INSIGHTS ON DEVELOPMENT: REBUILDING LIBERIA'S POST-CONFLICT ECONOMY TO WORK FOR WOMEN

These are three of the key recommendations contained in the policy brief that Molly Kinder and Emily Stanger, both Masters of Public Administration and International Development (MPA/ID) '08, handed Liberian President and graduation speaker, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, MPA '71, at their Kennedy School Graduation. Their brief is entitled, "Fulfilling President Sirleaf's Mandate: Ensuring Women their 'Proper Place' in Liberia's Economic Development." President Sirleaf valued their policy recommendations and used them as a cornerstone of progress in Liberia and disseminated the report to hundreds of policy makers in agencies throughout the country.

Emily and Molly had spent their previous summer in Liberia on a Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) Cultural Bridge Fellowship; Emily working with Minister of Gender and Development, Vabah Gayflor, and Molly working with the Minister of Finance, Antoinette Sayeh. They saw firsthand the implications of their work and recognized a need to better equip the women of Liberia with economic freedom to ensure the country's abecedarian security. 

In their joint Second Year Policy Analysis (SYPA), "Fulfilling President Sirleaf's Mandate: Ensuring Women their 'Proper Place' in Liberia's Economic Development," Emily and Molly present ways to maintain Liberia's security by economically empowering the women of the country.  It includes their policy recommendations developed from technical and theoretical classroom training combined with on-the-ground experience they received in Liberia.

Their first recommendation is to prioritize the construction of farm-to-market and rural access roads.  They state, "Across the rural areas, Liberians must travel an average of three hours to reach food markets. Women conduct 85 percent of agricultural marketing and trading, and thus bear much of the burden of inadequate roads and transportation infrastructure." Infrastructure is a challenge in many parts of the world, however in Liberia, it proves to be the primary constraint, preventing rural women from selling their goods at market.

Their second recommendation is to meet the credit needs of urban women. "In urban areas, 75% of women are self-employed, yet less than 1% have access to formal credit and unable to support their business." Establishing a comprehensive micro-finance program would enable women to start and grow their entrepreneurial efforts, securing their financial independence.

Their third recommendation is to enable women to move into more productive, non-traditional, emerging sectors. In the medium to long term, diversifying Liberia's industries to include labor-intensive downstream processed products, other manufacturers, and services including horticulture, jewelry making, garments, and toys, would grow the number of jobs available to women. Emily and Molly do caution that with this investment, "it is not advisable for the government to attempt to stimulate these industries through the creation of an Export Processing Zone (EPZ), as they've had little prior success in Africa, and would be administratively and fiscally infeasible for Liberia."

Their paper won the Jane Mansbridge Research Award, an honor that WAPPP awards to the best research paper analyzing an organization or topic related to gender and public policy. A version was also published in the 2008 Women's Policy Journal of Harvard.

After graduation, Molly continued working for policy change by joining the Clinton Global Initiative as the Deputy Chair for Poverty Alleviation. Emily received a prestigious Liberian fellowship and returned to the Liberian Gender Ministry to continue her and Molly's work, implementing their recommendations. 

If you would like to read Emily and Molly's policy brief, please click here:

Cultural Bridge Fellowships are made possible through the generous support of the Nancy Germeshausen Klavans Foundation and the Dockser Family Foundation.

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