Spotlight Initiative-WPHF grantees in Liberia

Spotlight Initiative, in partnership with the Women's Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), is supporting women in Liberia to contribute to peace by financing a range of local CSO projects that combat gender-based violence, promote women’s rights and advance gender equality in conflict settings.

Our Work
In Liberia, the Spotlight Initiative and WPHF partnership is channeling rapid financing to grassroots women’s organizations working to end violence against women and promote human rights and gender equality in peace and security contexts.

We’re supporting local actors working to protect the safety, security and fundamental rights of Liberian women and girls.

This financing is strengthening the capacity of women’s rights groups and social movements – including those representing youth and groups facing intersecting forms of discrimination – to advance progress on women’s empowerment, gender equality and women’s contributions to peace across the country.

Our Partners
Spotlight Initiative and WPHF are actively supporting ten women-led and women’s rights civil-society organizations on eight projects in Liberia:

CARE FOUND LIBERIA on a project to prevent violence and abuse against women and girls across 40 communities in Bomi and Rivercess counties through sensitization, targeted advocacy and capacity training.
Community Sustainable Development Organization (COSDO) on a project to enhance the capacity of a network of five women’s rights groups working in 10 rural communities in the counties of Maryland, River Gee and Grand Kru to combat economic violence against women and strengthen their rights to inheritance and land.
PASD on a project to end violence against women and girls and advance gender equality and women’s empowerment across three counties – Gbarpolu, Grandbassa and Margibi –  through advocacy, policy development and capacity building.
FCI, Girls for Change, and Liberia and Youth Coalition for Education (YOCEL) on a joint project to develop self-sustained safety nets, local community action plans and a mobile application for women and girls to report on three categories of violence against women.
Gbowee Peace Foundation on a project to develop and train women peace brigades that will mentor 5,000 young women as peace advocates in the counties of Montserrado, Grand Gadeh and Lofa.
HOPE on a project to engage local authorities and community leaders in Bomi and Bong counties as gender champions to help prevent sexual and gender-based violence and advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Platform for Dialogue and Peace (P4DP) on a project called “Mobile4Women” that engages women and girls in the counties of Montserrado and GrandBassa utilizing audio-visual tools to conduct research and design strategies to address the marginalization of women and combat sexual and gender-based violence.
Women Empowerment Network (WEN) on a project to train women and girls in four counties on measures to address violence against women through the establishment of a series of awareness-raising initiatives, such as Palava Hut discussions and community radio dialogues.

Background
In 2013, Liberia celebrated 10 years of uninterrupted peace. These years of peace and virtual stability provided an opportunity for Liberia to begin to focus on its long-term development strategies and priorities. While progress has been made in improving the country’s capacity to respond to development issues, grave challenges remain, particularly for the country’s women and youth. In 2014, Liberia was struck by the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak, which rapidly devolved into a full blown humanitarian crisis.

The EVD crisis overwhelmed Liberia’s health system and further splintered the social and economic gains made since the end of the conflict. Deep-seated insecurity and entrenched stigma associated by the Ebola outbreak further reinforced gender inequities across the country, putting women and girls at risk of sexual and gender based violence and further compromising their health, dignity, safety and autonomy.

Our Vision
The envisaged impact of this Spotlight Initiative and WPHF partnership investment in Liberia is to foster the effective implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda, deepening grassroots women’s contributions to the restoration of peace through tangible results in local CSO efforts to protect human rights and combat sexual and gender-based violence.

Originally published on WPHF.