Liberia: UN Women, Orange Foundation’s Digital Inclusion for Women’s Economic Empowerment (D4WEE) Project Set to Become a Game Changer for Women
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UN Women Liberia and Orange Foundation Liberia are in a strategic alliance to adopt innovative approaches for the enhancement of gender equality, particularly around the Buy from Women Initiative and the Women’s Digital Center in Bong County.
The 21 months’ project intervention, which runs from April 2022 to December 2023, is being implemented in Lofa, Bong, and Nimba Counties. Partners include UN Women Liberia, Orange Foundation Liberia, Ministries of Gender, Agriculture, Mines and Energy as well as the Cooperative Development Agency, and the National Disaster Management Authority.
UN Women Liberia’s WEE Programme Manager, Ramon Garway, said our collaboration with UN Women is a clear pathway for the enhancement of women’s access to three innovative areas. “UN Women’s partnership with Orange will provide sustainable support to women in improving access to markets and learning opportunities through consolidation and scale up of the Buy from Women Initiative; improving access to disaster risk reduction, risk transfer, and finance by enhancing the scope to include mobile-enabled disaster, health and life insurance; and improving access to energy for household and productive purposes, including through PAYGO solar asset financing and strengthening women’s skills in the energy sector in Liberia,” he said.
According to Mr. Garway, project implementation is progressing well. The digital school initiative for 14 schools has been completed with three more in the pipeline. Phase Two of the Training of Trainers (TOT) session, under the Orange Digital School Initiative (ODSI), has ended in Monrovia with 20 teachers from 10 schools participating.
The ODSI programme provides selected schools in Montserrado, Margibi, and Grand Bassa Counties digital teaching and learning materials comprising laptops, server, and tablets. The digital kits are providing students access to educational contents in math, science, and English in targeted schools to improve the teaching materials available to the teachers.
Additionally, basic business skills trainings are ongoing for cooperatives in collaboration with Cooperative Development Agency, the government agency responsible for the development and registration of farming cooperatives in Liberia, while the women digital centre programme is nearing completion.
The D4WEE project is a potential game changer for women’s economic empowerment in Liberia. At the project’s inception meeting in mid-June, stakeholders watched the demo presentation on one of the innovative digital platforms, the ‘Buy from Women Initiative’ that aims to provide women-led businesses with new market access opportunities, various information, weather alerts and digital financial services to improve productivity and income.
Orange Foundation Liberia Executive Director, Ms. Sarah Buchanan, graced the stakeholders’ consultation meeting and urged participants to work together to achieve more. “We need to ensure that Liberian women have access to technology and are able to use this tool to make themselves better and improve their lifestyles,” said Ms. Buchanan.