KtK The Promotion of Women’s Empowerment and Rights in Liberia (POWER) Programme

The numbers for specific results will reflect 2022 reporting as that was the full year of implementation that KtK has reported against. 1. KtK contributes to a more effective, resilient, and visible womens movement in Liberia; Kvinna till Kvinna has continued to grow its partnerships to reach diversified groups and geographical areas. This also includes project support and collaborations to further highlight the work of the WROs and networks it works with through various collaborations and projects. There is also a focus on increased collaboration among partners to foster learning. In 2022, KtK's new partners underwent organisational assessments that will be repeated at projects end, while existing/ previous partners underwent project financial audits, spot checks and audit remedy follow up meetings. Kvinna till Kvinna held over 6 networking and partner meetings to lay the groundwork to undertake advocacy work at a local and national level . There were also several joint and individual capacity strengthening engagements in a number of different areas including financial management and administrative development, results-based management and PMEL training, as well as in report writing, gender transformative approaches, and Integrated Security training as many of the continue to face different types of threats being human rights defenders. In addition, KTK partner WONGOSOL, the umbrella organization for Liberian women's organizations, held a session for its network members on tax compliance which had been a huge barrier to women groups accessing donor funding and obtaining full legal status. Over 70 WONGOSOL network members attended a training held by the Liberia Revenue Authority on tax law and system. 2. KtKs partner organisations contribute to womens meaningful political participation at the local and national level; Partners working specifically in this objective include LIWEN, We4Self, RWRS at a community and county level and WONGOSOL at a national level. Partners working in WPP adapted their activities and 2023 action plans based on WPP mapping to lay the ground for a more strategic implementation ahead of the 2023 elections and reported an increase in the number of women occupying leadership positions at community and county levels. For example, Partners working specifically in this objective include LIWEN, We4Self, RWRS at a community and county level and WONGOSOL at a national level. RWRS facilitated 2 trainings for 250 women rights holders to gain skills to discuss and address sensitive issues, including restrictive social and gender norms as well as two dialogue sessions with local community leaders on GEWE. They report 40 women and young women ascended to leadership positions in the districts and communities in various positions, such as classroom teachers, town chiefs, general town chiefs, quarter chiefs, development chairpersons and representative of youth groups. They were also provided access to learning village saving and loan association methodology, groups and ndependent saving ideas, and management skills LIWEN conducted 2 training and dialogues sessions for 250 rights holders to improve their understanding of how to explore challenges faced by women when they aspire to participate in Politics and Governance, identify strategies for breaking the barriers and empowering women for effective participation describing the main barriers that prevent women from participating and goes on to identify ways of breaking those barriers and increasing womens participation in politics. At national level, WONGOSOL and 60 of its network members identified the current proliferation of substance abuse as linked to occurrences of GBV and elevated the advocacy for the passage of the Controlled Drug and substance Act. to the Women's Legislative Caucus. The Act was passed in June 2022. WONGOSOL also conducted four quarterly legislative engagements that increased advocacy and lobbying on the passage of the New Elections law, Section 4.5, along with the WLCL and other influential lawmakers, including Sen. Abraham Darius Dillion, who gave a commitment that supported the passage of both Bills from the level of the legislature LIWEN established and supported four local information centres in the project selected counties, spaces created for women to have a platform where women aspirants disseminate information. The centres serve to provide mass awareness as platforms to discuss support women leadership positions and decision making at the national and household levels. Womens forums, men champions, and girl club members and women aspirants are using the centres to advance the voices of women and girls for leadership positions. WE4SELF conducted two training sessions for 60 men to serve as champions in creating door-to-door awareness in 19 towns in Sinoe County on the importance of women in leadership, voter registration and the rights of women to vote and serve as political aspirants the upcoming elections. 3. KtKs partner organisations contribute to improved protection, prevention and response to Gender Based Violence creating a linkage to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights; WORIWA, WPWHDO, WONGOSOL and RWRS work towards realizing this outcome. Partner organisations supported women survivors of GBV with services such as psychosocial counselling, shelter, medical support, material, transportation and made referral to seek legal redress. WPWHDO uprovided accompaniment services to 26 GBV survivors (to hospitals and police and/or to one-stop centers operational and accessible) provide psychosocial support, offer temporary care and emergency support (transportation, food, clothing), and referrals to legal aid and/or further medical treatment if needed. RWRS was able to support 60 survivors with psychosocial counselling, shelter, facilitation of medical care, material, transportation and made referral to seek legal redress at the wish of the survivors/parents either through the traditional or the formal justice systems. WORIWA conducted two referral pathway training sessions for 88 rightsholders on the processes and procedures referral pathway this training was based on the need for more consistent state services to support GBV survivors comprehensively. To assist with legal redress against perpetrators, WORIWA engaged community dwellers to attend stakeholders dialogue from six communities in Grand Bassa. The participants included community leaders, representatives of peer watch clubs (PWC) and community rights committees. Local duty bearers such as government officials and opinion leaders in those locales also attended the four dialogues hosted. The dialogues sessions increased collaboration amongst residents and groups in the communities towards safeguarding the rights of women and girls and reducing the prevalence of SGBV. In the realm of prevention, WPWHDO used drama that depicted the different forms of violence against women and girls in homes and communities to enable community dwellers to understand the negative effect of violence against women. WORIWA conducted two sports tournaments to the promote peaceful co-existence and to also conduct awareness and sensitisation of SGBV/ SRHR to rightsholders in targeted communities. During the tournament placards/ flyers bearing SGBV/SRHR prevention and responses were shared to both the players and spectators. Partner organisations also engage men in the work to prevent GBV, for example the Male Action Group Against GBV (COMAGA-GBV) supported by WPWHDO. 4. KtKs partner organisations contribute to promoting womens economic empowerment in targeted locations. Partner organisations cumulatively supported 250 women organised in groups (VSLAs, small businesses or production of goods) to support their economic empowerment. WORIWA incorporated VSLA activities into their GBV protection communities for the 1st year in 2022 as an accompanying activity for GBV, 4 groups of 30 . WPWHDO established 4 VSLA of 25 members each in their project communities. The organization provided start-up kits and helped establish leadership management committees with a composition of chairpersons, record-keepers, box-keepers, and money counters who manage the affairs of the association. WE4SELF engaged with an expert in soap-making to train 60 women and girls in soap production. This training used a participatory approach of using locally available tools for measurements ensured that they women, even those who are illiterate can remember quantities, and building local customer relations. WPHDO also conducted a Bi-annual Women Economic Empowerment Dialogues for 75 persons (63 women and 12 men). The theme of the dialogues focused on womens right to access to finance and economic empowerment and the impact on domestic relationships According to the WPWHDO, knowledge and skills received during the dialogue session are aiding spouses peaceful coexistence among the targeted rightsholders, and the joint decision making at the household level improves mutual respect which subsequently has shown a decrease in domestic violence cases. Partners implementing pillar have anecdotally reported that when WEE activities are introduced into their communities using the Do-No-Harm approach, instances of domestic violence cases reported decrease.