Danida-SP-ToC9-Liberia

Following the end to civil wars in 2003, consolidation of the peace process in Liberia was initiated with the 2005 election of Africa’s First Female Elected President, Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. New National Presidential and Representative Elections are scheduled for October 2017 and subsequent political transition is critical for sustaining development and peace. Despite the gains, Liberia is still engulfed with enormous social and economic challenges as poverty is evasive (177 on the Human Development Index 2016) with high unemployment and dysfunctional public services. Only 2.8% of GDP was allocated to education; 30% of the population has no formal education and another 30% have had only primary education. The impact of the Ebola epidemic still affects the social, demographic and financial development. These challenges are compounded by a large uneducated, untrained and ill prepared youth population, which makes up more than 65%. The programme in Liberia is strategically aligned with the Oxfam Country Strategy, the design of which involved consultation with key local partners. It is designed to respond to critical contextual national developmental issues. Over the next four years, Oxfam IBIS will focus on women and youth as active citizens and pursue an intersectional approach to building social movements. Taking into account the fragility of the country (27 on Fragile States Index), the programme will furthermore apply a continuous enforcement of resilience building. Long term goal: Sustained growth and lasting peace in Liberia is consolidated as a result of an educated and productive population, actively engaged in sustaining democracy. This will ultimately contribute to achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 1, 4, 5, 10 and 16 as well as work with youth as one of the main stakeholder groups.Oxfam will ensure that the change goals remain one integrated programme, people-centred, movement centred, and recognizing people’s multiple identities that overlap and intersect. One programme include the dynamic and interlinkages arising from the focus on (i) building movements; (ii) engage in transformative education and (iii) support livelihoods to advance equity and to realise emerging potentials among vulnerable groups, youth and women in particular. A focus on movement-building based on women and youth’s rights and perspectives entails that Oxfam in Liberia: • Put women’s rights and youth rights at the heart of our work • Strengthen the role as a catalyst and mediator, nationally and regionally • Support the visibility of civil society’s achievements • Ensure ownership of results by civil society • Strengthen programmatic quality, knowledge building and management as well as accountability for and to partners Overall objective: in 2021, Liberian women, female and male youth and men create an equal, sustained, representative and equitable dialogue with key stakeholders and the State on strategies to redress inequalities, which contributes to reducing poverty.