MONROVIA – A one-day interactive symposium to discuss the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the world, including Liberia, has featured high the empowerment of Liberian girls during discussions from various panelists and other speakers.
The day’s event, organized by the Swedish Institute Alumni Network-Liberia (SIANL) as part of their pre-launching ceremony, brought together at least 80 students from 15 schools. Most of the students were teenaged girls, who are in high school. The ceremony was held under the theme, “Promoting Girls’ Empowerment to Achieve Gender Equality.”
Giving the overview of the program, Mr. Calixte Hessou, Acting Chairman, SIANL, expressed their gratitude to the Government and people of Sweden for providing educational opportunities for Liberians to go and study in their country on gratis.
“The Swedish Institute has provided scholarship to several Liberians who have studied at various universities in Sweden. Just in August this year, four Liberians left to pursue their Master’s degree programs in various disciplines in Sweden,” he stated.
At the pre-launch, at least five Liberian males, who are members of the SIANL and have studied in Sweden, came forward to express their gratefulness. They referred to it as pre-launch as their network hasn’t obtained the required number of persons to be admitted in the global network of SI alumni.
“The opportunity is still available,” Hessou told the students, some of whom might be out of high school in a few months. He further said their presence showed the Scandinavian nation’s immense contribution to global development, including the SDGs.
According to Hessou, while their overall goal as SI alumni, is to the foster the ambition and reputation of Sweden in Liberia, they also aimed at increasing the number of Liberians, who might be willing to go to study in that country. “When I was there, I was the only Liberian while scholarship students from other countries were more,” he added.
As part of their pre-launch, the program also had another focus on SDGs’ portions which deal with gender equality and girl empowerment.
On the symposium, Hessou indicated it was intended to educate students on the importance of the SDGs. However, among the total 17 goals, only goals three, four and five featured prominently. The three goals speak about ‘good health and well-being; quality education; and gender equality,’ respectively.
“While we are focusing on those three goals, we, however, want to introduce you high school students to the overall 17 goals,” he added.
Four panelists, including Mr. Blamo Nimle, executive director, Sustainable Development Network Liberia, talked about the SDGs and his audience. Another speaker, Ms. Patricia Jallah-Scott, the UNFPA-Liberia Gender Program Officer, spoke on quality education, good health and gender quality: Foundation for the SDGs. Ms. Tennen B. Dalieh, another of the speakers, talked about the importance of women’s participation in the development of Liberia; while the Ambassador of Sweden to Liberia, Ambassador Ingrid Wetterqvist, touched on her country’s priorities in the UN.
Speaking further, Amb. Wetterqvist praised Liberia for joining other nations for voting for her country when it campaigned in 2015/16 to be voted as one of the Non-Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council, which has five permanent members.
“As a member of the Security Council, we made a Statement of Intend or what we intended to drive as our agenda. First of all, this coincided with a government which is a Social-Democratic Government in coalition with the Green Party, so it is leaning toward the Left.”
According to her, on the second day, of the government sitting, it launched a ‘Feminist Foreign Policy,” which emphasizes equality between women and men as its fundamental aim.
Among other things, Amb. Wetterqvist encouraged the students to take advantage of the scholarships offer by her country; adding: “hopefully, I can be the one to sign your papers for you to go and further studies in Sweden.”