NIMD Programme
Liberia
What we do
Over the past two decades, Liberia is progressively developing towards a well-functioning and vibrant multi-party democracy. Since 2005 when Ellen Johnson Sirleaf got elected as Liberia’s and Africa’s first female President, two peaceful transfers of power have occurred. However, despite democratic progress, the country still faces significant challenges such as corruption, weak institutions, and limited access to basic services for its citizens.
In spite of the active participation of women and youth at the local government level, there is a considerable gender gap in the legislature for both women and youth. Discounting the reserve seats, Liberia’s House of Representatives holds just 8 women, 11% of the total representatives. We find even fewer young parliamentarians in the bicameral legislature, even though three-quarters (74.6%) of the population is under 34 years of age – according to the 2022 national census.
In January 2024, NIMD started working in Liberia focusing on inclusive and accountable democracy. We are working with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Women to promote a more inclusive and accountable democracy in Liberia.
The main goal of the project is to strengthen the quality of democratic governance by promoting a more inclusive, participatory, and accountable democracy in Liberia. The project responds to the challenges that face democratic governance in the country including weak institutions, underrepresentation of youth and women in political processes, electoral system challenges, and marginalization of vulnerable groups. Specifically, NIMD is responsible for activities with political parties, civil society and the legislature aimed at increasing women and youth participation in decision-making and politics.
NIMD will support a variety of young women and men in political parties and civil society in developing an issue-based accountability trajectory linking young political actors from across the country and across political parties. Further, NIMD will support youth wings to be more responsive towards the needs of youth.
NIMD focuses on increasing parliamentary accountability and transparency by bringing citizens closer to their elected representatives. We support reforms to strengthen the functioning of parliamentary committees and the secretariat with regards to inclusive law-making and to improve public access to information on parliamentary activities and oversight of political accountability.
Further, NIMD will support political parties to strengthen their internal democracy, policies, and practices.
NIMD will facilitate a political actor dialogue within political parties and between parties, the National Election Commission, parliament and civil society on the increasingly polarized (and gendered) political discourse.
Meet the team
Who we work with
