Women-led community organizations and grassroots groups across the western region have hailed the Rural Integrated Center for Community Empowerment (RICCE) for delivering a transformative daylong training on human rights advocacy for gender equality and climate justice.
The workshop, held Friday, August 22, 2025, at the Bomi Women Center in Tubmanburg, brought together participants from Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), the Western Region Women Network Association (WERWONA), Community Land Development and Management Committees (CLDMC), and Project Affected Communities (PACs).
RICCE said the training was part of its grassroots empowerment initiative designed to strengthen women's understanding of gender justice, intersectionality, resource governance, and their role in decision-making processes around natural resources.
Participants described the session as eye-opening, with many noting that it reshaped their understanding of the link between gender equality and access to land and resources. "Before this, I never saw how gender equality is related to how we access land and other resources," one participant said. "RICCE has opened our eyes."
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WERWONA's coordinator, Madam Lydia Ballah, underscored the importance of equipping women with knowledge on land rights and concession agreements. "This training is about our rights as women, especially in land rights, concessions and other issues in our communities," she said. "We women need to know those things... The training helps us to know our benefits and rights as women in our communities and how to advocate."
RICCE Program Manager, Madam Renee N. Gibson, facilitated the training using real-life scenarios, case studies, and participatory learning tools to encourage active engagement. She stressed that women themselves must lead conversations on issues affecting them. "The issues affecting women should be discussed by women," Gibson said. "Stand up and take the needed actions for rights to be respected and your views considered."
By the end of the training, participants committed to strengthening advocacy in their respective communities, with a focus on land governance, accountability, and natural resource justice.
The workshop concluded with a call to sustain the momentum and expand outreach to include more grassroots actors, particularly women and marginalized groups often excluded from local decision-making.
Funded by the Green Livelihoods Alliance (GLA) "Forest for a Just Future" program through the Green Forest Coalition (GFC), the training is part of a wider effort to promote gender equity in natural resource governance. RICCE serves as the gender technical partner of the Liberia-based GLA coalition.
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