Ganta, Nimba County – Dr. Mary Okumu, UN Women Country Director of Sierra Leone, says creating safe, respectful, inclusive supportive environment must be prioritized in all organizations and institutions across Liberia.
Report by Bettie K. Johnson-Mbayo,
She is one of the facilitators at a four-day training ongoing in Ganta, Nimba County for government staffs and women in civil societies held under the theme transformative leadership for gender equality and women’s rights.
The training seeks to build commitment, capacity, and confidence of senior managers and decision-makers to lead for gender equality.
It also expects to strengthen participants use of gender-inclusive, transformative leadership practice in organizational settings.
Accordingly, the training will deepen participants understanding about ways that feminist principle and practice and a global agreement to gender equality and enable attendees to identify institutional biases and ways to address them.
Managers will be able to understand how their power and privilege can transform to be positive for women’s rights and gender equality.
Said Madam Okumu: “The training is structured with the objectives of generating a deeper knowledge and understanding about transformative leadership and how transformative leadership can advance gender equality goals in any given context”
Augustine Kemokai of National Disaster Management promised to encourage his agency to prioritize gender equality at every level including women participation in every aspect of decision making.
Dorothy Kwennah Tooman, Former Executive Director of Development Educational network of Liberia (DEN-L), said acquiring more skills and knowledge will help her be a better future leader, while expressing optimism that the training will bring a unique value to what she already knows.
Said Dorothy: “In most institutions and in government, the numbers of women’s participation is low. There needs to be more done to break the gap.”
The barriers are cultural, but there needs to be a support system to help improve gender equality, she said.