By Francis G. Boayue, Intern
Monrovia – Girls Alliance for Future Leadership, a young women advocacy group aimed at supporting women’s participation in politic, has launched its 18+1 Action Committee campaign.
The campaign is intended to support young women in politics ahead of the 2023 presidential and general elections.
The International Day of the Girl Child was declared by the United Nations on October 11, 2011, and since then it has been celebrated every year on October 11 to promote and empower girls. The theme this year is “Digital Generation Our Generation,” Every year October 11, as International day of the Girls Child
On Monday, at the headquarters of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), the Girls Alliance for Future Leadership launched its 18+1 Action Committee in commemoration of the International Day of a Girl Child.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Kadiatu Bah, Advocacy Officer, said instead of hosting a formal program to celebrate the International Day of the Girl Child, the group decided to commemorate the day with a press conference to launch its 18+ Action Committee and to express “their disenchantment about ways women have been downplayed by their Male counterparts in the Legislature and Executive branches of government”.
Ms. Bah said when Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the first woman to be elected President of Liberia, it was by every indication a significant achievement for women not only in Liberia but across the globe. And it got better following the election of the first female Vice President in Madam Jewel Howard Taylor.
Despite all these achievements in the past decade and half, she said Liberian women are still marginalized by their male counterparts in government; nothing, “On most occasions, issues that favors women in the Legislature get killed in committee rooms or defeated on the floor.”
Currently, there are just seven female lawmakers among the current 98 members of the 54th Legislature. She said since numbers are the center piece of democratic maneuvers in every democracy, women have to step-up to vote women in 2023.
“Today, we announce 18+1 Action Committee for the 2023 presidential and general elections,” she declared.
Meanwhile, the group has called on the government to make national the Identification Cards free of charge for all Girls that will turn 18years between now and 2023.
According to Bah, free national identity cards should be a right for all young people between the ages of 18 and 25.
The group also called on the government to provide all young people between the ages of 18 and 25 free National I.D card, birth certificates and every paperwork associated with getting a national identification card.