Monrovia – The Ladies NGOs Secretariat of Liberia (WONGOSOL) hosted a significant national-level session geared toward strengthening girls’s participation within the nationwide finances course of and guaranteeing their priorities are absolutely mirrored in coverage and useful resource allocation.
Held on the Capitol Constructing on December 10, 2025, the engagement introduced collectively the Home Committees on Methods, Means & Finance and Well being, the Ladies’s Legislative Caucus, different lawmakers, and county girls leaders. The discussion board offered county representatives with a platform to straight have interaction nationwide legislators on points affecting girls throughout all fifteen counties, selling extra inclusive legislative oversight.
As a part of the initiative, alumnae of the Ladies’s Democracy College shared experiences from regional engagements and introduced suggestions rising from county consultations. Supported underneath the Liberia Elections Assist Undertaking, the session supplied an important avenue for advancing girls’s priorities in nationwide decision-making.
WONGOSOL introduced key findings from its Gender-Responsive Budgeting Report, analyzing the 2026 nationwide budgets for the Ministries of Well being; Youth and Sports activities; Gender, Kids and Social Safety; and Agriculture. The report highlights gaps in important providers for girls, together with restricted entry to high quality maternal and reproductive healthcare, poor farm-to-market roads, and inadequate assist for small-scale girls farmers.
Giving an summary, Government Director Madam Esther S. D. Yango emphasised the necessity for elevated authorities funding in sectors that straight influence girls and ladies.
“This engagement marks a major milestone in strengthening gender-responsive budgeting and guaranteeing the wants, voices, and priorities of ladies, youth, and different marginalized teams are mirrored in nationwide planning and useful resource allocation,” she stated.
Responding to the findings, Hon. Mike P. Jurry, Chair of the Nationwide Finances Committee, reaffirmed the committee’s dedication to inclusive budgeting and famous the usage of instruments to evaluate whether or not budgets are gender-responsive.
“As a HeForShe, I’ve labored for the reason that 54th Legislature to make sure inclusive budgeting. Within the fifty fifth, there’s a want for extra coaching for brand spanking new lawmakers unfamiliar with gender-responsive budgeting,” he stated. “Together with girls in nationwide priorities is crucial as a result of girls are companions.”
Additionally talking, Hon. Foday Fahnbulleh inspired civil society organizations to strengthen engagement with line ministries and the Ministry of Finance.
“CSOs should transcend. We have to work straight with ministries in order that they perceive the place to prioritize whereas drafting the finances. We can not assist what was by no means positioned within the finances, we will solely shift,” he added.
Highlighting county-level challenges, Atty. Sondah Geepea Wilson of Nimba County, an alumna of the Ladies’s Democracy College, introduced consolidated suggestions calling for elevated budgetary assist for girls, youngsters, and youth. She outlined challenges associated to political participation, healthcare, agriculture, highway connectivity, and girls’s financial empowerment.
The session varieties a part of ongoing efforts to strengthen collaboration between girls’s organizations and nationwide leaders, guaranteeing girls play a central position in shaping coverage and improvement selections.
Lawmakers from the Finances Committee, together with Marie Johnson and Hon. Mike P. Jurry, joined county girls leaders and representatives of the Federation of Liberian Youth.
WONGOSOL reaffirms its dedication to amplifying girls’s voices and selling gender-responsive governance throughout Liberia.
