Liberia: American Jewish World Service and Liberia Feminist Forum Train Over 30 on Climate Justice and Women’s Rights Advocacy
Buchanan – The American Jewish World Service through its implementing partner, the Liberia Feminist Forum has climaxed a two-day intensive training for over 30 persons in Grand Bassa County on climate justice and women rights advocacy.
By: Blamo N. Toe, contributing Writer
The AJWS projected implemented by the LFF held two training sessions as the final convening brought together participants from five of the 15 counties in Liberia.
The workshop began on Friday, June 14 and officially climaxed Saturday, June 15, 2024 with a total of 35 participants from Margibi, Nimba, Bong, Montserrado Counties respectively, as well as the host county – Grand Bassa.
Started full operations in 2014 with 40 women implementing a series of its projects, the Liberia Feminist Forum is a conglomerate of diverse groups of feminists dominantly women who prioritize and advocate for women rights, including climate justice in the country.
The group’s motto is “Creating Safe Space, Building Feminist Movement” and has its head office in Manda Kaba District, Bends Town; Lower Margibi County.
Giving the objectives of the training, the acting Secretarial Lead of the Liberia Feminist Forum, Madam Joyce Nagbe stressed that the event was intended to expose participants to feminist root cause analysis, enabling them to identify and address the underlying causes of gender inequality and related social issues.
She added that it provides participants with a comprehensive understanding of feminist macroeconomics in the context of extractive industries, with a focus on the impact on low-income countries in the Global South.
“It fosters an understanding of climate justice and its implications for rural communities’ livelihoods, particularly in relation to the climate crisis,” Madam Nagbe averred.
According to him, the workshop aimed at equipping participants with strategies to counter concessions and prevent the exploitation of natural resources as the sole means of local community development.
“This training introduces participants to alternative economic and agriculture systems that are ecologically sound, sustainable, and socially just,” the acting Secretarial Lead of the Liberia Feminist Forum emphasized.
Also providing the summary of the event, Madam Nagbe said the training was designed to develop and deliver an integrated curriculum.
According to her, the integrated curriculum exposes partners to feminist root cause analysis, understanding feminist macroeconomics from the perspective of extractive industries and the impact it has on low-income countries in the Global South.
“This curriculum is also meant to promote an understanding of climate justice and the impacts of the climate crisis on rural communities’ livelihoods, strategies for countering concessions and extraction/exploitation of natural resources as the only source of developing local communities,” she said.
Madam Nagbe further indicated that the outcome promises to provide alternative economic and agricultural systems that are ecologically sound and sustainable.
The acting Secretarial Lead of the Liberia Feminist Forum highlighted the sharing of and discussing case studies – drawing from examples of partners’ own work, and on external examples.
“This will provide support to partners to help them develop strategies that support community empowerment and grassroots-led social change in the climate justice arena as well as coaching, mentoring, and follow-ups for accompaniment on programming,” Madam Nagbe noted.
She however commended the implementing partners of Liberia Feminist Forum, the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) and DEN-L for their support in championing climate justice and women rights advocacy in the country.
The training targeted partners of AJWS include the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI)/Margibi-National Level Organization, Community Land Protection Program (CLPP), and Forest Governance Program (FGP).
Others are the Community Rights and Corporate Governance Program (CRCGP), Rural Integrated Community Center for Empowerment (RICCE)/Sanniquellie, Community Empowerment for Change (CEC)/Buchanan, New Narrative Liberia (NNL)/Monrovia, and Jogbahn Land Protection Organization (JLPO)/Grand Bassa District #4-Grassroots.
