“Pres. Weah Fulfills 95% Promises Under Gender Equality”Says Naymote ‘President Meter’Report
By:Laymah Kollie
Monrovia –January 18,2023-WTVNESW: The fifth edition of Naymote Partners for Democratic Development project titled ” the President Meter/WeahMeter” has graded President Weah 95% implementation on all promises made inline of addressing Gender inequality gap during and after the 2017 general elections.
The President’s Meter is an annual democratic monitoring tool used by Naymote Partners for Democratic Development to provide an independent assessment of the implementation of the campaign and post-election promises made by
President George Manneh Weah and the Coalition for Democratic Change. This initiative seeks to promote transparency and political accountability to cement the social contract between Liberians and their elected officials. It is aimed at informing citizens about the President’s performance against promises made during the period
under review, and to improve communication between the people and the government.
According to the report, Pres. Weah made eight(8) promises under the gender component of his administration; of which, he has successfully laid a huge benchmark during the last 5-years of office.
“The government made progress by taking action on all 8 promises under ‘Gender Equality’, Naymote Executive Director, Mr. Eddie Jarwolo said.
Promises documented by Naymote during the President 5-years administration were: to review existing gender policies and strengthen where needed to ensure gender equality in public and private sectors, to establish in communities within various counties a viable adult literacy program for rural farming and market women, to Support and strengthen existing acts and regulations on violence against women and to curb sexual and gender based violence by 2022. Inclusively, to engage with traditional leaders in ending all forms of harmful traditional practices in Liberia, to establish gender and social inclusion Unit in all government ministries and agencies, to propose an anti-female genital mutilation bill, while prioritizing female political participation in electoral processes and key positions of government.
However, it also indicated progress made by the governmentin achieving these promises are as follow: that the government made available information on statuses on strengthening policies. It also provided women with agriculture programs in various counties of which women are immensely contributing to food crops production through planting, weeding and harvesting of food, signing into law the Domestic Violence Act(DVA) in 2019 by His Excellency and revising the National Gender Policy of 2018-2022 (NGP) as progress made to strengthen existing acts and regulations on violence against women and establishment of adult literacy program for rural farming and market women.
The President Meter report also stated that the government made strives in filling these gender gaps by establishing gender and social units in ten (10) security institutions and some ministries, unveling $USD6million roadmap to curb sexual gender based violence, declaring Rape a national emergency, appointment of special prosecutor for rape, setting up of national sex offender registry, the establishment of a national security taskforce on SGBV and the allocation of USD$2million to beef up the fight against sexual gender based violence (SGBV) and rape.
Though the Naymote President’s Meter reported huge progress with gender equality, Sexual and gender based violence against women and girls are still lingering.
A recent Statistics from the SGBV crimes unit of the Minidtry of Justice stated that there is increased of SGBV cases by 50%. That figure also points to during and after the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The Ministry of Justice recorded more than 600 reported rape cases between January and June alone 2021, a rate close to reaching annual levels.
Meanwhile, President also made strides in collaboration with traditional leaders for the momentary suspension of sandy and porosociety for 3-years as a means of curtailing harmful traditional practices. Also, a bill to abolish female genital mutilation was submitted to the house of Legislature by deputy speaker Fonati Koffa which is still pending action. According to the Naymote report, on the area of Female participation, the President appointed Justice Sie-A-Nyene Gyapay Yuoh making it the third female Chief Justice of Liberia. “In so doing, the house of legislature passed 30% gender quota bill while the National Elections Commission along with registered political parties signed the Violence Against Women in Elections/Politics (VAWiE/P) protocol in 2022”.
Despite that, the government has made low progress in implementing majority of huge promises made during the 2017 elections and after his resumption of office. The assessment found that only 8% (24 promises) have been fully implemented by the government over the last five years. The report also found that implementation of 91 promises (31% of all promises)
were ongoing during the reporting period. Therefore, out of all promises, attempts have been made on only
39% (the sum of those completed and those with ongoing activities). “Nearly two-thirds of all promises, 61% or 177 promises, were identified as ‘Not started/ not rated’ because
the government had not commenced work on their implementation, and there was no available information on the status of those promises”.
Of the 292 promises, 65 promises came from the Coalition for Democratic Change 2017 Manifesto, 34
from campaign speeches, policy statements, presidential priority projects (3Ps), and Annual Messages to
the Legislature, 6 from the COVID-19 State of Emergency (SoE) relief support 8 from Pillar 4 of the PAPD,
167 from the President’s Nationwide County tour of 2021 and 2022, 8 from the President’s speech at the
U.S. Summit for Democracy held in December 2021, and 4 from the President 65th Armed Forces Day
Message on February 11, 2022.
The majority of the promises implemented are promises under Pillar 2 of the Manifesto (Economy and Jobs). These constituted (56%) of all completed promises. Specifically, promises on infrastructural development received a high completion rate — constituting 38% of all completed promises. Pillar 1 of the Manifesto (Power to the People) which has a total of 106 promises, has the lowest completion rate of 8%. Although the completion rate under Pillar 4 (Governance and Transparency) remains the lowest, the
assessment however observed that implementation of some promises under this thematic area was ongoing and these could take several years due to the complex nature of the institutional and legislative reforms that
may be required to fully implement them. Additionally, the assessment found that there was limited efforts by the government on promises centered
on ‘Physically Challenge and Senior Citizens’, and action was taken on only 1 out of 10 promises under this sector.
Naymote Partners for Democratic Development is a good governance and research institution
working to advance the principles of democracy, rule of law, and participatory governance in
Liberia.
