Nearly 1,500 women organized into 49 savings and farming groups across eight counties began receiving grant money on Friday under a UN Women project.
Rep. Ellen Attoh-Wreh of Margibi District 3, chairwoman of the Women's Legislative Caucus of Liberia, thanked the people and governments of India, Brazil and South Africa for the US$167,000 behind the project, describing it as taxpayers' money given to Liberian grassroots women.
She then said the amount was not enough, and expressed hope that the project's results would persuade the three governments to send more.
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For the women in the groups, Friday marks the point at which a project that has so far delivered meetings, constitutions and training begins delivering capital.
The associations were formed or strengthened over recent months, elected leadership committees, adopted governing documents and took instruction in savings, lending, financial management and grant preparedness, but until now had no money of their own to lend out.
The project, titled "Women's Legislative Caucus in Liberia Promoting Voice, Leadership, and Gender-Responsive Governance for Sustainable Development," is implemented by UN Women Liberia together with the caucus and CareFound Liberia. It is financed by the IBSA Fund, the India, Brazil and South Africa Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation, which is administered by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation.
Yemi Falayajo, deputy representative of UN Women Liberia, told the gathering that the project has established or strengthened 49 of a targeted 50 village savings and loan associations and agricultural cooperatives, or 98 percent of the target. At an estimated average of 30 members per group, she said, the associations account for about 1,470 women.
"The project does not simply provide funds and expect women to manage on their own," Falayajo said. The grants, she said, are paired with practical training, community-based facilitation and continued mentoring. Running a savings group, she added, requires members to make collective decisions, manage shared resources, keep records, resolve problems and develop leadership skills.
The eight counties covered are Montserrado, Bong, Lofa, Margibi, Gbarpolu, Grand Bassa, Grand Cape Mount and Grand Gedeh.
Alongside the savings groups, the project has trained 24 community-based facilitators, 16 of them women and eight men, who are expected to pass the training on to about 3,800 rural women and young women in the eight counties.
According to the project's progress brief, the curriculum covers literacy and numeracy, financial and digital literacy, entrepreneurship and business management, VSLA operations, gender equality, leadership, peacebuilding, and sexual and reproductive health and rights.
The same brief says awareness and mobilization meetings held between May 11 and May 31 drew 373 people, 305 of them women. Those meetings brought in local government officials, traditional and religious leaders, women's and youth groups and members of the Women's Legislative Caucus. Counting the meetings, the facilitators and the association members together, the project puts its direct reach at roughly 1,867 people.
India's ambassador to Liberia, Manoj Bihari Verma, said his government was pleased to work with Brazil and South Africa to provide livelihood support to Liberian women through the savings group model. The beneficiaries, he said, would become agents of change in their communities.
When women have greater economic opportunity, he said, communities become stronger, and when more women take part in leadership, society becomes more inclusive.
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Falayajo also pointed to a South-South peer-learning mission to India in August that took members of the Women's Legislative Caucus to meet Indian parliamentarians, government institutions and women's organizations.
The discussions, she said, covered women's political representation and leadership, gender-responsive budgeting, digital inclusion and economic empowerment. Her main takeaway, she said, was that women should no longer be treated as recipients of assistance.
"Women must lead, make decisions and shape the development of their communities and countries," Falayajo said, calling the approach a shift from women's development to women-led development.
Attoh-Wreh said securing the funding took time, lobbying and sacrifice abroad. The ceremony drew county focal persons, community facilitators and representatives of the savings associations from all eight counties.
