CENSSAD Completes Town Meetings

Liberiu (Monrovia) November 13, 2024: The Center for Security Studies and Development (CENSSAD) has completed a series of townhall meetings for 270 local women in Lofa, Grand Gedeh, Nimba, Sinoe, Rivercess and Cape Mount counties under CENSSAD’s ongoing project titled,” Amplifying Women’s Voices:  Understanding and Tearing Down the Barriers To Women’s Participation In Liberia’s Peacebuilding And Reconciliation Processes”. The selected counties have been assessed as being particularly vulnerable to violence and demonstrating low levels of reconciliation in the past.

The meetings, which were held under the theme:” Fostering Intra Community Women’s Dialogue to Develop Strategies and Formulate Recommendations to Address Barriers to Women’s Participation in Liberia’s Peace Building and Reconciliation Processes”, provided the platforms for local women to formulate recommendations designed to address the main obstacles to women’s participation in peace building and reconciliation processes in Liberia

Each meeting brought together 45 participants who openly discussed what they could do within their communities to make a larger contribution to the reconciliation process and what kind of support they could provide to overcome the barriers that have prevented them from doing so.
The Research survey undertook the pioneering attempt to acquire systematic, in-depth knowledge about the drivers of Liberian women’s exclusion from the reconciliation process. More specifically, CENSSAD conducted a total of 1200 one-on-one semi-structured interviews with women residing in the counties where the project is implemented in order to examine the barriers that underlie their neglect in the reconciliation process.
According to the findings of the survey, which was recently conducted across the six counties, the barriers to women’s participation in reconciliation and peace-building activities in Liberia are multifaceted and deeply rooted in societal structures and cultural norms.  The survey identified several major barriers, including domestic work responsibilities, fear, denial by spouses, lack of education, and cultural issues.

This project contributes to the establishment of an inclusive reconciliation process that aligns with both the 2003 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and the 2017 Liberia Peacebuilding Plan (LPP).   It is supported with German Federal Foreign Office’s Funds., through Zivik Funding Program.