to have the ability to strengthen our advocacy.”
The Swedish Ambassador recommended the convention’s power and group, encouraging contributors to take their data “to the streets, the villages, the filth roads of this nation.”
On behalf of UNFPA and the United Nations Improvement System in Liberia, representatives pledged ongoing partnership and assist for the nation’s SRHR agenda.
The convention concluded with a robust imaginative and prescient: “A Liberia the place no girl dies giving life. The place no woman’s future is stolen. And the place each individual has the facility to write down their very own future.”
Harris proclaimed in her closing remarks, “Collectively, we are able to break limitations and construct a more healthy and extra equitable Liberia.”
The convention’s proceedings and county hub studies might be disseminated to make sure grassroots voices stay outstanding within the nationwide dialogue on sexual and reproductive well being and rights.
