AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS WENDY CUNNINGHAM SARIKA GUPTA SARA JOHANSSON DE SILVA AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS © 2023 The World Bank Group 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433 Telephone: 202-473-1000; Internet: www.worldbank.org This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank Group. “The World Bank Group” refers to the legally separate organizations of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). 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Report and cover design: Melina Yingling, The World Bank Group AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS WENDY CUNNINGHAM SARIKA GUPTA SARA JOHANSSON DE SILVA ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection (MGCSP) for their support of this work. In addition, a special thanks is extended to Farima Alidadi and Natalie Smith for research and writing assistance. This report greatly benefitted from feedback and technical inputs from several World Bank colleagues working across various sectors in Liberia, including: Noel Chisaka, Elwyn Davies, Martin Elias De Simone, Oni Lusk-Stover, Alari Hasanatu Ijileyoh Mahdi, Michael Christian Mahrt, Eric D. Manes, Binta Beatrice Massaquoi, Opope Oyaka Tshivuila Matala, Mack Capehart Mulbah, Steisianasari Mileiva, Tanangachi Ngwira, Anthony Theophilus Seddoh, Victoria Strokova, Kiyotaka Tanaka, Janssen Edelweiss Nunes Teixeira, Louise Twining-Ward, and Siegfried Zottel. Carine Clert and Emily Weedon served as peer reviewers for this report, and Khwima Nthara, Iffath Sharif, Dhushyanth Raju, and Camilla Holmemo provided invaluable guidance and support throughout the task. CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY....................................................................................................... 2 Women’s Achievements and Outcomes Lag Behind Those of Men Across Many Domains of Life...............................................................................................................................4 Empowerment Factors Are Partly Responsible for the Observed Gender Gap............................7 Context: social norms and formal and informal laws.................................................................7 Resources: human capital, financial capital, public services, and information....................9 Agency: setting goals, having a plan, and acting to implement the plan.............................10 Interventions to Address Context, Agency, and Resources Are Needed to Close Gender Gaps in Liberia....................................................................................................... 13 Shifting context to enhance the perception of women’s and girls’ value............................13 Resources to alleviate constraints and raise investments in women and girls...................14 Agency for goal-setting and proactivity in reaching those goals...........................................16 Conclusion: a balanced empowerment framework to guide interventions.........................17 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................. 20 A Women and Girls’ Empowerment Approach to Frame the Analysis........................................ 22 Liberia: Country Overview................................................................................................................. 24 Report Methodology, Main Findings, and Organization............................................................... 25 CHAPTER 2. HEALTH AND GENDER................................................................................. 28 Outcomes: Liberian Women’s Health Outcomes Have Improved, but Challenges Persist...... 28 Pillars of Empowerment: Context, Resources, and Agency Contribute to Liberia Women’s Poor Health Outcomes...................................................................................................... 26 Context: social norms and institutions perpetuate women’s health vulnerabilities...........36 Resources: prices, provision, quality, and access to services, as well as scarce information, limit prevention of, or care in, women’s health-related outcomes..................42 Agency: women’s health-related decisions are often made by family members...............44 CHAPTER 3. EDUCATION AND GENDER......................................................................... 50 Outcomes: Although Learning and School Attendance Rates Are Low in Liberia, the Gender Gaps Are Small, in Contrast to Gaps Observed in Adults........................................ 51 Learning outcomes are generally low in Liberia, and gender gaps emerge among older cohorts...........................................................................................................................55 Pillars of Empowerment: Girls Have Defined Education Goals, but Social Norms, Weak Institutions, Poverty, and Poor Infrastructure Impede Realization of Those Goals................... 56 Context: Social norms in the household and in schools combined with weak institutional protections make schooling a lower priority for girls than boys......................57 Resources: household poverty and poor or absent school infrastructure discourage girls’ school attendance...............................................................................................62 Agency: girls have defined educational goals despite constraints they face in reaching them..................................................................................................................................65 Concluding remarks: closing the education gap.........................................................................66 CHAPTER 4: LABOR AND GENDER................................................................................... 68 Outcomes: Women Have High Rates of Employment in Low-Quality Jobs................................ 68 Pillars of Empowerment: All Three Pillars Limit Women’s Success in the Labor Market......... 75 Context: Factors at the societal, institutional, and household level limit women’s economic opportunities.....................................................................................................................75 Resources: lower levels of human, physical, and social capital hinder women’s economic potential, as compared to men’s..................................................................................79 Agency: women identify ambitious career goals but face challenges in reaching these goals............................................................................................................................................81 Concluding remarks—closing the earnings and jobs gap........................................................84 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS.............................. 86 Context: strong social norms and weak formal institutions limit women’s ability to improve their health, education, and economic outcomes.................................................87 Resources: low accumulation of human and financial capital, poorly functioning public infrastructure and services, and lack of information hinder women’s progress more than men’s..................................................................................................................................88 Agency: women have defined goals and aspirations but feel hindered by internal and external factors, leading them to pursue more modest activities..................................89 What Interventions Are Needed to Address Gender Gaps in Liberia?........................................ 90 Context: shift norms and legislation to intentionally support women’s access to health, education, and productive work...................................................................................91 Resources: facilitate access to more time, skills, and assets...................................................93 Agency: provide training and role models to build aspirations and strengthen goal setting......................................................................................................................97 Implementation Commitments.........................................................................................................99 REFERENCES........................................................................................................................ 101 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Advancing gender equality by strengthening women’s empowerment is essential for improving development outcomes in Liberia. This report draws on existing literature and data review, as well as new qualitative evidence collected in Liberia.1 It shows that despite some progress, significant gender gaps still hold back the individual well-being of half of the population. Although abject poverty is part of the story, formal and informal institutions that shift the balance of decision-making power and access to resources away from women also disempower. Eliminating institutional and resource constraints and strengthening women’s ability to make choices to improve their lives can leverage women’s skills and talents and enhance their contributions to a more prosperous and sustainable Liberia. Closing gender gaps is not only a core development objective but also smart economics for Liberia.2 To estimate the “Gender Dividend,” a macrosimulation model can calculate the value of the economic contributions of women and the societal costs incurred by excluding them from reaching their maximum potential.3 Using data from Liberia, the model estimates that 34.8 percent of economic activity, measured by the aggregate output of labor and including contributions that are made from undertaking unpaid and informal work, can be attributed to women. The model can also predict the potential economic contributions that women would be able to make if there were equality of opportunity and capability by gender (a closure of gender gaps) across a range of key factors that have been identified as inputs to economic growth and productivity, including educational attainment, labor force participation, and wages. The findings from this analysis indicate that maximizing the potential of women through closure of gender gaps would increase women’s contribution to economic activity to 53 percent and increase 1. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 2. World Bank 2011. 3. Cunningham et al. 2021. 3 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Liberia’s gross domestic product (GDP) by up to 30 percent.4 Based on this data, this report takes as a starting point that investing in women and girls will come with high returns in Liberia. The question is which gender gaps are constraining women’s contributions and how enhancing women’s empowerment can contribute to closing those gaps. This report is grounded in the concepts underlying women’s and girls’ empowerment—namely, a process whereby women and girls who have been denied the ability to make choices and realize them acquire such an ability. This conceptualization of empowerment follows Sen (1985) and Kabeer (1999) in focusing on giving individuals the capabilities to choose and pursue the life they prefer. In the context of gender equality, empowering women thus involves addressing and eliminating the inequities in women’s and men’s ability to make and realize their own life choices.5 The analysis is focused on identifying the constraints Liberian women face in achieving better outcomes in education, health, and productive employment, through the lens of the three pillars of empowerment: context, resources, and agency (figure E1). Context refers to the social norms and formal or informal institutions that enable or limit choice and affect the distribution of resources. Resources include the material, human, and social resources that enhance the ability to make decisions and act to realize those decisions. Agency refers to an individual’s capacity to take the tools at her or his disposal and actively make—and follow through with—her choices. When the three pillars come together, women’s achievements (outcomes) are enhanced. FIGURE 1 Three Pillars of Empowerment: Context, Resources, Agency Achievements/Outcomes (e.g. increased educational attainment, higher wages, longer life expectancy, reduced fertility) CONTEXT RESOURCES AGENCY 1. Formal/Informal Institution 5. Financial and Physical Capital 9. Goal-Setting 2. Statutory/Customary Laws 6. Human Capital 10. Sense of Agency 3. Customs and Norms 7. Social Capital 11. Mobilization to Act on Goals 4. Relationships 8. Information SOURCE: Authors, based on Cunningham and Gupta (2022) 4. Ibid. 5. Cunningham and Gupta (2022). EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 WOMEN’S ACHIEVEMENTS AND OUTCOMES LAG THOSE OF MEN ACROSS MANY DOMAINS OF LIFE Liberia has made important strides in reducing gender gaps and improving the situation for girls and women. In 2006, Liberia elected Africa’s first female head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, setting a role model for Liberian and African women. The government has put in place the legal basis to foster women’s rights in the workplace, guarantee equal land governance rights to men and women, and make education from grades 1 to 9 compulsory and tuition free, thereby including girls. Compared with 20 years ago, Liberian women have longer and generally healthier lives. The practice of female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM), while still an important concern, has been reduced by over half in the past 30 years, with approximately 28 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 19 having experienced FGM compared to 60 percent of women between the ages of 45 and 49.6 Access to schooling remains very limited for both girls and boys, but gender gaps in access to primary education have been erased.7 Liberian women place importance on education as a means of raising self-worth and opportunities, express their right to make decisions regarding their bodies and their resources, and aspire to fulfilling work opportunities.8 However, this report argues that women and girls are not reaching their full potential and, as a result, Liberia is not, either. Liberian women cope with very limited human capital and significant health vulnerabilities. They lack economic opportunities and assets to help them build prosperous lives and protect them against shocks. In part, poor outcomes for women reflect the pervasive poverty, inadequate access to health and education, high informality, and limited economic opportunities that affect both females and males in Liberia. However, girls and women remain even more vulnerable than boys and men, particularly concerning sexual and reproductive health and rights, access to post- primary education and productive employment, and their rights to manage assets and income. Health outcomes have improved in Liberia, but female health levels remain poor. A majority of girls ages 15 to 19 suffer from anemia,9 and 15 percent are undernourished.10 Maternal mortality ratios rank among the highest in the world, and maternal health care services have proven highly vulnerable to shocks—during the Ebola virus (EBV) outbreak, maternal mortality rates more than doubled, from an already very high level.11 Poor maternal health, evidenced in premature births or maternal infections, spills over into high infant and under-five child mortality rates as well. Compared to men, women are more affected by sexually transmitted infections,12 which remain one of the leading causes of death. 6. Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2019–2020. 7. Data retrieved from World Development Indicators (WDI). 8. Gupta et al. 2021. 9. LISGIS (Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services) 2020. The cited study did not provide comparable information for boys or men. 10. Murphy et al. 2016. 11. UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) 2019; World Bank 2019b. 12. Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS). 2020. A person who reports she would like to delay or prevent child bearing but is not using contraceptives is considered to have unmet needs. 5 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Thanks to concerted efforts, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence has fallen but remains more prevalent among females than males, including in the younger generations.13 Low levels of sexual and reproductive health have serious repercussions for women’s and children’s well-being. Girls and women are not able or allowed to adequately make decisions around their sexuality.14 Their family planning needs are often unmet, affecting both married and unmarried adolescent girls and women.15 Adolescent fertility rates remain high even when set against other low- income countries in the region.16 Teenage pregnancy is negatively associated with maternal and infant health and survival, educational achievements, and labor market opportunities. Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) still permeates Liberian society through domestic violence, rape, and abuse. Although the prevalence of female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) is receding, almost one in three adolescent girls (ages 15 to 19) have been subjected to this practice, and poor and rural women are particularly exposed.17 Two in five Liberian women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner, and even very young girls report having been exposed to sexual violence.18 Sex is not uncommonly requested as currency to access services and secure jobs. Gender gaps in primary school attendance and performance are small and reflect limited access for both girls and boys. Neither girls nor boys have access to sufficient schooling in Liberia, where a child can only expect to attend 4.2 years of school, the shortest school attendance in the world.19 Girls have the same (low) access to primary school as boys and even outperform boys in learning assessments at this level.20 The high prevalence of overage enrollment combined with high incidence of adolescent pregnancy, however, means that girls are vulnerable to very early and often irreversible school dropout. Moreover, because of inequities in the past, one out of every three adult women does not have any education at all, against one in eight adult men. Rural and poor women are largely illiterate.21 At post-primary levels—which few children reach—girls begin to lag behind boys in both access and performance. Gender gaps are small, set against the overarching problem of low transition rates into secondary school and overall low pass rates at junior secondary and senior secondary levels. Yet, it is only at secondary education levels and beyond that the wage premium related to education begins to noticeably increase, especially for women. Moreover, female students who do make it into secondary 13. Data retrieved from World Development Indicators (WDI). Refers to population ages 15 to 49. 14. Gupta et al. 2021. 15. LISGIS 2020. A person who reports she would like to delay or prevent child bearing but is not using contraceptives is considered to have unmet needs. 16. Data retrieved from Gender Statistics database. 17. LISGIS 2020. 18. UNDP 2019. 19. Among countries included in the World Bank’s Human Capital Index (HCI). 20. Data retrieved from WDI. 21. LISGIS 2020. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6 education have a relatively high chance of completing at least lower secondary level, although less so than men, suggesting that supporting the transition from primary to secondary levels is critical.22 Women work in Liberia—they have to—but almost exclusively in low-productivity activities in agriculture or small-scale services, especially commerce. Female labor force participation and employment rates are high in Liberia, and the gap relative to men is small. Women, however, are much less likely than men to have access to wage jobs (less than one-third as likely), which tend to be better paid and offer more secure working conditions. Instead, some 90 percent of women work for themselves or their families. Almost all women (94 percent) are informally employed, compared to 79 percent of men. They are overwhelmingly concentrated in agriculture and in the nonfarm informal services sector.23 Within sectors, women are engaged in the lowest-productivity jobs. In agriculture, they are less likely than men to work with cash crops and participate in markets, and female-headed farming households are less diversified (more dependent on agriculture) but work on smaller plots.24 Women-managed enterprises in the nonfarm sector are smaller in size than male-managed enterprises and concentrated in informal low-value activities such as food preparation in the trade sector.25 COVID-19 has affected women’s health, education, and earning opportunities disproportionately. School closures, as well as higher poverty in more vulnerable households, have likely lowered both supply and demand for schooling, and there is some qualitative evidence that girls’ increased presence at home has resulted in more SGBV and teenage pregnancies.26 Access to antenatal and maternal care fell, due to social distancing rules, supply shortages, health worker shortages, and tighter financial constraints. The urban informal trade sector, where women work, has been especially hard hit by social distancing rules and reduced demand.27 22. Children in the first grade of lower secondary education who are expected to reach the last grade of lower secondary education. Data retrieved from Education Statistics database. 23. Estimates based on International Income Distribution Database (I2D2) harmonized data. 24. Johansson de Silva et al. Forthcoming. 25. Estimates based on International Income Distribution Database (I2D2) harmonized data. 26. Throughout the report, findings and direct citations from focus group discussions/qualitative evidence are from Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 27. Johansson de Silva et al. Forthcoming. 7 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS EMPOWERMENT FACTORS ARE PARTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE OBSERVED GENDER GAP Obstacles to women living healthy, productive, and fulfilling lives are linked to constraints that can be classified under the three pillars of empowerment: context, resources, and agency. Context: social norms, formal and informal laws Strong social norms affirm the role of women as caretakers, men as income earners, and women as the property of their husbands. Girls and women are expected to assume responsibilities for household activities (as caretakers, cooks, water and fuel collectors, and so forth), which limits time for education, training, or more productive employment outside of the household. Norms influence the choice of occupations available to women, and where they can be undertaken. Customary law and tradition are dismissive of women’s ownership of land despite statutory provision of these rights. Social norms place significant pressure on men as family providers and may contribute to underinvestment in girls’ education. Focus group discussions show that whereas women largely believe they have the right to control their own resources, many men are not supportive of this view.28 I'm saying the men…because the woman is not the owner of herself. Is the man that own her. As soon as she goes into the house of the man. Because the man is to tell her whatever thing that he wants and if he need it, the woman should be able to agree with him…That is to say you have paid her dowry, and she need to work for you. Male Focus Group Discussion Participant (aged 18-24) These norms carry over to women’s rights to make choices with respect to their own bodies and health. Unmarried women risk facing community censure when seeking services related to sexual health. Married women are expected to make health decisions jointly with husbands or defer decisions to husbands—especially in the case of family planning. The set of norms that allocate decisions over household resources to men reinforce these patterns. 29 28. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 29. Ibid. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 8 What I think about it… the man should be the final say; the man should have the final say because he's controlling that house, maybe…the man want child from you, and then you saying that let's use condom, and then the man saying I want a child so we can't use condom…that’s his responsibility, he got the right to tell you say ‘no we shouldn't use condom’ and right there as a woman you should obey by that man, because he's the household for that house. Female Focus Group Participant (aged 18-24) The normalization of physical violence and sexual harassment and abuse – at home, in public spheres, in school, and in the workplace – continues to be an overarching threat to female empowerment in Liberia. Community tolerance of men’s physical abuse of their partners when displeased with their behavior discourages reporting and persecution of violators.30 Pressures to perform sexual favors – for grades, employment or access to public services- restricts women’s opportunities and subjects them to dangerous health threats in the form of sexual violence and sexually transmitted diseases.31 Permissive and even encouraging attitudes towards child marriage and adolescent pregnancy in Liberia in combination with household dynamics that tilt decision making power away from women not only threatens the health of young mothers and their children, but also reduces education opportunities as pregnant girls drop out of school, and limits work opportunities due to the multiple responsibilities. However, while participants in focus group discussions described violence against women as commonplace, few participants believed that such violence was socially acceptable, citing it as a change from the past, when the use of violence, especially rape, was more widely accepted.32 Liberia has taken important steps to strengthen legal frameworks in support of women, but gaps remain in women’s rights, with parallel customary laws often reaching further than statutory laws. Equality in land rights and in the workplace are guaranteed under law but enforcement is difficult due to conflicting customary laws and traditions (land) or incomplete frameworks (workplace). Persistent cultural opposition against women’s land ownership and the practice of user rights over communal land favor men. Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) regulations are undermined by mis-alignment between customary and statutory laws and weak enforcement. Regulations relating to abortion are restrictive and contradictory, and in combination with unmet contraceptive needs, contributes to unsafe abortions. Importantly, women express less trust in the capacity of legal systems to protect them against injustices than men do.33 30. Ibid 31. Eldén et al. 2020; International Finance Corporation (IFC) 2014. 32. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 33. Ibid. 9 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Resources: human capital, financial capital, public services, and information The low levels of women’s human capital create a vicious circle of low-skill jobs, poverty traps, and further underinvestment in girls’ education. Liberian women’s weak education and health levels are reported as outcomes but also represent resources, the lack of which causes further vulnerability and exclusion. Poor health contributes to school dropout. Education and training are key determinants for accessing higher-earning jobs, whether as employees or entrepreneurs. Lack of assets, in particular land, together with pervasive poverty, hold back women’s investments in their health, education, and earning opportunities. Nonfee expenses such as material, clothing, or transport; tuition fees for secondary education; and high out-of-pocket expenditures for health care constrain access to education and health services.34 Lack of resources precludes investment in more productive entrepreneurial activities and contributes to harmful coping strategies, including transactional sex. Compared to men, women have much less access to land and other property, which can be used directly for economic activities or serve as collateral for credit.35 In focus group discussions, women expressed frustration with unfairness in resource access and the implications for their livelihoods and life choices.36 It is only boy child that can be value in the society that boy child will take care of his father property, so they denied us in so many things so they get power over us. Female Focus Group Participant (aged 18-24) It is not easy to do anything you, just have to struggle because you cannot just get up and say you will do business; how will you do the business? How will you sell without money? Female Focus Group Participant (aged 25-35) 34. Zebede and Shahid 2016. 35. World Bank 2007. 36. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 10 Low availability and quality of public services affects the quality of education and health services, especially for rural girls and women. Weak health infrastructure and a shortage of health care workers, made more acute during EBV, affect access to prenatal, delivery and post-delivery care. There is little or no support for survivors of SGBV, the majority of whom are women. There are very few female teachers at secondary levels of education.37 Dilapidated or unavailable physical infrastructure reduces women’s access to services and productive activities. Lack of road network increases direct costs and opportunity costs of attending school, reaching health facilities, or accessing markets, and lack of public transport increases the vulnerability of traveling girls and women. The lack of gender-appropriate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities at school affects women directly and indirectly by lowering school attendance and the quality of the learning environment for girls, and it indirectly increases their burden as family caretakers due to water-spread diseases such as cholera. Critical information gaps prevent women from making informed choices about their lives, including their bodies and careers. Women value knowledge, information, and education—in focus group discussions, women highlight how knowledge in the area of health helped them make good choices in terms of protecting their health and that of their families.38 However, many women lack access to critical information on rules and regulations that apply to their businesses or work, on their rights with respect to land or assets, on their options for improving their health, or on the payoff from different forms of education. Fewer women than men access mass media as an independent source of information, especially radio, which is the most widely used media in Liberia.39 Agency: setting goals, having a plan, and acting to implement the plan Liberian women express clear educational, career, and business goals but recognize that they have limited room to follow through on these aspirations. The qualitative evidence suggests that women do set goals, but that there can be large gaps between these goals and the reality they face.40 Hence, they opt for much less ambitious paths. In focus group discussions, many women expressed an interest in careers that would require higher levels of education, including careers in technical or professional occupations. Some women were working with the explicit goal of saving resources for pursuing education further. Women perceived that they had the ability and intrinsic right to set their own ambitions and act on education-career-entrepreneurial opportunities, and they emphasized the role of hard work and commitment to achieve those goals. However, they also recognized that their ability to act on those goals was constrained by lack of financial and other resources—including information— 37. World Bank 2018a. 38. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 39. Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2013. 40. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 11 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS and community norms. They therefore saw small-business activities such as selling goods or food items in the market as a more viable opportunity to meet the immediate need for cash to support their family. Well for me, I don't think that most women consider passion ... we are in it base[d] on the society that we are in right now. Most people are not like ... like opportune to follow their passion or to follow their dream. So, most people just go to the job that will bring [a] meal at the end of the day for them, and the job that will provide income for them to be able to support their family, that what I think. Female focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant Health choices, compared to education and career goals, appear more likely to be directly arbitrated, at least partly, by other people such as partners or parents. In focus group discussions regarding health, and especially family planning, women appeared less certain that they, as individuals, could or should make decisions regarding their health, including sexual and reproductive health, and many deferred to husbands or parents.41 At the same time, girls and women consider education critical to accomplishing their life goals, achieving independence, and even escaping traditional gender stereotypes, as school would help prove their capacity. I going to school, I know what I taking in class, and I know what I good at. So, if I good at English, when I further my education, I will do English. When I’m good at biology, when I go in the field, I’ll do science courses. So, my father, or my parents, they don’t have power over my education. What I want to do, what I want to become. I know what I want to do in the society. Female focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant 41. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 12 Agency in working life is limited by norms and lack of resources, leading women to opt out of certain occupations. Self-employment is largely considered a fallback option, reflecting lack of education, skills, resources, and time to follow up on ambitions. However, some women also opt out of work situations outside of home that they feel might expose them to sexual harassment, or that would lead their partners, family, or community to see them as “loose.”42 Evidence from Liberia and elsewhere even suggests that female economic empowerment may risk increasing SGBV, if shifting power balance within the household is seen as a threat by male partners. As entrepreneurs, women are expected to consult with their husbands on all decisions related to investment and purchases, whether they are sole managers of the household enterprise or not. At the same time, businesswomen largely reported making day-to-day decisions for their businesses on their own, and women overall perceived that they had the right to control their earnings. However, both limited agency and awareness of their own behavioral constraints appear to discourage women from seeking credit that they feel they will not be able to pay back. Hence, although the vast majority of women are de facto entrepreneurs, they largely lack the freedom and habit of taking risks related to business investment. Women are inspired by other, successful women. Women strive to become important individuals in their community, which may go some way toward explaining many women’s interest in pursuing nursing as a career, as expressed in focus group discussions. They look up to women who have “made it” further than they have, whether through attending educational institutions, crossing occupational gender barriers, or managing successful businesses.43 I have a friend, she was doing a construction work, helping men to go and build houses... I used to admire her, seriously, I use to admire her... You know for anything men do that women participate in, people can admire that woman. Female focus group (ages 18 to 24) discussion participant 42. Ibid. 43. Ibid. 13 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS INTERVENTIONS TO ADDRESS CONTEXT, AGENCY, AND RESOURCES ARE NEEDED TO CLOSE GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA The key for any government entity or development partner aiming to incorporate these recommendations into their program or project design is to work across all three pillars. Doing so will help ensure constraints women and girls face in achieving a particular goal are being holistically addressed, as each pillar of empowerment plays an equal and important role in shaping these outcomes. Shifting context to enhance the perception of women’s and girls’ value This entails shifting norms and legislation to support women’s access to health, education, and productive work. Engage in targeted sensitization campaigns to shift social norms about girls’ life paths. Liberia has experience in using sensitization campaigns to shift norms and behaviors, such as the Ebola Education Campaign carried out by the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Messengers of Peace. A similar sensitization campaign can be used to empower women and girls. Community-level campaigns should address, inter alia, norms that value boys’ school attendance over girls’, disproportionately allocate family chores to women and decision-making to men, encourage child marriage while simultaneously stigmatizing young mothers in school, withhold women’s rights to own assets, normalize SGBV, and stigmatize survivors and reporters of the same. Campaigns can take many forms—radio programs, community-generated videos, or edutainment approaches, where behavioral change is promoted through soap operas or other forms of entertainment. As mobile technology becomes more ubiquitous, regular text or short message service (SMS) messages can be used to communicate with target groups. Presenting women as role models in nontraditional positions—as leaders, business owners, or workers in nontraditional occupations—has been found to help change norms (while building women’s own agency).44 Involve community leaders and men to champion the change. Unsurprisingly, experience shows that dialogue with community/tribal leaders is essential for impact.45 Men—young fathers, partners— are also central, as they are the arbiters of women’s and girls’ decisions regarding health, education, and work and are the ones most at risk of committing violence, sexual or otherwise, against women. Interventions focusing on mentoring young fathers, in parallel with community awareness campaigns, have been shown to have a significant, long-term effect in reducing domestic violence.46 Female- focused interventions that involve partners in dialogue and trainings have also met with reduced violence and higher acceptance of decision-sharing.47 Continued democratic dialogue with established 44. Jensen 2010; Campos et al. 2011. 45. UN Women 2021. 46. Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH) and Save the Children, n.d. 47. Ibid. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 14 traditional and powerful structures, such as the Sande and Poro societies, will also be necessary to shift social norms in culturally acceptable ways. Strengthen the legal basis and enforcement for women’s rights and align statutory and customary laws. In spite of many advances, legal gray areas still exist. First, Liberia needs to institutionalize laws that have come close to being enacted but have not been, as of yet. The most pressing need is to put in place the legal basis for prohibiting the harmful practice of FGM/C, as well as underage marriage.48 Existing legislation regulating education and labor could go further by adding amendments that clearly articulate the definitions of and punishments associated with SGBV in schools and the workplace. Second, new emphasis must be put on designing laws that account for women’s and men’s gender roles. For example, because most women work in the informal sector, laws governing sexual harassment in the workplace, equal pay for equal work, and maternity protections may need to be designed and implemented through public safety, equity, and family law rather than the Decent Work Act or other labor law. Third, statutory and customary law should be harmonized. This may mean starting from the perspective of customary law and building statutory law on top of it.49 Finally, enforcement mechanisms must be revisited to ensure that they are timely, reliable, anonymous, and incentivizing good behaviors. Resources to alleviate constraints and raise investments in women and girls More resources will facilitate women’s access to more time, skills, assets, and information. Alleviate financial and time use constraints. Programs that relax financial constraints—through means such as cash, in-kind transfers, or subsidies—can increase access to education and employment opportunities for women and reduce teenage pregnancy rates. For example, the Ministry of Gender’s Social Cash Transfer (SCT) program provides unconditional mobile money to extremely poor households in Bomi and Maryland counties, prioritizing women as recipients. Programs such as this are needed on an ongoing basis and at a much larger scale in order to have sustainable impact. In designing such programs, careful attention should be given to intrahousehold dynamics, as evidence is less conclusive on how these programs impact time use (time allocated to domestic work) and domestic violence.50 Developing good quality institutional early childhood care and education programs can provide a solid human capital foundation for both girls and boys, while increasing opportunities for women to shift into more productive activities that may take then away from some of their childcare responsibilities. Adapting facilities and organization of classes to accommodate pregnant girls or young mothers attending school (for example, by providing flexible class schedules) and to avoid stigmatization can also prevent school dropouts. 48. The Children’s Act, perhaps the law most relevant to FGM, does not criminalize the practice. Even if it did, it is unclear how the law would be enforced, as the act does not provide any penalties for other forms of violations. 49. UN Women (2021) cites several studies that reflect on dialogue to bridge the gap between customary and statutory law; for example, Williams (2011) and Divon and Bøås (2017). 50. Chang et al. 2020. 15 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Raise investments in publicly provided human development services and, in particular, strengthen the human resources base. Liberia’s limited and externally dependent government resources need to be prioritized further toward human development sectors. Significant resources will be needed to replenish the persistent devastating losses from the EBV crisis and rapidly expand the number of skilled health workers, especially for maternal health, and for psychosocial support (for SGBV survivors). Increasing the number and skills of teachers, especially female, should likewise contribute to better outcomes. For example, the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) Plus program in Liberia, which helped teachers more effectively teach reading comprehension, raised learning gains for girls.51 Greater resources will need to be accompanied by accountability mechanisms to ensure the money is well spent, as well as to reduce spending inefficiencies that currently limit the return on investment. To ensure that new hires will provide quality services, it will be vital to promote a system of transparent meritocratic recruitment. This can be challenging due to entrenched practices for distributing public sector jobs, but clear rules and transparent processes can begin to shift the norms. Upgrade school, health, and transportation infrastructure to increase safety and health of women. Strengthening WASH infrastructure and providing sanitary products could both increase attendance and improve the conditions for learning for girls. Better road infrastructure and support for public or regulated private transportation systems would increase access to education and health facilities, as well as labor and product markets. Given the high incidence of women who depend on selling produce in open markets, providing safer means of transportation and supporting market structures with gender-specific WASH infrastructure would increase their access to productive opportunity. Developing standards and minimum qualifications for service delivery can help guide the assessment of where service delivery upgrades are needed and monitor ensuring developments. Implement comprehensive programs to support female employment and entrepreneurship. Interventions directed at nonfarm enterprises (NFEs) should focus on increasing productivity in female- owned NFEs. Research suggests that interventions should aim to be comprehensive, as poor women face multiple and binding constraints to increasing productivity, including lack of assets and credit, training, and information on markets.52 Labor-market relevant skills training for female students, job seekers, and business owners can increase employment access and raise earnings and profits. Along these lines, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Liberia Agency of Community Empowerment, through the Youth Opportunities Project (closed in 2022) and the Recovery of Economic Activity and Livelihoods for Informal Sector Employment Project (launched in 2022), have been providing not only cash grants to female entrepreneurs, but also basic business and financial management training and coaching on selecting appropriate business sectors in which to start their small businesses. Such programs are worth continued investment and expansion. In addition, new approaches focusing on personal motivation and aspirations, self-efficacy, networking, and other soft skills can have significant and strong effects on productivity and earnings, especially for very small enterprises. Finally, fostering 51. Piper and Korda Poole 2010. 52. Johansson de Silva et al. Forthcoming. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 16 credit products that circumvent high collateral requirements, such as psychometric credit scoring tools, can help “bank” women entrepreneurs. 53 Provide information about social issues and rights to raise women’s awareness. Targeted campaigns can close information gaps on both rights and opportunities and help women identify and exercise property or other rights. Depending on the kind of information, different channels can be used: it can be distributed in markets and community centers; through mass media such as radio; in contexts with higher privacy, such as girls and women’s “safe space” clubs; and via mobile technologies. Agency for goal-setting and proactivity in reaching those goals Offer soft-skills training to develop agency, as part of or independently of other forms of training or information activities. Entrepreneurship trainings that incorporate “psychosocial assets”—such as personal motivation, a growth-oriented mindset, and self-efficacy—can have very strong positive effects for a wide range of outcomes related to mental and physical health, education, and economic empowerment for both men and women.54 Business or other training programs aiming to increase employment and earnings have been more successful when strengthening aspirations and self- efficacy.55 These interventions already appear in multiple donor-funded programs to support income- generating activities; the challenge is to build them into the larger, permanent programs offered by the national and local governments. There is global evidence that these interventions, often with interactive modes and building on peer-to-peer activities and group commitment, succeeded in their ultimate objective to increase women’s agency: they successfully built self-affirmation, capacity for individual and collective goal-setting, and mobilization toward these goals. Incorporate peer learning, role models, and peer networks. Both skills and agency can be built with role models: women learn from and are inspired by other relatable women that successfully overcome gender stereotypes and/or break away from inhibiting social norms. For example, through the Gbowee Peace Foundation, professional women mentor young Liberian women in their career development. The effect of role models in increasing aspirations and motivation may sometimes be stronger than the actual skills transfer. Likewise, peer learning and peer networks help women build both collective and individual agency by fostering positive group dynamics and accountability mechanisms and increasing access to professional networks. For example, the Liberian Youth Opportunities Project supported small groups of young women in collectively launching small businesses. Provide life skills training, privacy, and peer learning to give women more control over their sexual health and rights. Girls’ or young women’s “safe clubs,” such as the GEEP (Gender Equitable Education 53. Arráiz, Bruhn, and Stucchi 2015. 54. Koczorowski (forthcoming); Anderson et al. 2016; Blattman and Dercon 2017; Bloom et al. 2018, 2010; Campos et al. 2017; Glaub et al. 2014; McKenzie and Puerto 2017. 55. Chang et al. 2020. 17 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Program) offered by the Ministry of Education with support from the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), provide a safe environment for girls to meet, socialize, privately discuss issues, acquire life skills, and receive information. These programs have helped girls acquire confidence in sharing their views among peers and family in addition to shifting attitudes, norms, and practices in communities.56 They have proven effective in achieving behavioral change in areas such as sexual and reproductive rights, where limiting social norms are very strong.57 Build in commitment mechanisms through program design. Mechanisms that require commitment and “lock-in” of actions help participants reduce the risk of present bias and thus build toward long- term goals. To contribute toward agency, women must make decisions regarding their own commitment and the rationale for the commitment, however. These programs help women overcome behavioral constraints. Political will, accompanied by gender-responsive planning and budgeting, are necessary conditions. Implementation of these policies is a whole-of-government responsibility. The Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection can design and lead a process. But real action at the level of individual ministries may follow the money. Although the Ministry of Finance and Development Policy developed a Gender-Responsive Planning and Budgeting Policy in 2019 to guide planning and budgeting for gender equality, efforts have been hindered due to a range of institutional factors and the absence of a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system to collect and analyze program performance, budgeting, and results data. These institutional factors will need to be addressed if the government of Liberia truly intends to provide support to empower Liberian women to fulfill their potential. Conclusion: a balanced empowerment framework to guide interventions How far could Liberia go if the potential of women could be fully harnessed? Liberian women are the bedrock of the Liberian economy and society: as politicians, microentrepreneurs, farmers, laborers, traders, main caretakers for their families, and more. They manage these feats despite constraints imposed by social norms and formal laws; lack of access to education, finance, and other resources; and often limited aspirations. Yet, they remain disadvantaged compared to men in many areas related to health, education, and economic activity, with significant negative repercussions on themselves, their families, and society as a whole. Addressing limitations will have a high pay-off not only for girls and women, but for Liberia as a whole. Interventions focusing on women’s empowerment need to go beyond traditional programming focused on providing resources. Closing resource gaps is essential but will not be possible without also adjusting legal frameworks, shifting norms toward supporting women’s value and independence, and assisting girls and women to set aspirational goals and act upon those. 56. Marcus et al. 2017. 57. Koczorowski (forthcoming). CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Advancing gender equality and strengthening female empowerment are not only a core development objective but also smart economics for Liberia. Women are already key players in Liberia’s economy. Liberia’s female labor force participation rate, which stood at 73 percent in 2016, is higher than or similar to the average rates for both Sub-Saharan Africa and its regional (West African) comparators.58 Liberian women play a particularly significant role in agriculture, producing approximately 60 percent of agricultural output in Liberia and accounting for more than half of the country’s crop farmers.59 They are also more likely than men to be self-employed in the informal urban trade sector and link rural and urban markets through informal networks, carrying out 80 percent of trading activities in rural areas. Liberian women have also shown significant agency in the political developments of Liberia, including through their involvement in the post-civil war peace process and in electing Liberia’s—and Africa’s— first female head of state. Yet, women are systematically disadvantaged relative to men and locked out of opportunities to contribute to, and benefit from, Liberia’s development. Despite recent progress in enrollment, girls in Liberia have very limited opportunities to accumulate human capital. At post-primary education levels (which few children reach), girls begin to lag behind boys in both access and performance. Anemia and malnutrition are pervasive, and women’s sexual and reproductive rights are severely curtailed. Sexual and gender-based violence remains frequent and widely accepted in many communities, and one in three adolescent girls has been subjected to FGM/C. Women have fewer physical assets than men: they own less land, receive less financial credit, and have less access to capital and technology. Their chances of improving their economic situation are held back by the fact that they are disproportionately 58. Johansson de Silva et al. 2021, forthcoming. 59. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) 2018. 21 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS crowded into low-productivity, low-value self-employment, especially in the agriculture and services sector, as well as by their limited rights to manage access and income. During the COVID-19 crisis, school closures, reduced antenatal and maternal health services, and higher poverty lowered human capital accumulation and increased girls’ vulnerability to SGBV. The strong negative impact of pandemic- related shutdowns on the urban informal sector significantly affected women’s earnings. The election of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf notwithstanding, women remain underrepresented in Liberian politics at both the national and local level and in the public60 and private spheres.61 Strengthening women’s ability to make choices to improve their lives and eliminating the institutional and resource constraints that create gaps between men’s and women’s well-being can leverage women’s skills and talents and enhance their contributions to a more prosperous and sustainable Liberia. A macrosimulation model of the Gender Dividend in Liberia indicates that women are already responsible for generating nearly 35 percent of Liberia’s GDP, through both paid and unpaid labor. The model also predicts that if there were equality of opportunity and capability by gender, the closure of key gender gaps would enable women to contribute to just over 50 percent of the Liberian economy and the country’s GDP would increase by up to 30 percent.62 In other words, limiting women’s growth and well-being also limits Liberia’s growth and well-being. This report contributes to existing knowledge on gender gaps and poor outcomes for women and girls in Liberia by systematically exploring the role that constrained women’s empowerment plays in explaining these gaps and by proposing policy approaches that can engender systemic social change needed to provide women with equal opportunity and choice as men. There is a considerable amount of research highlighting existing gender gaps for women, including a deeply researched and comprehensive recent report by UN Women (2021). However, few studies systematically explore the root causes of these weak outcomes in the context of a broader empowerment framework. This report briefly lays out gender gaps in three domains—health, education, and labor markets in Liberia—drawing from existing literature. However, most of the emphasis is on the empowerment factors that underpin the observed gaps and on how these factors can be fostered through policy interventions. The evidence and discussion in this report are structured around the three pillars of empowerment—context, resources, and agency—as conceptualized under the Women and Girls Empowerment Approach.63 60. The government has set a target of a 30 percent minimum representation of women at all levels of government, which it has yet to meet. During the 2005 elections, women accounted for only 14 percent of the 806 candidates nominated for election, despite comprising 50 percent of total registered voters. As a result, just five female senators were elected (out of 30), while only nine of 64 seats in the House of Representatives were won by women (FAO 2018). 61. In 2019, only 12.3 percent of seats in Parliament were held by Liberian women. Data retrieved from WDI database. 62. Cunningham et al. 2021. 63. Cunningham and Gupta (2022). INTRODUCTIOON 22 A WOMEN AND GIRLS’ EMPOWERMENT APPROACH TO FRAME THE ANALYSIS This assessment focuses on empowerment as a process whereby women and girls who have been denied the ability to make choices acquire such an ability. The conceptual framework adopted in this assessment is based on work by Kabeer (1999) and has been modified and augmented to incorporate relevant ideas and areas of intervention that have been highlighted in more recent conceptual frameworks (box 1). In the context of gender equality, empowering women thus involves addressing and eliminating the inequities in women’s and men’s ability to make their own life choices in different domains.64 This report explores the root causes of gender gaps and outcomes in the three domains identified in the World Bank Africa Region’s 4Es “framework”: health, education, and productive employment.65 The analysis is organized according to the three pillars underpinning a Women and Girls’ Empowerment Approach: context, resources, and agency (figure 1). The Women and Girls’ Empowerment Approach can be defined as an intervention design for achieving a particular outcome (for women) that addresses the fundamental constraints that prevent them from making choices and reaching their goals, grounded in the three pillars of empowerment. Context refers to the social norms and formal or informal institutions that enable or limit choice and affect the distribution of resources. This may include laws, social norms, and customary laws and practices.66 Resources include the material, human, and social resources that enhance the ability to make decisions and act to realize those decisions. Agency refers to an individual’s capacity to take the tools at her or his disposal and actively make—and follow through with—her choices. To achieve positive outcomes for women—such as improvements to their health, educational attainment, labor force integration and employment opportunities, and asset accumulation— potential interventions should consider constraints within each of the three empowerment pillars that may be preventing women from making their own choices and reaching their goals. 64. Ibid. 65. The World Bank’s Africa Region’s “4E framework” views women and girls’ empowerment through (1) Education, (2) Employment, (3) Enhanced access to health services, and (4) Enabling environments for women and girls’ empowerment. 66. As succinctly stated in UN Women (2021), Liberia’s “statutory and customary law and practices coexist and interact.” Customary law can be defined as “a set of mechanisms providing an alternative to the formal statutory justice system for different segments of the population, that can vary depending on the community’s religion, ethnic background, and geographical, social, and economic context.” Liberia’s constitution recognizes the reach of customary laws, especially in the “hinterlands.” For example, statutory SGBV legislation defines the age of consent as being 18, while customary law allows children as young as 16 to be married, making statutory age of consent legislation significantly less enforceable in cases involving children between the ages of 16 and 18. 23 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS FIGURE 1 Three Pillars of Empowerment: Context, Resources, Agency Achievements/Outcomes (e.g. increased educational attainment, higher wages, longer life expectancy, reduced fertility) CONTEXT RESOURCES AGENCY 1. Formal/Informal Institution 5. Financial and Physical Capital 9. Goal-Setting 2. Statutory/Customary Laws 6. Human Capital 10. Sense of Agency 3. Customs and Norms 7. Social Capital 11. Mobilization to Act on Goals 4. Relationships 8. Information SOURCE: Authors, based on Cunningham and Gupta (2022) BOX 1 Empowerment Approach in LIFE Following Kabeer (1999), the concept of empowerment is expressed by “a process by which those who have been denied the ability to make choices acquire such an ability.” In turn, this approach draws on the Capabilities Approach put forward in Sen (1985), which proposes that societies should strive to provide individuals with the capabilities to choose, promote, and achieve the type of life they value. Kabeer defines “resources” as being the preconditions that enable one to exercise choice, “agency” as the process of defining one’s goals and acting of them, and “achievements” as the outcomes resulting from one’s choices being implemented. These three concepts co-exist and reinforce each other. This framework used in this analysis has been modified and augmented by incorporating concepts from additional empowerment frameworks that have been developed in response to learning from operationalizing the empowerment concepts. These frameworks include the World Bank’s Africa Region’s 4Es, the World Bank’s 2011 Development Report, the World Bank Gender Strategy, and empowerment frameworks developed by the Gates Foundation and the International Center for Research on Women. The framework aims to group the intervention areas into three pillars based on the ways in which they enable choice and contribute to the empowerment process. Thus, “context” refers to the social norms and institutions in place that create an environment that enables choice. The “resources” pillar includes the material, human, and social resources that enhance one’s ability to exercise choice, such as financial capital and strong infrastructure. “Agency” refers to an individual’s capacity to take the tools at her or his disposal and actively make—and follow through with—her or his choices. And “outcomes” are the results of women’s context, agency, and resources coming together toward a goal in one (or several) domains of a woman’s or girl’s life. INTRODUCTIOON 24 LIBERIA: COUNTRY OVERVIEW Liberia is one of the world’s poorest countries. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita remains one of the lowest in the world and is two to three times lower than it was in 1960–1980 in real terms. While recovering from two devastating civil wars (1989–1996 and 1999–2003), Liberia has been subject to multiple shocks in the post-conflict era, including volatile international commodity prices, the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in 2013–2014, and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Poverty is pervasive: using the national poverty line, half the population (51 percent) was poor in 2016, with rural poverty reaching 71.6 percent. Nonmonetary poverty indicators also point to poor performance and high rural– urban disparities in access to health care, education, and public services. Liberia ranks the fourth lowest out of 174 countries and territories in the World Bank’s Human Capital Index 2020. Liberia has a young and growing population. Liberia’s population has increased by 34 percent in the past decade (compared to an average of 12 percent for low- and middle-income countries), now totaling over 4.8 million citizens. Half of the population (49.8 percent) are women, and age distributions are very similar across gender.67 Liberia’s youth bulge reflects regional trends: 62 percent of the population in Western Africa was below the age of 25 in 2019.68 Projections suggest the population in Liberia will double by 2050. Unlike in more developed countries, the share of young people below age 25 will remain high, at 58 percent, reflecting continued high fertility rates. Equipping these youth with human capital will be essential to raise welfare levels in Liberia. Liberia’s economy has still not undergone the structural transformation needed for a more competitive and modern economy. The economy is undiversified and highly dependent on foreign direct investment in mining, forestry, and agriculture. Jobs are concentrated in subsistence farming and low-productivity self-employment. Agriculture still accounts for nearly 40 percent of GDP, almost half of employment, and the majority of exports earnings, but enclaves of concession activities in high-value export crops co-exist with widespread subsistence farming. Lack of sufficiently productive and stable jobs is a major constraint to poverty reduction. Liberia received low scores in many of the indicators assessed in the World Economic Forum’s 2018 Global Competitiveness Index (including in markets, human capital, and innovation) and ranked 132nd out of 140 countries in terms of competitiveness.69 The COVID-19 pandemic has further weakened an already struggling economy, with significant negative effects on the welfare of Liberia’s population. Liberia experienced sustained economic growth between 2005 and 2013, but this was halted with the EVD outbreak in 2014. By the end of the decade, GDP growth was negative (in 2019 and 2020) and poverty was on the rise. Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic struck an economy already struggling with declining output and rising poverty. Aside from health effects, social distancing rules and curfews reduced public services such as education and 67. Data retrieved from WDI database. 68. http://uis.unesco.org 69. World Economic Forum 2018. 25 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS health and had particularly serious consequences for the urban, informal nonfarm sector that relies on daily earnings from market activities.70 COVID-19 is expected to worsen poverty outcomes significantly, potentially pushing up to half a million additional Liberian people into poverty.71 REPORT METHODOLOGY, MAIN FINDINGS, AND ORGANIZATION This report relies on the published literature, supplemented by new research to build out the context and agency analysis. This report employs a mixed-method approach to identify the challenges holding back women’s socio-economic outcomes in Liberia through an empowerment lens. The analysis of gender gaps in outcomes and resources draws from available quantitative and qualitative data and reports. Two background papers were commissioned, as well. First, an assessment of Liberia’s legal frameworks from a female empowerment perspective72 was commissioned to provide an analytical base for the formal and informal legal institutions that underpin the context pillar.73 A Liberian lawyer reviewed and analyzed the pertinent laws governing family law and asset ownership, sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence, and employment. Second, new qualitative research was carried out to provide information on (i) how attitudes, social norms, and institutions disadvantage women in the areas of health, education, jobs, and asset accumulation (context pillar); and (ii) factors that limit women’s agency in identifying, selecting, and delivering on their goals and ambitions, including their sense of self-efficacy and ability to act on their goals. These research questions were answered through 28 participatory and interactive focus group discussions (FGDs) that were carried out in April 2021 with male and female participants in Liberia’s Bong, Lofa, and Montserrado counties. FGDs were stratified by age group (ages 18 to 24 and ages 25 to 35), location (rural/urban), and participant gender. The report findings confirm that despite their important contributions to Liberia’s economy and society, women face systematic disadvantages that lead to weak and unequal outcomes in health, education, and labor market opportunities. the findings show that despite some progress, significant gender gaps exist in Liberia, where women struggle with low levels of human capital and face serious constraints to their life choices, including those related to family and career options. Abject poverty is part of the story, but formal and informal institutions that shift the balance of decision power and access to resources against women also disempower. Women themselves show great strength and agency in some domains, such as working to feed their families, but have limited agency in other domains, often deferring to male family members, leading to limited human capital accumulation, underuse of human capital (earnings, sector of work), and greater incidence of GBV. The report also draws from international evidence to highlight policy interventions that can address the context, resource, and agency issues women face, thereby improving outcomes and reducing gender disparities in Liberia. 70. World Bank 2020a. 71. World Bank 2020b. 72. Cunningham, Gupta, and Jappah 2021. 73. Ibid. INTRODUCTIOON 26 The report is organized into five sections. Following this introduction, chapters 2, 3, and 4 present the analysis for health, education, and labor markets, respectively. Each chapter outlines key gender disparities in the domain and discusses the primary factors under each empowerment pillar that contribute to the observed disparities. Chapter 5 concludes the assessment with a discussion of findings and provision of key policy recommendations. CHAPTER 2 HEALTH AND GENDER Liberian women live longer and healthier lives than they did 20 years ago but continue to face significant health challenges. Female life expectancy has increased, and adult mortality rates have fallen. However, social norms, weak health systems, and limited decision power over key health aspects render women exposed to health risks. Permissive attitudes to physical and sexual abuse of women and girls, along with contradictions between statutory and customary law and insufficient legal protection for victims of SGBV (including FGM/C) negatively affect female health outcomes and contribute to, inter alia, high maternal and infant death ratios and disproportionate exposure to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and violence. Resource constraints at both the national and local levels, such as insufficient government funding, a shortage of health care workers, and inadequate health infrastructure, hinder improvements. Women are also suffering from limited agency in their health choices, with family members often making decisions that have significant implications for women’s health and futures. OUTCOMES: LIBERIAN WOMEN’S HEALTH OUTCOMES HAVE IMPROVED, BUT CHALLENGES PERSIST Liberian men and women live on average 11 and 12 years longer than they did 20 years ago, and women outlive men. Liberia’s life expectancy in 2000 was just 51 years for men and 53 years for women. By 2018, these figures had risen substantially to 62 and 65 years, respectively (figure 2). Female life expectancy is similar to or higher than that of middle-income countries in the Western Africa region (such as Ghana, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire).74 74. Data retrieved from WDI. 29 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Liberia has made significant progress in reducing adult mortality rates, especially for women. Adult mortality rates for men and women in Liberia have decreased from 332 per 1,000 male adults and 301 per 1,000 female adults in 2000 to 247 per 1,000 male adults and 207 per 1,000 female adults in 2018 (figure 3). These mortality rates are lower than the average rates for Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite these improvements, women rate their health levels as less satisfactory than men do, especially in rural areas.75 The prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is high in Liberia—especially among women. Although there are fewer deaths from STIs compared to malaria (the leading cause of death in Liberia), they remained one of the main causes of death in 2016 and 2018.76 Importantly, 48 percent of women, compared to 24 percent of men, surveyed in the 2019–2020 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) reported having an STI or symptoms of an STI in the preceding 12 months.77 The prevalence of HIV among the general population (ages 15 to 49) is just 1.5 percent, likely due to Liberia’s targeted HIV prevention efforts. However, women make up the majority (60 percent) of the population ages 15+ living with HIV. Among youth (ages 15 to 24), the prevalence of HIV is 1.0 percent for women, compared to 0.6 for men.78 The level of maternal, infant, and children’s health remains poor in Liberia. At 661 deaths per 100,000 live births, Liberia’s maternal mortality ratio ranks among the highest in the world.79 Maternal mortality rates also temporarily soared during the EVD outbreak, with an increase in maternal mortality from 640 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2013 to 1,347 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015.80 Moreover, many cases of infant and under-five deaths can be linked to mothers’ poor health: neonatal deaths account for 35 percent of under-five deaths, most of which are due to prematurity, intrapartum-related events, and maternal infections.81 Although Liberia’s infant and child mortality rates have declined, they are still among the highest in the region and world. In 2017, the country’s infant mortality rate was 55.9 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to the Sub-Saharan African average of 51.3 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. The under-five mortality rates for Liberia and Sub-Saharan Africa were both 74.7 child deaths per 1,000 live births.82 75. Murendo and Murenje 2018, based on the Liberian Household Income Expenditure Survey 2014. 76. WHO (World Health Organization) 2019. 77. LISGIS (Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services) 2020. 78. Data retrieved from WDI. Refers to population ages 15 to 49. 79. Refers to modeled value of maternal mortality rates (2017), retrieved from the WDI. Maternal mortality rates differ between modeled and national point estimates (latest available from 2013), with the latter generally exceeding modeled values, significantly so. 80. UNDP 2019; World Bank 2019c. The main causes of maternal deaths in Liberia include hemorrhage (25 percent), hypertension (16 percent), unsafe abortion (10 percent), and sepsis (10 percent) (WHO 2019). 81. WHO 2019. 82. UNDP 2019. GENERAL, SEXUAL, AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH IN LIBERIA 30 FIGURE 2 Life Expectancy at Birth by Gender, 2000–2018 70 60 50 40 30 2000 2005 2010 2015 Female Male SOURCE: World Development Indicators (WDI) FIGURE 3 Adult Mortality Rate by Gender (per 1,000 people), 2000–2018 500 400 300 200 100 0 2000 2005 2010 2015 Sub-Saharan Africa, Male Sub-Saharan Africa, Female Liberia, Male Liberia, Female SOURCE: Estimates based on WDI 31 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Fertility rates have declined overall, but there is a significant urban–rural gap. In Liberia, the fertility rate decreased from 5.2 births per woman in 2007 to 4.2 births per woman in 2019–2020, predominantly driven by progress in urban areas.83 The total fertility rate in urban Liberia was 3.4 births per woman in 2019–2020, compared to 5.5 births per woman in rural areas.84 As a result of this reduction in urban fertility, Liberia’s total fertility rate is now lower than the 2018 Sub-Saharan African average of 4.7 births per woman.85 Adolescent fertility rates remain high, putting both mother and child at risk. Early childbearing puts young Liberian women at risk: adolescent mothers are more exposed to health risks, including maternal death, than other groups. Their babies are also at a higher risk of low birth weight, preterm delivery, and severe neonatal condition.86 Adolescent fertility has decreased slightly from 147.8 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19 in 2001 to 135.6 births in 2019 (figure 4). However, Liberia’s adolescent fertility rate remains high relative to much of Western Africa, including low-income countries such as Burkina Faso (100), The Gambia (73), Guinea-Bissau (2012), and Sierra Leone (108), and relative to Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole (figure 5).87 Thirty percent of women between the ages of 15 and 19 in Liberia have begun childbearing. Adolescents from rural areas, those with little education, and those who fall into lower wealth quintiles are more likely to start childbearing earlier than their urban, better educated, and wealthier adolescent counterparts.88 Early pregnancies are a major, if not the major, cause of school dropout.89 One-third of married women have an unmet need for family planning.90 Unmet needs are highest among adolescent married women between the ages of 15 and 19 (47 percent) and lowest among women between the ages of 45 and 49. The prevalence of needs are similar between urban and rural areas and for women across the wealth spectrum. However, women with an elementary or high school education have higher levels of unmet family planning needs than women with no education or those with some higher education. Those with higher education likely have high needs, but also access to contraceptives. The low- to middle-educated group may have more information and needs for contraceptives than women without education, but due to norms, lack of services, or limited decision power, do not enjoy the access to contraceptives that the more-educated do. 83. LISGIS 2020; World Bank 2018b. 84. LISGIS 2020. 85. Data retrieved from WDI database. 86. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/adolescent-pregnancy. 87. Data retrieved from Gender Statistics database. 88. LISGIS 2020. 89. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) Institute of Statistics and UNICEF (UN International Children’s Emergency Fund )) 2012. 90. LISGIS 2020. A person who reports she would like to delay or prevent child bearing but is not using contraceptives is considered to have unmet needs. GENERAL, SEXUAL, AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH IN LIBERIA 32 FIGURE 4 Liberia Adolescent Fertility Rate, 2001–2018 150 (Number of Births per 1,000 145 Women Ages 15-19) 140 135 130 125 2001 2005 2010 2015 SOURCE: Estimates based on WDI FIGURE 5 Adolescent Fertility Rate, 2018 (Births per 1,000 Women Ages 15 to 19) Liberia 135.6 Sub-Saharan Africa 101.2 Ghana 65.8 Nigeria 105.4 Cote d’Ivoire 116.2 Niger 183.5 Sierra Leone 110.2 Guinea 133.4 SOURCE: Estimates based on World Bank Gender Statistics database 33 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Relatively few women use any form of contraception. Methods of contraception are well known—99 percent of women and men reported knowing at least one method of contraception in 2019–2020—but only 24 percent of married women between the ages of 15 and 49 reported using any contraceptive method.91 Whereas there is little variation in contraceptive use among married women residing in urban and rural areas, there is a positive relationship between contraceptive use and education (up until senior high school), as well as wealth.92 Contraceptives are more frequently used by sexually active unmarried women (46 percent) than by married women; early marriage or union is consequently linked to high adolescent fertility. However, young women (and men) also engage in risky behavior: of those who had sex in the past 12 months with a partner who neither was their spouse nor lived with them (52 percent of young women and 57 percent of young men), only 17 percent of young women, compared to 34 percent of young men, used a condom.93 Malnutrition and anemia affect women of all ages, but adolescent girls are especially vulnerable. There is a high prevalence of anemia among women in Liberia, with 55.1 percent of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 and 43.7 percent of women between the ages of 40 and 49 suffering from anemia.94 Given that many adolescent girls become pregnant, are in school, or enter working life during adolescence, anemia has severe repercussions. Anemia implies significant risks for women, children, and society—it increases risk of maternal and child mortality, limits cognitive and physical development, lowers school performance, and undermines worker productivity.95 Adolescent girls are also disproportionately likely to suffer from malnutrition. Approximately 7.4 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 in 2014 were undernourished (defined by a low body mass index [BMI]). These rates are higher for adolescent girls: 15 percent of Liberian girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are undernourished, which also increases the risk of malnutrition among children born to adolescent mothers.96 Young children are especially vulnerable to poor nutrition, and boys fare slightly worse than girls. With a staggering 37 percent of the population in hunger, Liberia’s nutritional performance is poor compared even to other low-income countries in West Africa (figure 6).97 Despite slight improvements, young children remain especially vulnerable to malnutrition.98 Boys’ outcomes are slightly worse than girls’ across different nutrition indicators, including in rates of stunting (32.3 percent versus 28 percent, respectively), being underweight (15 percent versus 12.2 percent), and wasting (5.5 percent versus 3.2 percent, respectively).99 91. Ibid. 92. Ibid. 93. Ibid. 94. Ibid. The cited study did not provide comparable information for boys or men. 95. https://www.who.int/health-topics/anaemia#tab=tab_2. 96. Murphy et al. 2016. 97. Data retrieved from Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT) database. 98. Factors such as seasonal food deficits; poor dietary diversity due to an overreliance on rice and cassava; suboptimal infant and young child feeding practices; a high prevalence of illnesses such as malaria and diarrhea (which is related to poor water, sanitation, and hygiene practices); and limited access to maternal, newborn, and child health services all negatively impact children’s nutritional status in Liberia (Murphy et al. 2016; WHO 2019). 99. Data retrieved from WDI database. 2016 data. GENERAL, SEXUAL, AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH IN LIBERIA 34 FIGURE 6 Prevalence of Undernourishment in West Africa, 2016–2018 Percent 0 20 40 60 80 100 Mauritania Ghana Guinea Toga Sierra Leone Senegal The Gambia Liberia Female Male SOURCE: Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT). Undernourishment is defined as consuming less than what is needed to provide the dietary energy levels that are required to maintain a normal active and healthy life. Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV, box 1) is a significant concern in Liberia, particularly for women and girls. Statistics on rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, and similar forms of abuse paint a stark picture. Two in five Liberian women over the age of 15 experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner in the period between 2005 and 2019.100 Young girls are highly vulnerable: 12.7 percent of girls between the ages of 15 and 17 experienced sexual violence in Liberia in 2007.101 Rape surpassed armed robbery as Liberia’s most reported crime in 2011. Some 15 percent of rapes resulted in pregnancy, and the majority of perpetrators were family members.102 100. UNDP 2019. 101. Estimates based on Liberia Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2007, available at https://data.unicef.org/wp-content/ uploads/2015/12/Sexual-violence_Sept-2014_152.xlsx. 102. The Carter Center and Irish Aid 2014. 35 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS The prevalence of female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) is falling but remains a serious concern in Liberia, especially in rural areas and among women from poor families. In the 2019–2020 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), some 32 percent of women reported having been subjected to FGM/C, and 78 percent of them underwent the procedure before age 15. The practice is slowly receding, as indicated by the likelihood that a woman has experienced FGM/C increases with age, from approximately 28 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 19 to 60 percent among women between the ages of 45 and 49. However, progress is uneven, with over half of rural women reporting experience of FGM/C (52 percent), compared to 30 percent in urban areas. In addition, women in the lowest wealth quintile are almost three times more likely to have been subjected to FGM/C than women in the highest wealth quintile.103 FGM/C is often conducted at girls’ bush schools known as the Sande society. The Sande society (discussed in more detail in Chapter 2) is an ancient and secret female organization where girls learn local customs, sexual and reproductive education, feminine hygiene, and housekeeping skills. Girls join the Sande society before or around puberty and have a clitoridectomy during the initiation ceremony.104 Mirroring the trend in FGM/C, there is indication that the participation is falling: the share of women who have heard of Sande societies and are members fell from 66 percent in 2007 to 50 percent in 2013, and further down to 35 percent in 2019–2020. However, it remains much more frequent in areas in the north and northwest than in the southeast. This also reflects the prevalence of the Sande society.105 BOX 2 Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV)106 The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.” SGBV is a development challenge, blocking equal participation of women and men in the economic, political, and social spheres. It also poses significant health risks such as gynecological disorders, sexually transmitted infections, mental health issues, and maternal death. SGBV includes intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual assault, female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C), sexual exploitation and abuse, child abuse, female infanticide, and child marriage. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines FGM/C—also known as female circumcision—as any procedure that involves partial or total removal of the external genitalia and/or injury to the female genital organs. The practice has potentially severe health consequences for girls such as infections, infertility, and childbirth complications. 103. LISGIS 2020. 104. Tarr-Attia et al. 2019. 105. LISGIS 2020. 106. For more information on the statutory and customary provisions regarding SGBV in Liberia, see Cunningham, Gupta and Jappah 2021. GENERAL, SEXUAL, AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH IN LIBERIA 36 BOX 2 Cont. Ending FGM/C is a target under the Sustainable Development Goals. However, a study on FGM/C in Burkina Faso, Egypt, Nigeria, Mali, Niger, and Uganda found that community pressure and social norms play a substantial role in the continued perpetuation of the practice. Other factors include low educational attainment of mothers, household poverty, and women’s limited decision-making ability. Source: Arango et al, 2014; OHCHR 1993; World Bank 2019c; Onagoruwa and Wodon 2018. PILLARS OF EMPOWERMENT: CONTEXT, RESOURCES, AND AGENCY CONTRIBUTE TO LIBERIAN WOMEN’S POOR HEALTH OUTCOMES In Liberia, pressing obstacles to women’s and girls’ health can be linked to a context of social norms that reduce women’s rights to their own bodies, a lack of resources, and limited agency with respect to health decisions. Social norms—such as the acceptance of sexual violence and abuse and the encouragement of early marriage—continue to negatively impact health outcomes for women and girls. These are exacerbated by women’s lack of access to independently controlled income and other resources, such as mass media and health-related information, skilled health care workers, and adequate infrastructure. Finally, Liberian women’s limited decision-making with regard to their own health also plays a significant role in their suboptimal health outcomes. Context: social norms and institutions perpetuate women’s health vulnerabilities Social norms about violence against women, early marriage, and adolescent pregnancy put girls and women at significant health risk Social norms that allow for physical abuse contribute to poor health outcomes for women and girls. Both women and men in Liberia commonly believe that beating women is justifiable. According to the 2019–2020 DHS, 37 percent of women believed that a husband was justified in beating his wife for at least one of five reasons: burning the food, leaving the house without telling him, neglecting the children, arguing with him, or refusing to have sexual intercourse with him. Focus group discussion participants evoked an environment in which physical violence, sexual assault, and rape were common, often resulting from men’s alcohol use107 or from women doing something to humiliate their husband, not taking care of their children, or refusing sex.108 At the same time, both male and female study 107. Data from the DHS 2019–2020 confirms the link between men’s alcohol use and violence against women (UN Women 2021). 108. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 37 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS participants described a normative context in which they do not believe such violence is accepted by the majority of individuals in their communities. You know, for men, some men using violence against their wives… Like for example, maybe I can get drunk … I go home, I act like the palm wine controlling me, then I beat on my wife. But let me bring something to the knowledge, it’s not necessary. Because the bible says, love yourselves as you love your neighbor. So, your woman is like your neighbor, your woman is your companion… So, for the issue of violence against woman, it’s totally wrong. It is not good decision for any man, for any being. Male focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant Societal acceptance of sexual violence and abuse—combined with community pressure against reporting—contributes to a culture of silence among survivors and families. Communities in Liberia are tight-knit and family-like, so individuals who report crimes of SGBV may face community retribution for getting one of their “family members” in trouble. These societal pressures contribute to the significant underreporting of SGBV crimes in Liberia. A study conducted in northern Liberia found that only 1 percent of SGBV victims sought legal assistance and only 16 percent involved a family or community member. Thirty-five percent instead responded to such violence by obeying their husband.109 The widespread view in Liberia that a woman is her husband’s property—and, therefore, that a man has complete authority over her in the home—contributes to intimate partner violence against women.110 The practice of FGM/C remains difficult to eradicate in Liberia due to continued support in certain traditional communities.111 Despite education and outreach campaigns highlighting its various health risks, many in Liberia who identify with certain traditional communities still consider FGM/C to be an appropriate traditional practice. One study found that, on a scale from 0 to 10 (with 0 meaning no one supports FGM/C and 10 meaning that everyone supports it), Liberia had an FGM/C normalization score of 4.6 among women and 4.5 among men.112 Another study featuring interviews of 17 midwives in Monrovia concluded that the difficulty in eradicating the practice is due to FGM/C’s symbol of a 109. Allen and Devitt 2012. 110. UN Women 2021. 111. Given the ethnic diversity in Liberia, with more than 16 ethnic groups, and that the norms of cultural groups differ by location (especially urban–rural divides), there is no single set of customary law and practices that govern traditional communities, ethnic groups, or Liberians as a country. Instead, customary laws and customs will differ by group, location, religion, and other factors (UN Women 2021). 112. Social Cohesion and Reconciliation Index 2018 GENERAL, SEXUAL, AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH IN LIBERIA 38 woman’s initiation into the Sande society, which is seen by certain traditional groups as having widely perceived social benefits.113 Yet, attitudes are changing: in 2019–2020, a majority (64 percent) of women believed FGM/C should be discontinued as a practice.114 Cultural norms permit—and even encourage—child marriage and adolescent pregnancy in Liberia. Although sex with girls younger than 18 is considered statutory rape under the Liberian Penal Code, social and traditional norms serve to encourage early marriage among girls in certain traditional communities, as well as intergenerational sexual activity,115 which is associated with higher rates of infection.116 These factors have contributed to Liberia’s high rates of adolescent fertility and early childbearing, with the associated risks for maternal and child health and productivity. In Sub-Sahara Africa, women married as children have been shown to be eight times as likely to have at least three children compared to those who married at the age of 18 or later.117 Social stigma leads young women to meet additional constraints in seeking sexual and reproductive health care. In a context where, on the one hand, early sexual debut and transgenerational sexual relationships are commonplace and, on the other hand, social norms and stigma are associated with early sexual debut and pregnancy, girls’ ability and willingness to seek reproductive help is curtailed. The age, gender, and community position of health service providers can determine whether young women feel that they can confidentially seek health care regarding their sexual health.118 Formal institutions119 to protect women’s health are limited, and those that exist are of limited protective value due to social norms There are laws and initiatives in place to safeguard the well-being of women in Liberia, including on sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Under Liberia’s National Health Policy, SRH concerns the well- being of women, their partners, and offspring. The purpose of the Social Development and Economic Policy Act of 2005 was to improve women’s quality of life through interventions aimed at reducing rates of fertility, infant mortality, and maternal mortality, as well as by providing access to information on SRH. The government also developed the National Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy and Protocols in 2010, which emphasized the provision of SRH services such as maternal and newborn health, family planning and contraception, SGBV interventions, and adolescent health. Additionally, Liberia’s Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD) includes plans to scale up family planning services and train health care providers and mentors on how to deliver adolescent-friendly health services. 113. Tarr-Attia et al. 2019. 114. LISGIS 2020. 115. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) 2019. 116. Gregson et al. 2002. 117. Yaya et al. 2019. 118. USAID (US Agency for International Development ) 2020. 119. For more information on the statutory and customary provisions governing health-related issues in Liberia, see Cunningham, Gupta, and Jappah 2021. 39 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS There is no comprehensive law specifically focused on SRH, however. Most SRH programs are implemented through policies and based on international legal frameworks such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. However, these programs are not administered by binding rules and regulations 120 and are significantly underfinanced.121 Other statutory restrictions, such as those regarding the termination of pregnancy, have adverse effects on women’s rights and health. The 2020 revised public health law makes provisions for abortion under specific circumstances (within the 24th week, with a licensed and skilled birth attendant and informed consent). However, this is in contradiction with the Penal Code (article 16.3) under which it is forbidden to terminate a pregnancy unjustifiably, either by the mother or by a physician. “Justifiable termination” applies to cases where the pregnancy places the mother’s health at risk or is a result of rape, incest, or other criminal conduct, and cases where the child would be born with a physical or mental defect.122 Thus, under all other circumstances, Liberian women do not have the right to decide whether or not to carry out a pregnancy, resulting in women resorting to dangerous—even life-threatening— means for terminating their pregnancies. Unsafe abortions are one of the leading causes of maternal mortality and morbidity globally and account for an estimated 10 percent of maternal deaths in Liberia.123 Government efforts to protect women and girls from sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) are undermined by contradictions between statutory and customary laws, as well as weak enforcement. The government has reformed the penal code to provide stronger penalties for SGBV-related crimes, established a special unit within the Ministry of Justice to prosecute SGBV crimes, and created a special unit with the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection to inform the government’s SGBV policy interventions and initiatives.124 However, customary and statutory laws frequently diverge, creating gaps in interpretation and enforcement. For instance, although sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 18 is considered rape under the Penal Code, the age of consent is 16 under customary law. In addition, lack of mechanisms for reporting sexual assault in schools and the subsequent inability to hold either perpetrators or administrators accountable for such crimes leave young female victims particularly vulnerable. Weaknesses in Liberia’s justice delivery system impede its ability to efficiently try SGBV cases. Although there is a specialized court—Criminal Court “E”—and an SGBV Crimes Unit within the Ministry of Justice to speed up trials of SGBV cases, delayed trial times, combined with the community scrutiny faced by reporters of SGBV crimes, disincentivize reporting and strengthen the impunity of perpetrators. For example, due to difficulty in obtaining bail for severe crimes such as rape, an accused person may 120. Ibid. 121. UN Women 2021. 122. Cunningham, Gupta, and Jappah 2021. 123. WHO 2019. 124. Cunningham, Gupta, and Jappah 2021. GENERAL, SEXUAL, AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH IN LIBERIA 40 remain incarcerated for years without going to trial. As evidenced in the focus group discussions,125 reporters therefore face significant pressure—both internally and from their community—when reporting such crimes, knowing that they may be sentencing someone to years of pretrial detention. Moreover, by the time trials commence, witnesses are usually unable or unwilling to testify, causing cases to be dismissed altogether. UN Women (2021) reports that it is not uncommon for women to give up on following formal legal procedures, instead resorting to more readily available customary law. Formal institutions are undermined by the widespread notion that matters should be settled at home or in the community. In focus group discussions, men as well as women often emphasized the importance of community leadership in resolving disputes, including those related to sexual or other violence. The prevailing norms dictate, overall, that matters of abuse should be settled within the home, or be discussed with the community leader, and not be taken to the police.126 First of all … that there is no compromising in rape. But before taking a case a rape case to the police station … you have to visit the [community] leadership. Male focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant If you and your husband marry, there are certain issues you take to the police station, [and] there are certain issues you don’t take to the police station. If that man beat you because of something wrong you did, you can discuss it family way. Female focus group (ages 18 to 24) discussion participant No laws in Liberia currently address or criminalize FGM/C, but recent legislative action—if temporarily—banned the practice. There are laws in Liberia under which FGM/C could conceivably fall, such as the Children’s Act of 2011. However, although the act prohibits subjecting a child to any “unnecessary or uncultured practice that may inflict physical, psychosocial, or emotional pain to the child or otherwise violate or endanger her or his bodily integrity, life, health, dignity, education, welfare, or holistic development,” FGM/C is not specifically mentioned. Most recently, Executive Order 92— which was signed by President Ellen John Sirleaf in 2018—prohibited FGM/C for one year. However, the 125. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 126. Ibid. 41 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS order was not renewed, largely due to the fact that Liberians remain divided over the issue of FGM/C and its perceived value in preserving Liberia’s cultural heritage.127 The male-dominated legislature— many of whose members represent predominantly traditional constituencies that support FGM/C—has been hesitant to regulate or ban the practice and did not even attempt to renew the executive order.128 Men and women have different levels of trust in the ability of the legal system to protect women. In focus group discussions, men were generally more confident that women who suffered SGBV could resort to the police and judicial system and that offenders would be prosecuted. Women, on the other hand, seemed dismissive of whether such formal institutions would or could take any action, at least with long-term effects.129 As observed by UN Women (2021), the discrepancy may be due to the very structure of statutory and customary institutions, which were created by and thus reflect a patriarchal pattern of priorities and interpretations that aligns with men’s beliefs to this day, while women continue to feel alienated. I will feel very happy when a woman carry her husband to the police, because she need peace, because police help protect life and property, police are not animal that when they carry your complain, that because you beat on her... Because maybe she will have nobody in the community to lay your complain to. So, the police there to protect her life and her property. Male focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant) The people that are in the community, some people in the community don’t understand. Because, for instance, when you call police on your boyfriend, when the boyfriend beat on you, other people will say, you were not supposed to carry it that far, you were not supposed to take him to the police station, you’re supposed to discuss it. Then the next day, after they talk to the police, when the police go, the same man turn round, and beat on the woman. Female focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant 127. 28 Too Many 2019. 128. Cunningham, Gupta, and Jappah 2021. 129. ibid. GENERAL, SEXUAL, AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH IN LIBERIA 42 Resources: prices, provision, quality, and access to services, as well as scarce information, limit prevention of, or care in, women’s health- related outcomes Insufficient funding limits the Liberian government’s ability to provide basic health services for its population. Liberia largely depends on donor funding and private initiatives for the delivery of health services, with the government spending just 4.2 percent of its own domestic public resources on health in 2017. Government spending on health in Liberia is similar to or lower than that of other comparator countries in the region, such as Senegal (3.9 percent), Sierra Leone (7.9 percent), Guinea (4.1 percent), and Ghana (6.1 percent). External funding plays a significant role in financing Liberian health services, with the share of health expenditures funded from external sources (such as direct foreign transfer) reaching 28.8 percent in 2017. 130 High cost of health services affects women’s access. In 2017, out of pocket (OOP) expenditures were high in Liberia (US$26/capita against US$18/capita for low-income countries on average). An estimated 86 percent of households pay to receive health care. About 15 percent of households incurred catastrophic health expenditures, where health expenditures were more than 10 percent of the household’s total spending. Female-headed households were more likely than male-headed ones to incur catastrophic health expenditures131 (possibly because these households have lower expenditures on average), which made them more vulnerable to financial constraints in relation to accessing health.132 In 2019, some 45 percent of women ages 15 to 49 reported at least one constraint for accessing health care, with money the most frequently cited.133 Focus group discussions further revealed that women’s greater financial dependence on other family members to fund health care expenses further limits their health care access. Health care worker shortage and weakened health infrastructure in Liberia affects maternal health significantly. According to the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) 2019 Global Human Development Report, there are just 0.4 physicians in Liberia per 10,000 people, a rate lower than those for all West African countries in the “low human development” category (based on Human Development Index [HDI] scores) except for Sierra Leone. There are just 8 hospital beds available per 10,000 people. The rate of skilled birth attendants, below 1.15 per 1,000 people, falls below the minimum standard of 2.3 doctors, nurses, or midwives per 1,000 people. Liberia only has one registered midwife for every 23,000 people, one-fifth of the World Health Organization (WHO) standard of one midwife per 5,000 people.134 The Government of Liberia estimates that a staggering 1,178 percent increase in birth personnel is required to meet the 2025 health workforce targets.135 130. Data retrieved from WDI database. 131. Identified as a situation where health expenditures exceeded 10 percent of total expenditures. 132. World Bank 2020a. 133. LISGIS 2020. 134. UNDP 2019. 135. Republic of Liberia 2016. 43 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS The 2014 Ebola outbreak exacerbated Liberia’s health care worker shortage, with serious consequences for both general and maternal health care. Liberia lost 10 percent of its doctors and 8 percent of its nurses and midwives to Ebola, representing over 8 percent of the country’s health workforce.136 This shortage affected non-Ebola-related health care as well. Deliveries by skilled birth attendants fell by 7 percent during the Ebola crisis, fourth antenatal care (ANC) visits dropped by 8 percent, and health facility use rates dropped by 40 percent.137 A 2015 study suggested the death of these health care workers potentially increased Liberia’s maternal mortality rate by 111 percent relative to the pre-Ebola baseline.138 Access to prenatal, delivery, and post-delivery care has measurably improved, but regional inequities exist that continue to affect women’s health. In 2019–2020, 87 percent of women had four or more prenatal care visits, compared to just 56 percent in 2013; 84 percent of births were assisted by a skilled medical professional in 2019–2020, compared to 61 percent in 2013; and 80 percent of women who gave birth received postnatal care within two days after delivery, compared to 71 percent in 2013.139 However, national averages hide significant regional variations. In Lofa, almost all births (96 percent) are institutional deliveries, whereas in Gbarpolu, the rate is only 50 percent. In River Cess, almost all women (94 percent) receive a postnatal checkup 48 hours after giving birth; in Gbarpolu, only two-thirds do.140 There are also significant gaps in quality of obstetric and neonatal care at hospitals and primary level facilities. These include lack of reliable and consistent availability of power, water, and essential life-saving commodities such as oxygen, blood, oxytocin, and magnesium sulfate; an insufficient number of skilled and committed human resources to provide quality antenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal care; and women’s lack of access to 24/7 care.141 The COVID-19 pandemic initially resulted in severe cuts to services. Antenatal first visits fell from 99 percent of pregnancies in January 2020 to 62 percent by April, but with significant regional variation in the reductions. At the same time, institutional delivery coverage remained at 55 percent. Service provision fell dramatically in March and April 2020, recovered over summer, and worsened again in October 2020, when a new COVID-19 wave hit Liberia. Social distancing rules, supply shortages, health personnel shortages, and financial barriers to accessing health services (important, given the high share of private expenditures in overall health in Liberia) contributed to lower access.142 Mental health and psychosocial support facilities in Liberia are insufficiently equipped to deal with SGBV, the impacts of which particularly affect young female survivors. Liberia’s mental health 136. World Bank 2020b. 137. Republic of Liberia 2016. 138. Evans et al. 2015. 139. LISGIS 2014; LISGIS 2020. 140. World Bank 2020b. 141. Ibid. 142. Republic of Liberia, Ministry of Health 2020; World Bank 2021b. GENERAL, SEXUAL, AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH IN LIBERIA 44 and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services are still in the early stages of development, even when compared to other post-conflict settings such as Gaza or Sri Lanka, and this is a key barrier for improving psychosocial support for adolescent girls.143 According to a 2008–2009 study, only four clinics offered comprehensive support for SGBV survivors.144 Unequal access to mass media and health-related information, especially for rural women, likely contributes poor health outcomes for women. A study on gender-related health inequalities in Liberia found that equalizing access to health information (such as via electronic and print media) could potentially reduce gender gaps in self-assessed health status145 by 44 percent. According to the 2019– 2020 DHS, fewer women compared to men are exposed to mass media: some 67 percent of female respondents did not listen to the radio (by far the most common form of used mass media), watch television, or read a newspaper, compared to 52 percent of men.146 This represented a worsening trend in media access, compared to 2013. Liberia’s weak transportation infrastructure, especially in rural and remote areas, affects health outcomes for both men and women. Transport connectivity plays a significant role in improving access to health care services.147 However, 2.3 million Liberian residents are not connected to a reliable road network, which limits their access to health care. In 2016, 20 percent of households reported having to travel one hour or more to get to their latest health appointment (32 percent for the poorest households).148 Fewer than 40 percent live within 10 kilometers of a hospital. Some 28 percent of women (45 percent of rural women) indicated in 2019 that the distance to a health facility is an impediment to seeking medical care.149 Agency: women’s health-related decisions are often made by family members Women’s ability to make their own health choices is severely curtailed in Liberia. Agency matters for health—women with more decision-making power have higher chances of having been to a health care facility than those with less power.150 Focus group discussions suggested, however, that the majority of Liberian women’s decisions regarding their health are made jointly with—or entirely by—their husbands, and that some women also supported this arrangement.151 In a study from 2013, just 16 percent of Liberian women reported that they alone made decisions about their own health, while 61 percent 143. Samuels et al. 2017. 144. Reddy 2014. 145. Murendo and Murenje 2018. 146. LISGIS 2020. 147. Iimi and Rao 2018. 148. World Bank 2020a. 149. LISGIS 2014. 150. Sipsma et al. 2013. 151. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 45 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS made such decisions jointly with their husbands, and 22 percent of women completely deferred health- related decisions to their husbands.152 Unmarried women and those with higher levels of education have far greater individual decision-making.153 Nonetheless, in the focus group discussions, some women explained very clearly that they would use their own financial resources to seek health care should their men not be willing to support this—pointing to the role of resources in providing agency. Similarly, some women emphasized that if there was little trust in the relationship (for example, regarding fidelity), women had the right to protect themselves.154 The woman should be the one to decide … the woman know what is going on in her body, she know how she feels within that moment. A empower woman will not wait for her husband to tell her say let money for her to go, if the man not willing to give the money to her to go to hospital, she will provide money for herself to go to hospital because she want good health for her child and herself. Female focus group (ages 18 to 24) discussion participant Unequal power distribution within households holds back women’s decision power regarding sexuality and sexual health, especially contraception. In the focus group discussions, many women described feeling helpless to prevent sexual and physical violence or enforce the use of a condom in a sexual encounter. They highlighted their inferior physical strength, the fact that men use physical violence to perpetrate violence against women, men’s powerful position within the home, and their use of emotional violence such as withholding financial resources or engaging in sexual relationships outside of their union. The rejection of condom use by men was often related to distrust of women and an assumption that women would typically request a condom only to protect their partner from their own promiscuous sexual behavior, rather than simply to protect themselves or limit fertility. A woman using family planning without her husband knowing would be assumed guilty of engaging in sexual relationships outside of the marriage. 152. World Bank 2014. 153. UN Women 2021. 154. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. GENERAL, SEXUAL, AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH IN LIBERIA 46 I will say I’m the man so I will have the final say … because she my wife … and because I’m the man. Male focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant Like if you, I tell, you tell the man let use condom they said no, and then they enforce it, they may either get disease and then share it with you. That’s power right there. Female focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant People will say many things and such as … that woman, she went she took family planning all because she wants be loving all around and she don’t want to get pregnant and born for the man so that why she decides to go and take family planning just so that she will be loving here and there having many boyfriends. Male focus group (ages 18 to 24) discussion participant In married unions, husbands have significant power to take unilateral decisions regarding fertility. In the focus group discussions (FGDs), participants largely agreed that men have the final say in decisions relating to the use of condoms and family planning, and very few participants expressed an alternative viewpoint aligned with women’s rights or challenged the norms related to decisions regarding condom use. Married women were described as generally having less power in negotiations related to family planning and condom use than unmarried women. Men’s control over decisions related to these issues was often linked to perceptions of male dominance, “ownership” over wives, and superior social status combined with a general distrust in women’s behavior. 47 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS The man own (decision) will stand [about how many children to have] because he is the head in the home because in case of anything he is the one. Female focus group (ages 18 to 24) discussion participant The relationship between strengthening women’s agency and intimate partner violence (IPV) is not straightforward. The empirical evidence on the relationship between women's empowerment and violence is mixed.155 Work in Sierra Leone and Liberia showed that women’s increased agency within the home can reduce the likelihood of IPV by shifting the power balance. However, it may also incite more violence, if and where women’s greater independence is considered a threat or challenge to some men, who then use IPV in an attempt to re-exert control over their partners.156 Evidence from the focus group discussions also suggests that due to the unequal power distribution between men and women, broaching the topic of contraception may incite jealousy and violence. This also confirms findings from other countries such as Uganda.157 Lack of information plays a key role in women’s limited agency over health decisions. In FGDs, women expressed feeling constrained in their ability to keep themselves and their children healthy due to a lack of knowledge. However, they also describe being able to take simple steps to improve their health once they are aware of certain risks. For example, women described taking actions such as keeping their houses clean or sleeping under bed nets in order to prevent illness within their household. By applying those measures, like you get your mosquito nets, you sleep under it, to avoid mosquito bites, from malaria. We know that they got sexual transmitted disease, to avoid that, you use condom, to avoid sexual transmitted disease. That alone gives us the power to control our health. Because if you observe, all these things, you will not get sick easily. You will not get sick, because if you avoid mosquito bites, you avoid dirty environment, you take care of your food, your dishes, and what have you. Female focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant 155. Green et al.2015. 156. Horn et al. 2014. 157. Green et al. 2015. GENERAL, SEXUAL, AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH IN LIBERIA 48 Social networks in Liberia may play an important role in boosting agency, including for health decisions and actions. One study hypothesized that community ties and social capital developed by women’s groups and networks of local community groups to prevent conflict may serve as an asset in other spheres of life, such as the ability to seek and access health care, where public infrastructure is weak. Women from the study often relied on personal connections with health care workers to access services.158 At the same time, community social control, if exercised through health workers, may make women more vulnerable when seeking health care services related to sexual health and rights, or violence. Girls’ and boys’ sense of agency—such as their goals and aspirations, determination, and self- respect—influence their decisions related to sexual and reproductive health (SRH). The desire to pursue educational and career goals, along with having a strong personal character, appeared to discourage young people from participating in sexual activity and motivate them to seek contraceptives.159 You going to school you ain't taking any family planning, then you get pregnant … you will sit down and your friends will be going to school, and the time you will take to sit down or to gave birth or after giving birth to take care of that child, to grow up strong before you can start before you start school, your friend them will already be ahead of you. And some girls can feel discouraged they can already say they have been left behind, so they can't be encouraged they can be feeling bad when they are left behind. Female focus group (ages 18 to 24) participant In conclusion, to close the health gap, Liberian girls and women not only need health services and access, but they also need complementary context, agency, and resources to use and benefit from these services. Interventions at a systemic level need to strengthen and, in some cases, reform legal frameworks to support women’s health and rights, and strengthen the quality and resilience of service delivery, especially in public health systems. Significant reforms are needed at the community and household levels, to disrupt social norms about women’s health and help community leaders, families, and spouses to respect women’s health integrity by not engaging in SGBV and by giving women the trust and space to make health-related decisions for themselves. Interventions at the personal level can help girls and women set goals in critical areas such as family planning and self-care, feel empowered to act to reach those goals, and perceive the right to make these decisions and reach their desired health outcomes. 158. Gizelis et al. 2017. 159. Gausman et al. 2019. CHAPTER 3 EDUCATION AND GENDER Despite recent progress, Liberia’s educational achievements remain among the worst in the world for both girls and boys. According to the 2020 Human Capital Index, children in Liberia suffer from the shortest exposure to effective schooling in the world. This chapter presents an extremely challenging context of low enrollment, overage students, early dropout, and poor learning environments. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in setbacks in educational enrollment that may prove long-lasting. In addition to school closures, access for children in more vulnerable households will be affected by the reduction in household income spurred by the economic downturn.160 Although gender gaps in enrollment in primary and secondary education have narrowed, and even reversed in some areas, they persist, especially among older women and at higher education levels. Women are less likely to continue to higher levels of education and perform worse at higher levels of education. Moreover, women’s outcomes in terms of basic skills (such as literacy) remain very low, and below those of men. Weak schooling outcomes reflect a vicious circle of low prioritization of daughters' education, poor learning environments, and competing priorities and demands related to early family formation and overall household responsibilities that lead to poor performance or dropout. Qualitative evidence suggests that an increased exposure to SGBV and an increased prevalence of pregnancies among adolescent girls due to COVID-19 circumstances has further prevented girls from returning to school.161 160. BRAC 2020. The survey focuses on BRAC-program recipients. In the survey, 93 percent of households reported that their income had stopped or had been significantly reduced due to COVID-19, and 84 percent stated that they had had to reduce food consumption greatly 161. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 51 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS OUTCOMES: ALTHOUGH LEARNING AND SCHOOL ATTENDANCE RATES ARE LOW IN LIBERIA, THE GENDER GAPS ARE SMALL, IN CONTRAST TO GAPS OBSERVED IN ADULTS162 Primary and secondary school enrollment rates are very low for both girls and boys. In 2017, only 44.4 percent of girls and 44.1 percent of boys were enrolled in primary school in Liberia. These rates are significantly lower than those of comparator countries in West Africa such as The Gambia, Senegal, Togo, and Mauritania, where net primary school enrollment rates exceed 60 percent for both boys and girls (figures 7 and 8). Unsurprisingly, Liberia’s net secondary school enrollment rates also fall behind those of its regional comparators, with only 14.6 percent of Liberian girls and 16.7 percent of boys enrolled in secondary school in 2015 compared to more than 25 percent of both boys and girls in other West African countries.163 These weak education outcomes mean Liberian girls and boys lack opportunity to acquire even basic functional literacy and numeracy skills. Gender disparities in school are small but in favor of girls at primary levels and reversed at higher levels of education. Tertiary school enrollment rates are roughly on par with other West African countries, and, as with regional comparators, more pronounced gender gaps emerge at this level. Gross tertiary enrollment rates reached only 9.2 percent for Liberian women, compared to 14.7 percent of men in 2012 (latest year available). Gender disparities in gross tertiary school enrollment rates can be observed throughout West Africa, including in Mauritania, Ghana, Guinea, Togo, and Senegal.164 Overage enrollment is a significant problem affecting both girls and boys. Children who are overage are less likely to attend school regularly; less likely to be literate; and more likely to experience academic, social, and disciplinary issues.165 In 2016, approximately 82.2 percent of boys and 81.9 percent of girls in primary school were overage—that is, over the appropriate age for their grade level.166 This is due in part to delayed enrollment, as nearly 50 percent of children enrolled in early childhood education (ECE) are six years of age or older, indicating that over 250,000 children enrolled in ECE programs should be in primary school.167 Causes of overage enrollment include child and youth labor responsibilities, need for saving to pay for school fees (ECE and upper secondary) and other associated costs (transportation, uniform, material) that are required at all education levels, a lack of parental awareness of the importance of timely educational enrollment, and the inadequate accessibility and quality of schools.168 162. There is a lack of recent data on education for Liberia. Given the variance in the years in which relevant survey data was collected, conclusions regarding the strength of the trends discussed within this chapter should be treated with caution. 163. Data retrieved from WDI database. 164. Ibid. 165. Republic of Liberia, Ministry of Education 2016. 166. Ibid. 167. World Bank 2018a. 168. World Bank 2018a; Darvas and Namit 2016; UNICEF,2012. EDUCATION 52 FIGURE 7 Primary School Net Enrollment Rates Percent 0 20 40 60 80 100 Mauritania Ghana Guinea Toga Sierra Leone Senegal The Gambia Liberia Female Male FIGURE 8 Secondary School Net Enrollment Rates Percent 0 20 40 60 80 100 Mauritania Ghana Guinea Toga Senegal Liberia Female Male SOURCE: WDI NOTE: The net enrollment rate is the ratio of children of official school age who are enrolled in school to the population of the corresponding official school age. For primary education, Sierra Leone’s figures are from 2015; Liberia and Senegal’s figures are from 2017; Mauritania, Togo, Guinea, and The Gambia’s figures are from 2018; and Ghana’s figures are from 2019. For secondary education, Guinea’s figures are from 2014, Liberia’s figures are from 2015, Togo and Senegal’s figures are from 2017, Mauritania’s figures are from 2018, and Ghana’s figures are from 2019. 53 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Overall rural attendance rates are very low, especially at the secondary level, but gender gaps have closed in recent years. In 2019, urban primary net enrollment reached 52.9 percent for girls and 51.7 percent for boys, compared to 34.5 percent and 30.0 percent for rural girls and boys, respectively. In rural areas, only 13 percent of girls and 10.9 percent of boys in the relevant age group were attending secondary school. For girls, this nonetheless represented a significant improvement since 2013, when net primary and secondary enrollment rates in rural areas reached only 26.8 and 6.9 percent for girls, compared to 26.0 and 10.3 percent for boys.169 However, data from 2015 suggests that averages mask significant regional variations in gender parity, ranging from 0.59 to 1.01, as seen in figure 9.170 FIGURE 9 Gender Parity in Secondary Education Enrollment (2015 data) by Liberian County Grand Kru 0.59 River Gee 0.59 River Cess 0.61 Gbarpolu 0.64 Sinoe 0.65 Lofa 0.68 Grand Gedeh 0.75 Margibi 0.77 Maryland 0.77 Grand Bassa 0.80 Bong 0.81 Grand Mount 0.82 Nimba 0.82 Bomi 0.85 Average 0.90 Montserrado 1.01 SOURCE: World Bank 2018a 169. LISGIS 2014, 2020. 170. World Bank 2018a. EDUCATION 54 Nearly one-third of adult women lack any education at all, as the stock of human capital changes only slowly in relation to enrollment. Reflecting earlier gaps in attendance, women lag behind men at the lowest and highest levels of educational attainment. Some 31 percent of women ages 15 to 49 have no education at all, compared to 13 percent of men. Similarly, only 46 percent of women, as compared to 64 percent of men, ages 15 to 49 in Liberia have had at least some high school education (figure 10a). However, the situation is slowly improving for women. Whereas two out of five women ages 20 to 24 have not completed junior high school (although, given high overage enrollment, a few may still be in the process of doing so), this is less than half the share of women ages 45 to 49 (figure 10b). FIGURE 10 Population by Highest Level of Education and Age a. Population ages 15 to 49 by highest b. Female population not having completed junior level of education completed high; by age group Percent 80 0 20 40 Higher 60 Senior high Junior 40 high Elementary 20 No education 0 Female Male 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 SOURCE: Estimates based on LISGIS 2020. The DHS defines elementary school as lasting six years in Liberia, whereas junior and senior high each last three years. The risk of school dropout is highest in the early years of school, as reflected in low enrollment beyond primary levels. Just 44.4 percent of girls and 48.4 percent of boys in the first grade of primary school in 2016 were expected to reach the last grade of primary school. Children that do transition into secondary school levels have a higher chance of completing at least lower secondary; secondary education survival rates reach 81.5 percent for girls and 85.9 percent for boys.171 171. Children in the first grade of lower secondary education who are expected to reach the last grade of lower secondary education. Data retrieved from Education Statistics database. 55 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Women and girls made up almost half (46 percent) of all students enrolled in formal technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in 2016 but were segregated according to gender stereotypes. Women were much less likely to be enrolled in fields such as mechanics and metal works and much more likely to be involved in fields such as tailoring, home arts, and pastry making. Half of female TVET students were enrolled in three types of training programs: computer science (classes that focus mostly on secretarial computer use, word processing, and the like; 31 percent of total), home arts (12 percent), and tailoring (7 percent).172 Learning outcomes are generally low in Liberia, and gender gaps emerge among older cohorts Poor learning outcomes for both boys and girls persist in Liberia. The average child in Liberia that starts school at age four is expected to complete just 4.2 years of school by his or her 18th birthday, with little variation between boys and girls (2020 Human Capital Index).173 Worse, when adjusted for quality of education, two entire school years disappear, and the average number of years of expected effective learning is only 2.2—the lowest in the world in 2020. Girls outperform boys at primary levels. In the most recent Early Grade Reading Assessment (which is completed in grade 3), Liberia’s overall performance was below international benchmarks. Liberian girls performed better than boys in letter recognition, as well as in reading fluency and comprehension. Moreover, 35 percent of boys were nonreaders, compared to 25 percent of girls.174 Gender disparities reverse with age. In 2017, around 60 percent of students passed grade 9 and 12 examinations, but they did so at the lowest ranked 3rd division.175 Pass rates increased somewhat in recent years but remain in favor of boys (65 percent versus 62 percent for grade 9, and 59 percent versus 57 percent for grade 12). These low pass rates create critical barriers to continuing education. Nearly all of the 25,000 secondary school students who took the university entrance exam in 2016 failed, which illustrates Liberia's present deficiency in secondary level learning outcomes.176 Despite significant progress on literacy, adult women and youth lag behind men in basic functional skills. In Liberia, as elsewhere in West Africa, women are less likely to be literate than men (figure 11).177 Although the female adult literacy rate in Liberia increased from 27 percent in 2007 to 34 percent in 2017, the gap to male literacy rates (at 63 percent) is still nearly 30 percentage points.178 Rural and poor women are largely illiterate, although literacy rates have increased markedly for these groups: in the 172. EU 2018. 173. Girls are expected to complete an estimated 4.2 years, whereas boys are estimated to complete 4.1 years. 174. Republic of Liberia, Ministry of Education et al. 2016; USAID 2014. 175. World Bank 2018a. 176. Arias et al. 2019. 177. Data retrieved from Education Statistics Database. 178. Data retrieved from WDI database, based on UNESCO estimates. EDUCATION 56 2019–2020 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), 24 percent of women from the poorest quintile were literate, compared to 51 percent for men from the same quintile, and 77 percent for women from the highest wealth quintile.179 FIGURE 11 Adult Literacy Rates (Percentage of Population Ages 15+) Percent 0 20 40 60 Liberia Senegal Mauritania Sierra Leone Benin Sub-Saharan Africa Female Male NOTE: Data from Liberia, Senegal, and Mauritania is from 2017, whereas Sierra Leone’s, Benin’s, and Sub-Saharan Africa’s data is from 2018. SOURCE: Education Statistics database PILLARS OF EMPOWERMENT: GIRLS HAVE DEFINED EDUCATION GOALS, BUT SOCIAL NORMS, WEAK INSTITUTIONS, POVERTY, AND POOR INFRASTRUCTURE IMPEDE REALIZATION OF THOSE GOALS Girls’ access to quality school is limited due to restrictive social norms and institutions, scarce resources, and constraints to agency.180 Social norms—including girls’ household responsibilities as well as early childbearing and marriage—and a weak education system crowd out schooling for girls, particularly at secondary levels of education. Resource issues such as household financial constraints, poor school infrastructure, a lack of qualified teachers, and distances to schools affect children’s well- being and learning environment and are likely to affect vulnerable girls more. This is particularly true if the associated costs of education force parents to choose which children can and cannot go to 179. Note that the definition of literacy may differ for rates based on the DHS and those based on UNESCO data. 180. The small gender gap in educational enrollment and learning suggests that boys also face constraints to obtaining more quality education. The challenges facing boys are outside of the scope of this paper. 57 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS school. High rates of SGBV in schools and the difficulty of holding perpetrators of violence accountable negatively impact women’s and girls’ agency, or their ability to make decisions regarding their educational aspirations. Context: Social norms in the household and in schools combined with weak institutional protections make schooling a lower priority for girls than boys Social norms: expectations around girls becoming mothers and spouses, societal aversion to adolescent pregnancy, and power structures in schools lead to early dropout and unsafe conditions to continuing an education Social norms surrounding women’s role as caretakers versus income earners influence parents’ preference for investing in sons over daughters. Liberia’s patriarchal society dictates that women follow their husbands’ wishes,181 and therefore families may believe that investment in girls’ education will generate lower returns than investment in boys’ education.182 More than 12 percent of the population believe that education is more important for a boy than for a girl.183 Many men still view women’s education as a threat to their position. Focus group discussions (FGDs) reveal an opposition among a vast majority of men toward women’s education.184 This opposition reflects men’s concerns that allowing women to achieve higher levels of education would undermine men’s “natural” position of social dominance and authority within households and in the community and would lead women to neglect their traditional role as caregivers. Some women described husbands who do not allow their wives to work outside the home, especially in specific occupations that require higher skill levels, as husbands who wish to keep their wives in a subordinate role. So if your wife or your girlfriend is more educated than you, she will feel pompous at times even if you tell her say, don’t do this, she will feel within herself that, but I know more than that man. Male focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant 181. Stromquist et al. 2013. 182. World Bank 2018a. 183. Emile et al. 2020. 184. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. EDUCATION 58 Norms may slowly be shifting, however. Some of the younger male FGD participants expressed support for women’s education, although they were in the minority. Especially when asked to reflect upon their own daughters, men overwhelmingly stated that they would be supportive of their daughters becoming educated, in part to prevent them from being taken advantage of by other men in the future. And women described witnessing a shift within communities toward valuing girls’ education. Education was even seen as a means of avoiding abuse and sexual exploitation; education credentials would give women a job without having to provide sexual favors. Women in FGDs reported that role models—other successful women—provided inspiration for them to raise their own aspirations. Sande bush school membership (box 1) may be crowding out vulnerable girls’ formal education, with only weak measures in place to prevent such crowding. The government of Liberia has stipulated that Sande bush schools should not operate during the school term, but this rule is not enforced. Thus, reports indicate that girls continue to leave school to attend Sande schools.185 In addition, many girls are expected to—and often do—marry after their initiation into the Sande society, leading them to drop out of school altogether. Pressure from parents also contributes to the prevalence of girls leaving formal education in favor of Sande society membership. BOX 2 Sande Bush Schools in Liberia The Sande (female) and Poro (male) societies or bush schools are traditional societies that are seen as the trusted custodians of “culture” in much of Liberia and have been present in the region for centuries. They are seen as a means of transitioning from adolescence to adulthood. They exercise a strong influence over large segments of the population in the northern, western, and central regions of Liberia. The Sande society has traditionally been viewed as a means ovf giving women agency and a sense of community, in addition to having cultural ties to concepts of sexual and gender identity and fertility. Girls attending Sande schools are taught local customs, sex education, female hygiene, and housekeeping skills.186 As discussed in Chapter 1, FGM/C forms part of the initiation rites. In the 2019–2020 DHS, 75 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 19 had heard of the Sande society; out of these, 24 percent reported being members. This was still lower than for older age groups (38.5 percent of women ages 30 to 34 reported that they were members, and 55.1 percent of women ages 45 to 49). Rural women were twice as likely to be members than urban women, however. SOURCE: LISGIS 2020; UNMIL 2015 185. 28 Too Many 2014; Republic of Liberia, Ministry of Education et al. 2016. 186. Bush school trainings traditionally last three years, although the duration has diminished in recent years (28 Too Many 2014). 59 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Early family formation inhibits schooling. Women are encouraged to marry young and begin their family care roles during secondary-school age. The 2019–2020 DHS reported that among women ages 20 to 24, nearly 31 percent were married or in a union before the age of 18.187 Another 12 percent of girls ages 15 to 19 were already married or in a union during the survey. Due to early marriages and overage school enrollment in Liberia, the majority of women are married and/or have children by the time they begin postsecondary education.188 Combined with delayed entry into school and normative expectations surrounding women’s and girls’ household responsibilities once they marry, early unions hinder women’s and girls’ ability to pursue an education.189 Expectations for early family formation lead to a high prevalence of pregnancies among adolescents and young adults, further limiting Liberian women’s access to education. Some 30 percent of women ages 19 or less surveyed in the 2019–2020 DHS had already begun childbearing. Childbearing rates are even higher among teenagers in rural areas and from poor households. The UNICEF study of out-of- school children reported that 67 percent of surveyed households indicated pregnancy as a main reason a girl in their household had dropped out of school.190 In the FGDs, participants cited early pregnancy as one of two key obstacles to girls’ schooling (the other being financial constraints). FGD participants suggested that the COVID-19-imposed school closures will lead to girls permanently dropping out, as many will have become pregnant during their stay at home.191 They close school people stop going to school. Most of the female, them got pregnant. When school open now, they was not able to go. I know somebody that since the corona [virus pandemic], they [do not] go to school yet, because they got pregnant and they’re still taking care of their child. Female focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant Even though early family formation is generally expected, school officials often discriminate against pregnant students.192 The Ministry of Education does not require girls or women to leave school or attend night school while pregnant, but school officials often direct or encourage pregnant students to do so until after they have given birth. In many cases, pregnant girls are not allowed to return or are shamed into not returning to the school in which they had previously been enrolled, forcing them to 187. The age of consent for marriage is 18 under statutory law, but customary law considers the age of consent to be 16. 188. Stromquist et al. 2013. 189. Ibid. 190. UNICEF 2012. 191. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 192. Republic of Liberia, Ministry of Education et al. 2016. EDUCATION 60 either pursue their studies at night school (with much less instructional time, and increasing the safety risks associated with transportation) or discontinue their education. Young, unmarried pregnant girls or mothers are often stigmatized and marginalized by staff, fellow students, and the community at large.193 The social acceptance of violence as a disciplining device194 may have significant spillovers into sexual gender-based violence in schools. Ranging from verbal harassment to rape, and perpetrated by fellow students as well as staff or teachers, SGBV contributes to a threatening and unsafe environment, mental and physical harm, and unwanted pregnancies, all of which harm the well-being and educational outcomes for girls. Information on SGBV in schools is limited, but what is available suggests that it remains a significant issue. In a youth-focused phone survey undertaken by UNICEF, 86 percent of youth responded that sex for grades was a problem in Liberian schools.195 In one study, one in five students—male and female—reported being a survivor of sexual violence perpetrated by teachers or staff.196 SGBV crimes in schools persist partially due to the strong positive reputation of teachers within Liberian communities. In the case of sex for grades (sexual favors in exchange for grades, diplomas, certificates, and so forth), the implicit quid-pro-quo element may reduce students’ willingness to report coercion or outright rape for fear of reprisals.197 The position of authority and shortage of teachers tilt the power in favor of the perpetrator and raise the costs for students reporting crimes, who may face pressures to withdraw reports, change schools, or drop out.198 Yet, schools may also provide a safer haven for girls. An assessment of 300 students enrolled in Second Chance programs suggests that girls and boys felt unsafe in their community during COVID-19. However, the reasons varied by gender. Girls were less likely than boys to feel unsafe because of the virus itself. Instead, girls were more likely to worry about being exposed to traditional practices such as FGM/C as a result of being out of the protective school environment.199 Formal Institutions: the legal system does not adequately protect girls (and boys) from abuse in schools Institutional weaknesses negatively affect the learning environment. The government of Liberia is the main provider of education. The Ministry of Education is responsible for all educational services throughout the entire country (excluding Monrovia, whose schools are under the administration of 193. World Bank 2018a. 194. UN Women 2021. 195. U-Report 2015. 196. Postmus et al. 2015. 197. Eldén et al. 2020. 198. Zebede and Shahid 2016. 199. Based on in-depth interviews conducted in November 2020 with approximately 300 Luminos Second Chance students. https://luminosfund.org/hunger-safety-and-aspirations-new-data-on-student-well-being-during-covid-19-from-liberia/. 61 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Monrovia Consolidated School Systems). The Education Reform Act of 2011 restructured the Ministry of Education, reformed the structure of grades, and created a path toward decentralization through the establishment of county and district education boards (Republic of Liberia, Ministry of Education 2016). Although the education system is making some advances, it is still beset by a range of challenges that result in a lack of quality services for both boys and girls (box 3). BOX 3 Liberia’s Education System The Liberian education system faces many challenges. Government spending on education is low relative to that of comparator countries. In 2018, government expenditures on education accounted for 2.6 percent of GDP, compared to 3.3 percent in Côte d’Ivoire, 3.5 percent in Niger, 4.0 percent in Ghana, 5.4 percent in Burkina Faso, and 7.0 percent in Sierra Leone. Governance challenges include complex decision-making processes, limited administrative oversight, poor infrastructure, inadequate supplies, a lack of quality teachers, and weak school governance. Many public-school principals lack the training and resources to effectively manage their schools and staff. Additionally, district education officers (who are responsible for oversight and technical support) have limited resources to visit schools regularly and/or lack the expertise and tools for monitoring and evaluation. Moreover, an absence of Liberia-specific school quality standards and tools for measuring school quality renders it difficult to benchmark across schools and regions. The government of Liberia has advanced efforts toward improving educational outcomes, such as by making education from grades 1 to 9 compulsory and tuition-free. In addition, the government has prioritized expanding access to education for all. This is evidenced by the development of the Getting to Best Education Sector Plan 2017–2021, which focuses on improving the equity and quality of education. Components of this strategy include removing fees for early childhood education, regularly inspecting schools, training thousands of teachers, and developing a new national curriculum. SOURCE: Republic of Liberia, Ministry of Education 2016; World Bank 2018a The legal framework surrounding SGBV in schools lacks adequate enforcement mechanisms to be effective. Whereas the Education Reform Act of 2011 expanded the previous definition of sexual offenses to include sexual coercion, intimidation or blackmail, sexual assault, sexual abuse, impregnating a student, rape, and gang rape, it failed to define administrative punishments for sexual offenses by school administrators, school agents, or students.200 The law states that such offenses “shall be considered as sexual offenses which are criminalized under the Penal Law of Liberia, shall be prosecuted in a criminal court of competent jurisdiction and governed by the Criminal Procedure Law, 200. Cunningham, Gupta, and Jappah 2021. EDUCATION 62 and the penalty shall be prescribed by the Penal Law.” If a sexual offense occurs on school grounds, the school would consequently not be legally required to take action— such as terminating perpetrators’ employment or expelling student offenders—beyond reporting said offense to the police.201 Similarly, although the National Teachers and Administrators Code of Conduct states that teachers should not have sexual or romantic relations with a student in the school system or exploit students in exchange for grades, money, labor, or personal benefits, it does not provide any enforcement mechanisms.202 Resources: household poverty and poor or absent school infrastructure discourage girls’ school attendance Financial constraints limiting families’ ability to invest in all children impede school attendance for girls, particularly at the secondary school level. Both girls and boys face significant resource constraints in attending school (box 4). Whereas tuition for grades 1 through 9 is free, senior secondary school enrollment fees can be costly. Even at lower grades, many households are not able to afford school- related nonfee expenses,203 such as indirect costs (including uniforms, shoes, transportation, school supplies), and the opportunity cost or loss of income.204 Families that have insufficient resources to cover these costs for all children in the household often prefer to invest in sons rather than daughters,205 thus compromising girls’ educational opportunities. One study showed that financial constraints were the main reason behind school dropouts among out-of- school girls 12 to 15 years old in Monrovia.206 FGD participants in all age groups and locations mentioned school fees as one of the most important barriers to school attendance.207 High overage enrollment and early marriage also mean that young women may not be able to attend further schooling if they are to prioritize the education (and fees) of their children. Female FGD participants felt that their educational paths were extremely vulnerable to household income shocks such as a parent’s death. 201. Further data collection and analysis are needed to better understand the limitations of the law. For example, what type of support is provided to survivors to enable them to continue their education? How does the school report the violations to government authorities? What measures do schools take to ensure a safe environment for their students? And what steps does the government of Liberia take to hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes that occur within schools? 202. For more information, see Cunningham, Gupta, and Jappah 2021. 203. Zebede and Shahid 2016. 204. USAID 2017. 205. Emile et al. 2020. 206. World Bank 2016b. Of the girls that had dropped out, 73 percent cited household financial constraints. The study did not include information on boys. 207. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 63 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS When I was coming up in school, I graduated from the high school. At that time, my father was alive, he was sending me to school… I wanted to become a lawyer. It was my dream to become a lawyer, to plead especially for we the women. But the cold hands of death came and took my father away. Then I was not having the money to further my education. Sometimes, when I sit and see my friends them that I and them were in high school, forging ahead, it brings bad feelings to me. But that’s what life has to offer. Female focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant BOX 4 Constraints to girls’ and boys’ schooling in Liberia Lack of parental knowledge on the returns of education—including early childhood education—contributes to weak education outcomes. A UNICEF out-of-school study in Liberia found that 38 percent of parents indicated that their children were too young to attend school. In particular, parents expressed concerns that children below primary school age were not old enough to learn anything, which leads to low uptake of early childhood care and education, despite the many proven advantages. Poor health adversely affects children’s education in Liberia.208, 209 Some Liberian children are more likely to drop out early or be excluded entirely from education due to poor health, disability, and food insecurity.210 In a UNICEF study on out-of-school children, 17.8 percent and 5.8 percent of households cited poor health and disability, respectively, as reasons for dropout. Liberia’s supply of skilled teachers remains small relative to its demand, particularly in rural areas. Despite interventions such as the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) Plus program, many Liberian teachers still lack adequate training needed to effectively teach their students. According to the 2017 Ministry of Education Teacher Verification and Testing program, 40 percent of primary school teachers lack the minimum required knowledge of English to be effective instructors at the primary level. Liberia’s lack of well-trained teachers is even more prominent in rural areas, as poor quality of roads, limited transportation options, and a lack of safe housing all discourage qualified teachers from working in rural schools. SOURCE: UNICEF 2012; World Bank 2019a 208. Data on Liberian children out of school due to poor health was not disaggregated by gender. 209. For more information, see the chapter assessing health outcomes in Liberia. 210. Republic of Liberia, Ministry of Education et al. 2016. EDUCATION 64 Limited gender-appropriate latrines and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities particularly affect girls’ school attendance. According to a 2016 national assessment of WASH facilities in 5000 Liberian schools, 58 percent of schools had access to a water supply, 69 percent had sanitation facilities such as latrines, and 62 percent had access to hand-washing stations.211 Only 37 percent of schools had functional latrines that incorporated menstrual hygiene components such as disposal bins, water, and soap in the latrine stalls. Despite a near-even ratio of boys to girls in the surveyed schools, the ratio of males to male-only cubicles was 38:1, compared to 113:1 for female-only latrine cubicles. The absence of separate bathrooms for girls discourages them from coming to school on menstrual days and can also influence their decision to drop out of school. Menstruation poverty—the inability to afford material for menstrual bleeding—can also affect school attendance of vulnerable girls significantly.212 Distance to school and the risks associated with extensive travel to school are other major barriers to attendance, especially for girls. Studies from around the world have found that long distances between a girl’s home and school contributes to lower female attendance.213 The UNICEF study found that long distance from their home to the nearest school was the main reason for not attending for 12.4 percent of children, with rates in rural areas twice as high as those in urban areas (15.2 percent versus 7.6 percent in urban areas).214 The risk of SGBV while in transit renders girls’ mobility even more vulnerable than boys. Lack of female teachers may reduce adaptation of education and school context to girls’ needs. There is an overall lack of qualified teachers in Liberia’s school—and, in particular, female teachers. At secondary levels, only 9 percent of teachers are female (11 percent in junior high, and 7 percent in senior high school).215 The low share of female students passing through secondary education also implies that few women have fulfilled the basic criteria for enrolling in teacher colleges. The share of female teachers is the lowest in public schools, and there are very few women in school management.216 Although there is no strong evidence that female teachers positively impact girls’ school performance,217 a stronger presence of female teachers could contribute to adapting teaching and school environment to female needs, heighten students’ aspirations, and protect girls from violence. 211. UNICEF 2016. 212. Garcon et al. 2021. 213. Many parents do not allow daughters to attend school due to potential danger during the walk to school. Moreover, in conflict settings, girls have been targeted by armed groups and government forces (Theirworld 2017). Studies have found that reducing travel time to school has positive effects on girls’ educational outcomes. For instance, in India’s Bihar state, a government program granting every 14-year-old girl a bicycle resulted in a 32 percent increase in girls’ secondary school enrollment (Neal 2017). 214. UNICEF 2012. 215. World Bank 2018a. 216. USAID 2017. 217. https://www.cgdev.org/blog/are-female-teachers-better-girls-education. 65 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Agency: girls have defined educational goals despite constraints they face in reaching them Education is an issue of critical importance for Liberian youth, particularly for young women. According to a report that surveyed 13,472 Liberian youth in 2017,218 education and employment were the top challenges they wanted to see most urgently addressed. By gender, education was the top issue for female respondents, whereas employment was the top issue for male respondents.219 In FGDs, women pointed to education as the main instrument for raising their sense of self-worth and building a better life, including being able to avoid hazardous work such as sex work. Younger women (in the 18-to-24-year age range) also focused on educational ambition as an important determinant related to pregnancy prevention. Because you will know your value, because if you go to school … no man will just take you and carry you to their house to go sleep with you for just $30 or $20 dollars USD, so you will know what you want in life. Female focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant Women also considered school attendance as central to their ability to accomplish their career goals. In FGDs, women showed great pride in their being able to attend school and considered it a key to individual economic and social success and future leadership in their communities. Women who go to school were considered role models. School was seen as a significant source of building confidence and self-worth, providing women with independent and unbiased information on where their talents lay.220 I going to school, I know what I taking in class, and I know what I good at. So, if I good at English, when I further my education, I will do English. When I’m good at biology, when I go in the field, I’ll do science courses. So, my father, or my parents, they don’t have power over my education. What I want to do, what I want to become. I know what I want to do in the society. Female focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant 218. Approximately 70 percent of respondents were male, whereas nearly 30 percent were female. 219. U-Report 2017. 220. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. EDUCATION 66 Women express goals for education and a general sense of self-confidence in accomplishing their goals but also recognize financial dependence on family members. In focus group discussions, women often described having a general sense of self-confidence in their ability to accomplish their educational goals. The capacity for setting goals appeared not to be an issue, but women also recognized the importance of resource constraints and the dependence on others—family, relatives, husband, boyfriends—to fund their education and achieve these aspirations.221 For we the youth, we shouldn’t let anything hold us down, from continuing our education, when we do what, like I say I want be IT, we shouldn’t stop pushing, we should continue, because before you become someone, you have to pass through things but don’t stop, continue pushing forward. Female focus group (ages 18 to 24) discussion participant Concluding remarks: closing the education gap Girls and women in Liberia have notable educational aspirations, but societal norms, weak institutions, and lack of resources prevent them from realizing their goals. Girls and women do set goals for education—but they are held back by lack of resources and societal expectations. Reducing resources constraints, both on the demand side (cash transfers) and supply side (school infrastructure, safe transportation, high-quality teachers) is key. However, it will also be necessary to influence societal norms that celebrate male superiority; depict educated girls as a threat; indirectly or directly foster very early family formation, which is a major cause of dropout; and perpetuate violence as a disciplinary or transactional practice in schools. 221. Ibid. CHAPTER 4 LABOR AND GENDER Liberian women’s work plays a central role in supporting families and providing rural and urban markets with food, consumer goods, and services. Their hard work does not pay off sufficiently, however—they are more likely to work in low-productivity jobs and sectors than men, thus earning lower income. Liberia’s high poverty, low job-growth economy is not creating enough productive employment for either men or women, but women are even less likely than men to work in stable wage jobs or more profitable business activities. Women in Liberia express aspirations for their careers and businesses. However, social/customary norms prioritize women’s roles as family caretakers and men’s as income earners and property owners. This lack of freedom to act upon labor market or entrepreneurial career aspirations and lack of access to assets, especially land, are significant constraints to women’s access to productive jobs. OUTCOMES: WOMEN HAVE HIGH RATES OF EMPLOYMENT IN LOW-QUALITY JOBS Female labor force participation and employment rates are high in Liberia, although women remain outside of higher-productivity activities and more stable and higher-earning wage jobs. Women make up nearly half of the economically active population in Liberia, produce the major share of agricultural output, and dominate trading activities in rural areas.222 Some 73 percent of women are active in the labor market, compared to 83 percent of men. This reflects high employment rates among both men and women: 72 percent of women are employed, compared to 80 percent of men. 222. According to 2008 data cited in FAO 2018, women account for approximately 60 percent of agricultural output in Liberia, make up more than half of crop farmers, and carry out 80 percent of trading activities in rural areas. 69 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Unemployment rates are low, at around 2.5 percent compared to 3.9 percent for men (table 1). The share of employed women in Liberia is higher than or similar to those of regional comparators (figure 12) and largely reflects subsistence work and a need to gain labor income, in the absence of other forms of support. Although informality is the norm in Liberia, women are even more likely than men to work in small-scale, unregistered household enterprises and are considerably less likely to be in wage jobs. Within agricultural and nonagricultural sectors, women are crowded into less-productive activities characterized by intense competition and limited growth opportunities. Liberian women’s work patterns reflect their own resilience in taking care of themselves and their children. In focus group discussions, women described clearly that they felt that they could not rely on others to support them and their children, so they themselves needed to work.223 Yes, because the country hard and when you sit down nobody want help you. Your own pa (father) self-get money they will not give you money, your boyfriend get money they will not give you money, so you got to sell for yourself for you and your children to survive. For example, your man will born 5 children by you, [then] they will leave you with the children and you will not look at your children to suffer. You the woman now, because that you bear your pain. Female focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant Rural women are much more likely than urban women to work. In rural areas, about three in four women ages 15 to 24 (74.3 percent) and nine out of 10 women ages 25 to 64 (89.2 percent) are working. These high levels of employment reflect the high level of subsistence work in agriculture. In urban areas, where access to secondary education is higher and agricultural work opportunities are limited, the share of employed female youth (ages 15 to 24) is 43 percent, whereas 76 percent of urban adult women (ages 25 to 64) are working (table 1). Unemployment rates are relatively low in both urban and rural areas. The jobless are instead largely inactive: only 12 percent of women are studying, while 15 percent are inactive but not in school. 223. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. LABOR AND GENDER IN LIBERIA 70 TABLE 1 Key Labor Market Indicators for Liberia Not in Labor employ- force Employ- ment, partici- Unemploy- ment-to- Inactive, education, pation ment population not in Inactive, or training Age rates* rates** ratio school in school (NEET) ALL 15-64 77.9% 2.5% 75.4% 10.3% 11.7% All Male 15-64 82.8% 3.9% 79.6% 5.3% 11.8% All Female 15-64 73.4% 2.5% 71.6% 14.9% 11.6% Rural 15-24 76.6% 0.4% 76.2% 5.1% 18.1% 5.5% Male 25-64 96.8% 0.6% 96.2% 2.9% 0.3% Rural 15-24 74.7% 0.4% 74.3% 14.4% 10.3% 14.7% Female 25-64 89.6% 0.4% 89.2% 10.2% 0.1% Urban 15-24 50.0% 2.0% 48.0% 8.8% 41.2% 10.8% Male 25-64 92.2% 6.8% 85.5% 5.3% 2.5% Urban 15-24 44.5% 1.6% 42.9% 16.1% 39.3% 17.7% Female 25-64 79.1% 3.4% 75.7% 17.9% 3.0% * The number in the reference group who are working or searching for work, as a share of the working-age population in that reference group. ** The share of the labor force (working and unemployed) looking for work. Source: Estimates based on the International Income Distribution Database (I2D2) Harmonized Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) (2016) FIGURE 12 Employment-to-Population Ratio (Percentage), Ages 15 to 64 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 Senegal The Sierra Guinea- Guinea Benin Ghana Liberia Gambia Leone Bissau Female Male SOURCE: Estimates based on International Income Distribution Database (I2D2) harmonized data 71 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS There are manifest differences in the transition from school to work between female and male youth (ages 15 to 24). Young women are more likely than young men to be out of school and jobless (unemployed or inactive): 15 percent of rural girls/women and 18 percent of urban girls/women are neither working nor studying, compared to 6 and 11 percent, respectively, of boys/men. As discussed in Chapter 3, these gender gaps are likely to reflect high household poverty, the role of girls in household work, and early marriage and childbearing affecting female access to schooling and work. Liberian women work almost exclusively in agriculture or small-scale trade. In total, 86 percent of female jobs are either in agriculture or in trade. These two sectors have the lowest levels of productivity (and thus offer lowest opportunities for earnings) in the economy. The latest household level data (from 2016) shows that agriculture is an important sector of employment for both women and men, accounting for 45 percent of female work—and also 45 percent for male work (figure 13). However, men working in the non-agricultural sector are significantly more diversified across sectors than women, which provides men with higher and more diversified earning opportunities. Male workers are more likely to work in industry than women are; only 3 percent of women work in mining, manufacturing, utilities, and construction, compared to 14 percent of men. Within the services sector, women are much less likely than male workers to work in public administration (7 percent versus 14 percent of total employment, respectively) and transport (virtually no women) and are much more likely to be in commerce (40 percent versus 15 percent, respectively). Three out of four women in the nonagricultural sector work in commerce. FIGURE 13 Employment by Gender and Main Sector of Work 0 20 40 60 80 100 Total Female Male Agriculture Mining Manufacturing Public Utilities Construction Commerce Transportation and Communication Financial and Business Public Administration Other Services SOURCE: Estimates based on I2D2 Harmonized HIES (2016) LABOR AND GENDER IN LIBERIA 72 Women are overrepresented in self-employment and unpaid work, with limited access to wage jobs. In Liberia, as in other low-income countries in West Africa, a majority of those who work create their own informal micro-firms, few of which are productive enough to hire workers outside of their family. The vast majority of women are working for themselves (79 percent) or their families (11 percent). Although conditions vary, wage work tends to offer better and more secure earnings opportunities than non- wage work (being self-employed or unpaid). Fewer than one in 10 women are engaged in wage work, compared to one in three men. As a result, women are also more likely than men to work informally; 94 percent of women, compared to 79 percent of men, are informally employed. Women in focus group discussions explained that informal self-employment has low barriers to entry in terms of skills and resources and provides immediate modest income in an economy where wage jobs are not available or accessible.224 Most women think of doing strictly about market. Majority are saying that [there is] no job ... [but] you [can] pick up wheelbarrow and start selling.... I say because [there is] no job. Even if you get out of school, [there is] no job. You [can] buy your goods put it in a wheelbarrow, you start pushing it, and start selling in the market. Female focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant Within sectors, women tend to be engaged in the lowest productivity jobs. Women are less likely to work in cash crop production than men (31.5 percent of women compared to 48.5 percent of men, in 2013). Female-headed farming households tend to have less diverse income streams than male-headed households, work on smaller plots, and be less likely to participate in markets (sell crops).225 Compared to male-headed nonfarm enterprises (NFEs), female-headed NFEs are less diversified, as four out of five are in wholesale and retail trade activities. They are also smaller in size, leading to lower profitability.226 Within the trade sector, women are engaged in lower-value commerce, especially food.227 The earnings and productivity gaps between men and women reflect the situation for female entrepreneurs in Sub- Saharan Africa as a whole (box 5). 224. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 225. Johansson de Silva et al. Forthcoming. 226. Ibid. 227. Weedon and Heaner 2016. 73 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS BOX 5 Women Entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa Many African women are, de facto, entrepreneurs, running a household enterprise as self-employed. Almost half of women working in non-agricultural sectors are self-employed. Yet, drawing on survey data for 14 countries, a World Bank study showed that female-owned businesses lag behind those owned by males. Female-owned businesses have lower profits (two-thirds) than males, and this gap persists across different levels of profits. They also create fewer jobs. The study highlighted that these earnings gaps are largely due to different behavior of female entrepreneurs compared to males. Women invest less capital and labor in their activities; are less likely to adopt advanced business practices; operate in more crowded markets; are less willing to compete, especially in gender-mixed contexts; and have lower levels of education and skills. What accounts for these suboptimal business choices? Social norms affect how work and investment are split among household members and their respective enterprises. Women may find it optimal to operate more flexible but less profitable enterprises to balance many competing family responsibilities. Social norms also affect sector and occupational choice, relegating women to certain jobs, which are often less profitable than typically male sectors or occupations. Norms may also shape the behavior of those who engage with women entrepreneurs, resulting in discrimination by clients, suppliers, or investors. Women also have less access to digital tools, education, and skills and suffer from a lack of networks and information. Women may fear increased gender-based violence if success and financial independence are perceived as a threat by partners. These norms are reinforced by legal (actual or customary) discrimination in terms of access to labor, land, and assets. The same norms affect women’s confidence and aspirations, as well as their development of managerial capacities, risk preferences, and willingness to compete. Source: Campos and Gassier 2017; World Bank 2019b Among wage workers, women earn less than their male colleagues, but gender gaps narrow with higher levels of education (figure 14). The average gender wage gap is equivalent to about 14 percent. Women wage workers are also more likely to be low earners: 40 percent earn less than a monthly salary of 6,000 Liberian dollars (approximately US$30), compared to just 22 percent of men. This reflects very limited female participation in higher-paying sectors in mining and other industry jobs, and in higher levels of authority within public administration.228 However, returns to education are higher for women than men. A completion of secondary education was associated with an increase of 44.5 percent and 62.3 percent in wages for male and female workers, respectively, in 2016. Having reached a postsecondary level of education was associated with 97.2 percent and 114.9 percent higher wages for male and female workers, respectively. As observed in Chapter 3, the gender education gap is in favor of men, so although more-educated women may earn more than similarly educated men, there are fewer more-educated women in the workforce. 228. NDI (National Democratic Institution) 2018. LABOR AND GENDER IN LIBERIA 74 FIGURE 14 Distribution of Monthly Wages, Male and Female .00008 Male and Female Wage Density .00006 .00004 .00002 0 0 20000 40000 60000 80000 Wages Male Wages Female Wages SOURCE: Estimates based on I2D2 Harmonized HIES (2016) Given their high dependence on informal trade, women’s livelihoods have been strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Rapid phone surveys in a set of African countries (Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda) show that urban informal household enterprises have been most affected by the pandemic.229 This gender gap is reflected globally, through evidence that female-owned enterprises have been more likely to close down during the pandemic. Women, who tend to cluster in the urban informal sector in Liberia, have been especially hard hit by social distancing rules as well as falling demand. FGDs report that women relied on selling goods in the market and indicated that their earnings were severely affected by the pandemic-induced movement restrictions, which caused a significant decline in the number of customers.230 229. Johansson de Silva et al. Forthcoming. 230. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 75 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS PILLARS OF EMPOWERMENT: ALL THREE PILLARS LIMIT WOMEN’S SUCCESS IN THE LABOR MARKET Social norms reinforcing women’s traditional role in the household—along with institutional challenges to reporting workplace violations and vague legislative provisions protecting women’s rights—hinder women’s ability to find and maintain productive employment. Resource constraints such as lack of skills limit women’s success in the labor market. Finally, women’s limited decision-making power and low confidence in their abilities as entrepreneurs create unequal gender labor outcomes. Context: Factors at the societal, institutional, and household level limit women’s economic opportunities Social norms prioritize women’s homecare role over their economic role Norms in Liberia set the expectation that women should be a household’s primary—if not only— homemaker and caregiver, which significantly affects their employment opportunities. Liberian women are expected to take care of most household activities, including cooking, fetching wood and water, cleaning, childbearing and rearing, and taking care of sick family members.231 These can be very time consuming: for example, only 19 percent of the population live in households with water on the premises.232 Women find themselves severely time constrained, especially in the absence of time-saving technology and utilities. As a result, they engage in flexible forms of economic activities that can be undertaken at least partly within the household boundaries, such as farming or self-employed petty trading. The man there to work for the money and bring it to the woman. Woman there to take care of the home, wash the man’s clothes, cook for him to eat, go to work on time everything, put his water on the fire… Male focus group (ages 25 to 35) participant Many men have reservations about their partners working outside of the home. Male FGD participants expressed a fear that if a woman were to work outside the home, she would no longer recognize the man’s dominance within the household.233 Many men also expressed resentment that allowing their 231. FAO 2018. 232. LISGIS 2020. 233. UN Women (2021) argues that traditional gender roles (such as women caring for the household) are rooted in the LABOR AND GENDER IN LIBERIA 76 partners to engage in outside work would imply that they themselves would have to contribute to household chores, which they view as insulting to their manhood. Others described women’s activities outside of the household sphere as suspicious and felt they could not trust their partners to be faithful, given that they would encounter other men while at work. A minority of men, especially younger ones, showed a more supportive and positive view toward women working and sharing household responsibilities.234 Now, both of us will have to meet and discuss, whether we can look for house girl, because it will not be good for a man to stay at home and be doing the work of the woman. It’s a big disgrace to that particular man. Male focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant Social norms regarding the types of jobs that are considered “men’s jobs” hinder women’s ability to access many types of work. Focus group discussions revealed admiration for women who dared to cross over into nontraditional trades, and also a certain amount of frustration, especially among younger women who felt bound by stereotypes associated with women’s abilities to perform in occupations that require physical labor or technical skills.235 Like digging [a] septic tank, people saying oh but this thing that you doing [is] men work, but what men can do, woman can do the same. [A] woman can dig septic tank, [a] man can dig septic tank. Sometime some of the women self can be much stronger than the men in doing the process, so don’t mind what people say. People always saying things what they not supposed to say... Female focus group (ages 18 to 24) discussion participant The prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace affects women’s employment choices and profitability. Cultural norms often pervade and dictate the work environment.236 Several women in dynamics of social power relations. 234. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 235. Ibid. 236. UN Women 2021. 77 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS FGDs related a situation where many were queuing for high-status jobs in the formal sector, which gave rise to abuse of authority and expectations to perform sexual favors in order to receive a job.237 Other qualitative assessments on job training programs in Liberia and Rwanda found that young women preferred self-employment or female-dominated industries due to threats of sexual harassment in wage jobs.238 Women’s aversion to certain occupations due to fears of sexual harassment may hence lead to the crowding of women into specific sectors and jobs where such risks are low but where returns to labor also are inferior.239 However, self-employment is not shielded from sexual harassment and violence. “Sextortion”—a situation of corruption where a person in authority abuses that authority by requesting sexual favors in exchange for permits, transactions, and so on—is a pervasive problem in certain sectors, such as cross-border trade.240 In our country ... you need to get contact... Because we now try so many times for work ... people will tell you to go [and] come back, [so] you'll come back, [and] they'll tell you things they are not supposed to tell you ... like you give me money, or I will know about you [sic have sex with you] ... they say ‘nothing for nothing.’ They must have sex with you [to give you the job.] Female focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant Formal and informal institutions are designed to protect men or are of limited relevance in the Liberia context The limited labor market and the large size of the informal sector imply that legal frameworks for asset ownership impact women’s employment situation more than labor laws covering the employer- employee relationship. High informality means that provisions for equal pay, representation, parental leave, pensions, and other forms of income insurance do not apply to the vast majority of female (or even male) workers. Hence, an overwhelming challenge in Liberia is the low coverage of working women by any legal framework, whether gender responsive or not. Instead, formal and informal institutions governing asset ownership, especially land, have an impact on women’s opportunities for farming and nonfarming activities.241 Land and other property rights are particularly important for women’s economic 237. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 238. Chakravarty et al. 2017. 239. NoVo Foundation et al. 2019. 240. Eldén et al. 2020; IFC 2014. 241. UN Women (2021) argues that land ownership is one of the greatest challenges that women face in achieving equality in the agricultural sector. LABOR AND GENDER IN LIBERIA 78 empowerment, as land can be used for agriculture or business development, or as a means with which to access credit.242 Statutory laws have increasingly incorporated rights for women’s land ownership, although some inequalities remain. For example, the Equal Rights of the Customary Marriage Act (ERCM) from 1998 states that women have the right to the property that they bring into a marriage. However, they must still get their husband’s permission regarding how to use it. Moreover, there are no provisions for how property acquired during the marriage should be handled (see below). Partially in response to the limited decision-making power regarding land held by women in traditional communities, the government of Liberia passed the Land Rights Act (LRA) of 2018, which provided equal land governance and management rights to men and women. Under the LRA, women are defined as legally able to own land and participate in land-related decisions. However, the newness of the law—combined with persistent cultural opposition to women’s land ownership—has made implementation difficult. Customary laws impede the advances in property rights that are defined in statutory laws. In Liberia’s traditional communities, property ownership is largely arbitrated by community leaders based on customary laws.243 Much of the land is owned by the community, and households are given user rights. Often, the male member of the household—who clears the land and who is usually part of the community—is seen as the “owner” of the land. If the family breaks up, a woman will forfeit her claims to land ownership. As a result, she may be forced to return to her own community, where she would have to rely on her family to request a piece of land, despite the contributions and investments she may have made to her husband’s community and property. These laws have wider implications, though, because the risks of losing property rights make women a poorer credit risk than men and also limit their options in agricultural production. The gaps between statutory and customary laws make enforcement difficult. Customary laws perpetuate women’s limited ownership of assets across generations, as well. As a norm, daughters tend to receive a smaller share of the inheritance compared to their male siblings, despite equality under the law. Even if they are able to access their rightfully owed land or property, daughters often do not have full control over their inherited assets. 244 The current legal framework for employment reflects much of International Labour Organization (ILO) best practice, but it is disconnected with Liberian norms and institutions. Many aspects of Liberian labor law have been shaped according to international standards. A main legislative piece— the Decent Work Act (DWA) of 2015—promotes the rights of workers and prohibits discrimination within the workplace, including in employee selection, recruitment, hiring, remuneration, promotions, and training.245 The DWA does not, however establish policies to address structural barriers, gender 242. World Bank 2018b. 243. Customary law, which is recognized by Liberia’s Constitution, includes the values, norms, and traditions of a tribal group that are practiced by a community over a long period of time. 244. FAO 2018. 245. SIGI (Social Institutions and Gender Index) 2019. 79 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS stereotypes, and social norms that prevent women’s equal access to—and participation in—Liberia’s labor market. Provisions for equal pay for equal work are not sufficiently specific to be operational, as “work of equal or comparable value” is not defined in the DWA and hence is subject to employer interpretation. Women who are public sector employees (fewer than 3 percent of female jobs) are not covered by the DWA moreover, but by a different legislation. Sexual harassment in the workplace is criminalized, but de facto immunity is high and enforcement weak. In the DWA, prescribed penalties are similar to other labor violations and include a cease-and- desist order, affirmative and remedial action, or the payment of a fine no greater than US$500.246 The Civil Service Standing Orders (CSSO), which applies to public sector employees, provides a clearer definition and includes sexual harassment-specific penalties and the possibility for dismissal of the violator. In practice, however, application is weak as there is no defined process for filing complaints, holding the employer (that is, the government) liable, or ensuring the confidentiality of the complaint. There are also no provisions for offering services to the survivor. 247 Resources: lower levels of human, physical, and social capital hinder women’s economic potential, as compared to men’s Most Liberian females lack the education and skills needed for accessing higher-earning employment. More than one-fifth of private firms in Liberia report that young workers, even those with higher education, have poor information and communication technology (ICT) and writing skills,248 and a study of household enterprises suggested that lack of workplace skills in potential workers is the main deterrent for hiring workers outside of the family.249 This reflects a combination of a lack of access, as well as the poor quality of instruction. As seen, access to at least secondary education has significant payoff in females’ earning opportunities, but few girls continue into and graduate from secondary education levels and even if they do, learning outcomes are poor (see Chapter 3). Women also own fewer assets and lack access to financial capital. Data from 2006 showed that just 16 percent of women, compared to 33 percent of men, owned land in 2006, and 11 percent of women owned land titles compared to 20 percent of men.250 Women’s access to financial capital is further constrained because women, in particular, remain unbanked in Liberia. Only 28 percent of women had a bank account in 2017, compared to 44 percent of men in the same year.251 These figures are comparable with those of other West African countries. Lack of collateral (due to limited property ownership, in turn due to poverty as well as norms and customary laws penalizing women) is a major issue for accessing 246. Whether this is in US dollars or Liberian dollars is not explicitly indicated in the law; however, the assumption is US dollars (as 500 Liberian dollars is less than 5 US dollars.) 247. For more information, see the chapter on laws governing labor and employment. 248. Arias et al. 2019. 249. Weedon and Heaner 2016. 250. World Bank 2007. 251. Data retrieved from Global Financial Inclusion database. LABOR AND GENDER IN LIBERIA 80 credit. At the same time, FGDs suggested women did not ask for credit due to their high risk aversion.252 Lack of knowledge of regulations and rules increases women’s vulnerability to harassment. Harassment and abuse by different authorities (police, officials) are perceived to be major constraints to household enterprise growth.253 Knowledge gaps around rights and regulations increase the opportunity for abuse. Although information gaps may not differ between men and women, the high incidence of gender-based violence in the form of sexual harassment by persons in authority means that women may be more negatively affected than men by imperfect information. Liberian women lack access to business networks, whether as job seekers or entrepreneurs. FGDs revealed that many women felt they lacked the necessary connections (with community leaders or politicians) to get wage jobs, especially in the formal sector. They also pointed to tribal and community ties as sometimes essential to finding a job.254 Meanwhile, institutional support to address such constraints is weak. A study of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Liberia showed that schools do not generally provide employment services—such as intermediation, workplace training, or job search assistance—that could connect students to the job market. Successful Liberian women entrepreneurs often cite mentors and role models as significant for acquiring business skills and raising aspirations.255 Business networks can serve as opportunities for accessing capital, making contacts, receiving mentorship, and gaining market information. However, few women’s associations focus on entrepreneurship and business development, and female business owners are less present in business networks such as the Liberian Business Association.256 If you go to … to seek for job, the person going to ask you, maybe for Bong county, they believe in tribalism, and your name. They going to ask you what is your name? If your name is not “Tokpa” or “Flomo,” you are not going to get the job. Female focus group (ages 18 to 24) discussion participant 252. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 253. Weedon and Heaner 2016. 254. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. 255. IFC 2014; European Union 2018. 256. IFC 2014. 81 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Poor infrastructure, combined with household responsibilities, puts high demands on women’s time, thus limiting their labor activities, particularly in rural communities. Poor WASH infrastructure results in a higher incidence of diarrhea and cholera, which disproportionately affect women and girls expected to stay home and take care of the sick.257 Weak road networks increase the transportation time and opportunity cost of reaching markets, while also limiting access to other locations where women and girls need to engage, including for fuelwood collection. This reduces women’s availability for market-based activities, even though they are more likely to run nonfarm household enterprises in the retail/wholesale sector, which heavily depend on frequent market access. Agency: women identify ambitious career goals but face challenges in reaching these goals Women in Liberia aspire to successful careers as employees or entrepreneurs but put aside these dreams to manage daily challenges or because of their assumptions that they do not have the means to reach their goals. In focus group discussions, some women described dreams of working in higher-status occupations such as nursing or office work, especially in the public sector. However, they did not pursue these dreams due to a lack of resources, little education, and insufficient or absent family support.258 Although many women are self-employed, in the FGDs they generally did not describe self- employment as a part of a larger calculated plan for their careers or employment trajectory. Rather, these kinds of business activities were a fallback solution or the product of a need for an immediate source of income to meet their own and their families’ basic needs. Women expressed feelings of deep responsibility to ensure that their families were insulated from economic hardship and indicated that this led them to engage in available employment or activities that often required low skills and low upfront investment. because why I want go to do the business, I was going to school, no hand, no one there to help me to go to school, while I stop doing the work, to sell. Female focus group (ages 18 to 24) discussion participant 257. FAO 2018. 258. Gupta, Gausman, and Cunningham 2021. LABOR AND GENDER IN LIBERIA 82 Most women like to do the farming job because they want to sustain they and their family, and other people. Because when they go to make the farm, if that rice farm for example, they will eat some of the rice, and they will sell some in the market to earn money. Female focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant At the same time, the clear positive view and aspirations for education also suggest that women believe that they deserve to have successful careers and that this will strengthen their agency in other domains. In focus group discussions, education is clearly viewed as a ticket to better jobs, and better jobs as paving the way for more independence and higher individual standing. This suggests women did not lack the capacity to set goals, but that the lack of resources, including education, was considered a key constraint to acting upon them. Successful female mentors also have a role to play; one qualitative study of Liberian female TVET students found that women who had ventured into male- dominated and better-paying trades had been inspired to do so by female role models (instructors, workers, or entrepreneurs).259 The FGD participants also expressed the belief that women who choose more ambitious goals or cross gender barriers must work extra hard in order to overcome prejudice. The first time I saw her doing plumbing job, I felt like she was looking unserious, she was looking so funny, but she didn’t mind my talking... That’s what her heart desire and it come to pass... [She was successful] because she put more time in her plumbing job, she put [in] more effort. Female focus group (ages 18 to 24) discussion participant Women clearly express their right to control their own earnings within the household, but this view is generally not shared by men. Data from the 2019–2020 DHS shows that nearly 90 percent of women report that they decided how to use their personal earnings, either on their own or with their 259. European Union 2018. 83 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS husbands.260 The FGDs reflect a similar perception, where the majority of women respondents believed they had the right to control their own earnings within the household. Most women explained very simply that because they were the ones to earn the money, they were the ones to make the decisions about how to use it. Because when I was getting it, I struggle for it one, and secondly, I have power to use it because it’s my own. Female focus group (ages 18 to 24) discussion participant Women’s actual control of the money they earn, however, may be limited. Most men felt women should not be solely responsible for making financial decisions. Women are expected to consult with their husbands before purchasing land or using their houses as collateral for financial services, even though men are able to make such decisions without consulting their wives.261 The fact that women reported avoiding financial credit to avoid the pressure to spend additional money toward their family rather than invest in their businesses is evidence of limited agency, even when they are business owners. Female business owners are independently managing their businesses. In the focus group discussions, the vast majority of self-employed women reported making the day-to-day decisions regarding their business activities. Very few participants described their husbands or parents as being involved in their business decisions. Women described feeling confident in making their own decisions, as they were the ones who decided to go into business, they understood the market and their product, and they are the ones controlling what they do with the earnings. For self-employed, like business, when you doing business, at the end of the day, you will know what you earning. Nobody will ask you how much you get, or how much I coming pay you. Yourself will be employed for yourself. Female focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant 260. UN Women 2021. 261. Almodóvar-Reteguis et al. 2013. LABOR AND GENDER IN LIBERIA 84 Nevertheless, Liberian women lack confidence in their abilities as entrepreneurs, which contributes to their unwillingness to apply for loans. A study of female entrepreneurs found that many Liberian women do not “think big, long term, and take risks,” which is reflected in the small and informal nature of their businesses.262 As a result, women seek sources of finance that they perceive to be easier and safer. A higher share of women than men responded “because I knew I couldn’t get a loan” as the main reason for not applying for loans, in 2007 and 2012 surveys.263 In FGDs, women did not express strong goals for their businesses. Women feared being placed in a vulnerable situation if they owed money, and some did not trust their own ability to ensure profitable businesses. Some women feared pressure (internal or from others in the household) to invest in the family instead of the business, which would then prevent them from paying back the loan. Yeah, because they get sometime when you take the loan, business can be running and you can be able to get the money to pay back. But they get certain times that can reach if you take the people money, and business not running, and at the same time, you and your family your eating in that money, the money will climb on you, and it will even cause for you to lose your property. If you get property, you can even lose the property. Female focus group (ages 25 to 35) discussion participant Concluding remarks—closing the earnings and jobs gap Liberian women play a key role in the economy as entrepreneurs and family providers, but their entrepreneurial success and careers are limited by multiple responsibilities, lack of skills and assets, and limited agency. Women, either themselves or via their spouses, prioritize their homecare responsibilities and make market work decisions as a response to the other responsibilities. As a result, women work in more flexible, but less lucrative, work. Social norms, in terms of relations between men and women, permeate the workplace, thus limiting women’s options. Although women have career aspirations, they feel constrained by their lower levels of education, risk aversion, and low confidence in being able to secure a loan, run a successful business, or control their earnings. 262. IFC 2014. 263. IFC (International Finance Corporation) 2014. CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS Liberia has made important strides in reducing gender gaps and improving the situation for girls and women. In 2006, Liberia elected Africa’s first female head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, setting a role model for Liberian and African women. The government has put in place the legal basis to foster women’s rights in the workplace, guarantee equal land governance rights to men and women, and make education from grades 1 to 9 compulsory and tuition free, thereby including girls. Compared with 20 years ago, Liberian women live longer and generally healthier lives. Access to schooling remains very limited for both girls and boys, but gender gaps in access to primary education have been erased. Liberian women place importance on education as a means of raising self-worth and opportunities, express their right to make decisions regarding their bodies and their resources, and aspire to fulfilling work opportunities. However, there is a strong need to invest more and better in Liberia’s people, paying specific attention to its girls and women. In part, poor outcomes for women and men reflect the pervasive poverty, inadequate access to health and education services, and low creation of stable and well-paid jobs that affect both females and males in Liberia. However, girls and women remain even more vulnerable than boys and men, particularly concerning sexual and reproductive health and rights, access to post primary education and productive employment, and their rights to manage assets and income. Although health outcomes have improved in Liberia, female health levels remain poor, reflected in nutritional deficiencies, high maternal mortality rates, and high vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections with 87 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS high mortality rates. Adolescent fertility rates remain high even when set against other low-income countries in Liberia. Access to schooling is extremely limited for both girls and boys, but beginning at secondary education levels, girls begin to lag behind boys in both access and performance, and more women than men remain illiterate. Women lack economic opportunities and assets to help them build prosperous lives and protect them against shocks. Their employment is overwhelmingly concentrated in agriculture and in the nonfarm informal services sector, with the lowest levels of productivity, and thus wages, in the economy. This report argues that the obstacles to women living healthy, productive, and fulfilling lives can be classified under the three pillars of empowerment: context, resources, and agency. All three need to be present for women to set goals, pursue those goals, and succeed in reaching the goals in any aspect of their lives. Although the specific package of context, resources, and agency will differ based on the outcome that women wish to achieve, overarching trends point to some fundamental common constraints. Context: strong social norms and weak formal institutions limit women’s ability to improve their health, education, and economic outcomes Strong social norms affirm the role of women as caretakers, of men as income earners, and of women as the property of husbands. Girls and women are expected to assume responsibilities for household activities (as caretakers, cooks, water and fuel collectors, and so forth), with education for young women, or training and more productive employment for women outside of the household, considered less of a priority. Norms influence the choice of occupations available to women and where they can be undertaken. Customary law and tradition are dismissive of women’s ownership of land despite statutory provision of these rights. Social norms place significant pressure on men as family providers and may contribute to underinvestment in girls’ education and lack of support for female partners’ earning potential. Even though women largely believe they have the right to control their own resources, many men are not supportive of this view. These norms carry over to women’s rights to make choices with respect to their own bodies and health. Unmarried women risk facing community censure when seeking services related to sexual health. Married women are expected to make health decisions jointly with husbands or defer decisions to husbands—especially in the case of family planning. These choices are not always made in the best interest of the women, as men’s own fears and insecurities—such as concerns about their wives’ fidelity or community members’ judgments on the husbands’ masculinity—may dictate choices on contraceptive use and number of children, for example. The set of norms that allocate decisions over household resources to men reinforce these patterns, given the cost associated with seeking health care. CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 88 The normalization of physical violence and sexual harassment and abuse—at home, in public spheres, in school, and in the workplace—is an overarching threat to female empowerment in Liberia. Community acceptance of men’s physical abuse of their partners when displeased with their behaviors discourages reporting and persecution of violators. Pressure to perform sexual favors— for grades, employment, or access to public services—restricts women’s opportunities and subjects them to dangerous health threats in the form of sexual violence or sexually transmitted diseases. Permissive and even encouraging attitudes toward child marriage and adolescent pregnancy in Liberia, in combination with household dynamics that tilt decision-making power away from women, not only threaten the health of young mothers and their children but also reduce education opportunities, as pregnant girls drop out of school, and limit work opportunities due to the multiple responsibilities. Liberia has taken important steps to strengthen legal frameworks in support of women, but gaps remain in women’s rights, with parallel customary laws often reaching further than statutory laws. Equality in land rights and in the workplace are guaranteed under law, but enforcement is difficult due to conflicting customary laws and traditions (regarding land) or incomplete frameworks (regarding the workplace).264 Persistent cultural opposition against women’s land ownership and the practice of user rights over communal land favor men. SGBV regulations are undermined by misalignment between customary and statutory laws and weak enforcement. Regulations relating to abortion are restrictive and contradictory, and in combination with unmet contraceptive needs, contribute to unsafe abortions. Importantly, women express less trust in the capacity of legal systems to protect them against injustices than men do, at times turning to customary systems when the legal systems fail them. Resources: low accumulation of human and financial capital, poorly functioning public infrastructure and services, and lack of information hinder women’s progress more than men’s Women’s low levels of human capital create a vicious circle of low-skill jobs, poverty traps, and further underinvestment in girls’ education. Liberian women’s weak education and health levels are reported as outcomes, but they also represent resources, the lack of which causes further vulnerability and exclusion. Poor health contributes to school dropout. Education and training are key determinants for accessing higher-earning jobs, whether as employees or entrepreneurs. Pervasive poverty, together with a lack of assets—in particular, land—hold back women’s investments in their health, education, and earning opportunities. Nonfee expenses such as material, clothing, or transport and—beginning with secondary education—tuition fees, together with high out-of-pocket expenditures for health care, constrain access to education and health services. Lack of resources precludes investment in more productive entrepreneurial activities and contributes to harmful coping strategies, including transactional sex. Compared to men, women have much less access to land and 264. Gupta, Cunningham, and Jappah 2021. 89 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS other property, which can be used directly for economic activities or serve as collateral for credit. Low availability and quality of public services, including those related to human resources, affects the quality of education and health services, especially for rural girls and women. Weak health infrastructure and a shortage of health care workers, made more acute during the EBV crisis, affect access to prenatal, delivery, and postdelivery care. There is little or no support for survivors of SGBV, the majority of whom are women. There are very few female teachers at secondary levels of education. Dilapidated or unavailable physical infrastructure reduces women’s access to services and productive activities. Lack of road networks increases direct costs and opportunity costs of attending school, reaching health facilities, or accessing markets, and lack of public transport increases the vulnerability of traveling girls and women. The lack of gender-appropriate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities at school affects women directly and indirectly by lowering school attendance and the quality of girls’ learning environment, and it indirectly increases their burden as family caretakers due to water- spread diseases such as cholera. Critical information gaps prevent women from making informed choices about their lives, including their bodies and careers. Women value knowledge, information, and education—in focus group discussions, women highlight how knowledge in the area of health helped them make good choices in terms of protecting their own and their families’ health. However, many women lack access to critical information on rules and regulations that apply to their businesses or work, on their rights with respect to land or assets, on their options for improving their health, or on the payoff from different forms of education. Fewer women than men access mass media as an independent source of information, especially radio, which is the most widely spread media in Liberia.265 Agency: women have defined goals and aspirations but feel hindered by internal and external factors, leading them to pursue more modest activities Liberian women express clear educational, career, and business goals, but recognize that they have limited room to follow through on these aspirations. The qualitative evidence suggests that women do set goals, but that there sometimes are large gaps between these goals and the reality they face. Hence, they opt for much less ambitious paths. In focus group discussions, many women expressed an interest in careers that would require higher levels of education, including careers in technical or professional occupations. Some women were working in lower-skilled employment with the explicit goal of saving resources for pursuing education further. Women perceived that they had the ability and intrinsic right to set their own ambitions and act on educational, career, and entrepreneurial opportunities, and they emphasized the role of hard work and commitment in achieving those goals. However, they did not 265. Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), 2013 CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 90 report that they had attempted to pursue these goals, citing a lack of financial and other resources— including information—and community norms as reasons to not act on their ambitions. Instead, they indicated they pivot to less ambitious plans, namely small business activities such as selling goods or food items in the market. Goal-setting and proactivity regarding health-related issues, notably family planning, are more limited than those related to education and career. Health choices appear to be more likely than career goals to be directly arbitrated, at least partly, by other people, such as partners or parents. In FGDs, women appeared less certain that they, as individuals, could or should make decisions regarding their health, including sexual and reproductive health, and many referred to the important role of husbands or parents. At the same time, girls and women considered an education a critical input to accomplishing their life goals, achieving independence, and even escaping traditional gender stereotypes. Agency is mixed in the workplace, with women’s heightened risk aversion playing a significant role. Women make decisions and pursue actions to start their own small businesses, but often in sectors with low entry barriers, to facilitate generation of basic income to meet daily needs, despite aspirations for higher-status careers. Businesswomen largely report making day-to-day decisions for their businesses on their own, and women overall perceive that they have the right to control their earnings. However, as entrepreneurs, women are expected to consult with their husbands for all decisions related to investment and purchases, whether they are sole managers of the household enterprise or not. Women further doubt their ability to successfully access credit or repay it, so they rarely even seek credit from formal institutions. Hence, although the vast majority of women are de facto entrepreneurs, they largely lack the agency to take risks related to business investment and growth or the skills needed to work in more profitable sectors. Women are inspired by other, successful women. Women strive to become somebody important in their community, which may go some way toward explaining many women’s interest in pursuing nursing and public sector careers, as expressed in focus group discussions. They look up to women who have “made it” further than they have, whether through attending educational institutions, crossing occupational gender barriers, or managing successful businesses. Such women constitute inspirational and role models whose determination and life paths other women wish to emulate. WHAT INTERVENTIONS ARE NEEDED TO ADDRESS GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA? Policy to improve women’s well-being, and that of Liberia, will need to be grounded in the three pillars of empowerment if they are to lead to change. The key for any government entity or development partner aiming to incorporate these recommendations into their program or project design is to work across all three pillars. Doing so will help ensure constraints women and girls face in achieving a particular goal are being holistically addressed, as each pillar of empowerment plays an 91 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS equal and important role in shaping these outcomes. The policy recommendations are cross-cutting and organized by empowerment pillars (context, resources, agency) in order to address the constraints under each, which overlap across the domains evaluated in Chapters 2 through 4 (health, education, and jobs/assets). The recommendations under each pillar can be adapted as needed to specific sector needs/goals within a domain. Under each pillar, policy recommendations are also organized by those that can be achieved in the short term and those that can be achieved in the medium term, to help guide the sequencing of reform efforts. International experience in implementing the proposed reforms is also shared, to illustrate on-the-ground success. Context: shift norms and legislation to intentionally support women’s access to health, education, and productive work Three types of interventions can be implemented in the short term, as they are program-based and rely on leveraging resources to advance programs Engage in targeted sensitization campaigns to shift social norms about girls’ life paths. Liberia has experience in using sensitization campaigns to shift norms and behaviors, such as the Ebola Education Campaign carried out by the NGO Messengers of Peace. A similar sensitization campaign can be used to empower women and girls.266 Community-level campaigns should address, inter alia, norms that value boys’ school attendance over that of girls, disproportionately allocate family chores to women and decision-making to men, encourage child marriage while simultaneously stigmatizing young mothers in school, withhold women’s rights to own assets, normalize SGBV, and stigmatize survivors and reporters of the same. Campaigns can take many forms; for example, radio programs, videos, or edutainment approaches, where behavioral change is promoted through soap operas or other forms of entertainment. In Liberia (as well as South Sudan, Uganda, Thailand, and Rwanda), community- generated videos focusing on women’s rights and gender equality have been used with success to raise awareness and share vital information about SGBV, change norms surrounding violence as well as girls’ education, and destigmatize reporting and action to access health as well as legal services.267 Presenting women as role models in nontraditional positions, such as leaders or business owners, or working in nontraditional occupations, can help change social norms and build women’s own agency. A recent study in Uttar Pradesh, India—an area where many families are opposed to female employment— found that showing family members a promotional video about job opportunities in carpet weaving led to a substantial increase in female employment in the region.268 Providing girls and their families with information on employment prospects in nontraditional (but higher-productivity) occupations can raise girls’ schooling and foster occupational “cross-overs.”269 266. https://www.peaceinsight.org/en/organisations/mop/?location=liberia&theme. 267. Gurman et al. 2014. 268. Jayachandran 2020. 269. Jensen 2010; Campos et al. 2011. CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 92 Involve community leaders to champion the change. Unsurprisingly, experience shows that democratic dialogue with local stakeholders—in particular, community and tribal leaders—is essential to achieve impact.270 Religious and traditional leaders, who are dominantly men, embody local moral values and often lead local decision-making processes, have legitimacy and respect that NGOs and government do not, and have extensive communication channels to their communities.271 A community-led intervention in Kenya working directly with community leaders through a long-term process involving the whole community, including traditional leaders, men, and boys, brought a change in community norms resulting in 24 percent reduction in FGM/C prevalence, increased girls’ schooling by 2.5 years, and reduced forced marriages and teenage pregnancies.272 Continued engagement with established traditional and powerful structures such as the Sande and Poro societies will also be necessary to shift social norms in culturally acceptable ways.273 Engage men to reshape their own perceptions, decisions, and behaviors. As fathers, brothers, or partners, men are the arbitrators of women’s and girls’ decisions regarding health, education, and work and are the ones most at risk of committing violence, sexual or otherwise, against women. Female- focused interventions that involve partners in dialogue and trainings have been met with reduced violence and higher acceptance for decision sharing. Programs that engage men and transform either knowledge or behaviors have been effective in increasing joint decision-making in key areas such as household finance or family planning.274 In Uganda, an intervention focusing on mentoring young fathers, in parallel with community awareness campaigns, had a significant, long-term effect in reducing domestic violence, whether directed at partners or children.275 Similarly, experiments with information campaigns directed at men in Saudi Arabia and focusing on providing information about other men’s perceptions regarding female work (which were more positive than men had thought), increased female labor force participation.276 Similarly, Liberia’s Youth Opportunities Project engaged male family members to mentor their daughters to work in economic sectors that are more lucrative than traditionally female work. Two types of interventions can be advanced in the medium term, due to the need to engage existing structures that are slower to change Strengthen the legal basis for women’s rights and align statutory and customary laws. In spite of many advances, legal gray areas still exist. First, Liberia needs to institutionalize laws that have come close to being enacted but have not been, as of yet. The most pressing is to put in place the legal 270. UN Women 2021. 271. Koczorowski (forthcoming). 272. Ibid. 273. https://www.mia.gov.lr/2press.php?news_id=111&related=7&pg=sp. 274. Ibid. 275. Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH) and Save the Children, n.d. 276. 2020 93 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS basis for prohibiting the harmful practice of FGM/C, as well as underage marriage.277 Existing legislation regulating education and labor could go further by adding amendments that clearly articulate the definitions of and punishments associated with SGBV in schools and the workplace. Second, put new emphasis on designing laws that account for women’s and men’s gender roles. For example, because most women work in the informal sector, laws governing sexual harassment in the workplace, equal pay for equal work, and maternity protections may need to be designed and implemented through public safety, equity, and family law rather than the Decent Work Act or other labor law. Third, work to harmonize statutory and customary law. This may mean starting from the perspective of customary law and building statutory law on top of it.278 For example, start with the customary definition of property ownership and provide greater definition, in statutory law, within that context. Refine enforcement mechanisms to be more agile, responsive, and designed to account for social structures that may limit their effectiveness. Providing women with information on their rights is important, but clear and effective enforcement mechanisms must also be in place to validate these approaches. Liberia should be commended for its efforts to prosecute SGBV crimes, such as through the establishment of Criminal Court E, establishment of the SGBV Crime Unit, and the Domestic Violence Act. These could be supplemented by anonymous and reliable reporting channels for SGBV survivors, potentially increasing the demand for legal services. Good practices include providing multiple venues for registering complaints that ensure confidentiality—such as locked drop boxes in locations that women frequent and that are monitored by community leaders trained to receive in-person complaints and, as in Zambia, a telephone hotline operated through a trusted NGO.279 Establishing and training in a nationally endorsed code of conduct for teachers and other public officials that reflects the legal definitions of what sexual harassment entails, and what penalties will be imposed, could help lower the incidence of SGBV outside of households. There is also a need to strengthen regulation so that Sande and Poro schools do not substitute for formal education—for example, by allowing these societies to operate only outside of school hours and ensuring they are not remotely located. Perhaps most importantly, design enforcement so that it incentivizes good behaviors in practice. Resources: facilitate access to more time, skills, and assets The proposed short-term interventions are largely programs that already exist in Liberia and can be extended to more proactively help women address the financial and information constraints that are hindering their achievements Provide cash or noncash transfers to reduce financial constraints on health, education, and jobs. 277. The Children’s Act, perhaps the law most relevant to FGM, does not criminalize the practice. Even if it did, it is unclear how the law would be enforced, as the act does not provide any penalties for other forms of violations. 278. UN Women (2021) cites several studies that reflect on dialogue to bridge the gap between customary and statutory law; for example, Williams (2011) and Divon and Bøås (2017). 279. https://worldbankgroup.sharepoint.com/sites/SPL/SitePages/Detail.aspx/Blogs/mode=view?_Id=3596&SiteURL=/sites/ SPL. CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 94 Poverty is one of the most severe constraints to women’s empowerment in Liberia. By lowering the opportunity cost of attending school (lost earnings), raising the ability to pay for education and health services, and facilitating engagement in more productive activities (through skills training and investment), cash transfer programs in several contexts have helped to increase access to education and employment opportunities for women, raise test scores, and reduce teenage pregnancy rates.280 In addition, distribution of mobile phones and mass registration to mobile money platforms are increasingly being used to help ensure women have access to digital cash transfers and the security and privacy that comes with mobile money transactions. The government of Liberia could strengthen its current short-term cash transfer programs and convert them into permanent programs. Currently, the Ministry of Gender is delivering the Social Cash Transfer (SCT) program, targeting extremely poor households in Bomi and Maryland counties with unconditional mobile money transfers and prioritizing women as recipients; the program, which is largely externally funded, is expected to close in 2023. These kinds of government-led programs are needed on an ongoing basis and at a much larger scale in order to have sustainable impact. In designing such programs, careful attention to intrahousehold dynamics is needed; however, there is no conclusive evidence on these programs’ impact on time use (time allocated to domestic work) or on domestic violence.281 Accordingly, the SCT program is pilot testing a couples’ financial planning module to evaluate the effectiveness of this type of accompanying measure in reducing spousal conflict over how the money is spent and to increase women’s agency over spending decisions. Small noncash transfers (such as free school uniforms or meals) have also effectively increased school participation at low cost (although they are often less poverty targeted). Implement comprehensive programs to support female employment and entrepreneurship. Labor market-relevant skills training for female students, job seekers, and business owners can increase employment access and raise earnings and profits. This can include technical training, basic entrepreneurial or business training programs to improve business practices, apprenticeships, and programs designed specifically for the informal self-employed. Experience suggests that these trainings need to be designed to overcome specific gender-based time and resources constraints, including modular approaches that allow for a combination of work and training, childcare, support for materials, and transportation. In addition, and as discussed above, strengthening community and spouse/partner support is often needed to achieve impact.282 Liberia already has experience from programs such as the Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women (EPAG) program, which combined technical skills training in sectors with high labor demand or business development, life skills training and entrepreneurship training, and job intermediation and placement services. Compared to a control group, beneficiaries saw a 47 percent increase in employment and an 80 percent increase in average weekly income.283 280. Baird et al. 2014; J-PAL 2017. 281. Chang et al. 2020. 282. Beegle and Rubiano-Matulevich 2020. 283. World Bank 2012. 95 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Interventions directed at nonfarm enterprises (NFE) should focus on increasing productivity. Although interventions often focus on business start-up, there is also a need to support women’s existing businesses for growth, greater productivity, and higher income generation. NFE-focused interventions are needed because they are the source of many women’s livelihoods. Research suggests that interventions should aim to be comprehensive, as poor women face multiple and binding constraints to increasing productivity, including lack of assets and credit, training, and information on markets. Within training, approaches focusing on personal motivation and aspirations, self-efficacy and mindset, networking, and other soft skills have significant and strong effects on productivity and earnings, especially for very small enterprises. There is a need for credit products that circumvent collateral requirements and increase outreach to the unbanked firms, coupled with interventions that strengthen the credit worthiness of firms. For example, an intervention in Peru that reduced information constraints with psychometric credit-scoring tools increased access to finance without increasing overall risk of lenders’ portfolio.284 Provide information and awareness about social issues and rights to raise women’s awareness. Targeted campaigns can close information gaps on both rights and opportunities and help women identify and exercise property rights. Liberia’s successful communications campaign launched during the Ebola virus crisis can be a model for communicating messages to women on a range of issues.285 The cost of and returns from different levels of education and different occupations have been shown to affect girl’s school attendance and occupational choice. Information on general as well as sexual health and rights, including contraception, was cited by Liberian women in focus groups as being a key input to asserting their health rights in the household. Pertinent information can be distributed in areas highly trafficked by women, such as markets and community centers, or through mass media such as radio, which is by far the most common media accessed in Liberia. The rapid spread of mobile technology use provides new opportunities for awareness building, sensitization, and information sharing through regular SMS or voice recordings to targeted women and girls. In some contexts, higher privacy settings— such as safe spaces, discussed below—can be more effective for distributing information. Developing institutions for medium-term results requires immediate action Provide solutions to women’s time constraints. Developing good quality institutional early childhood care and education programs can simultaneously benefit child development and increase opportunities for women to shift into more productive activities after childbearing. For example, the Red Cross- supported Women’s Training and Integration (WIN) program in Liberia provided training courses to women while offering on-site childcare services for the trainees’ children. In Guatemala, a childcare program provided low-cost, home-based quality childcare through a community member identified by parents in poor neighborhoods. Evaluations suggested that factors such as accessibility and cost of 284. 285. CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 96 this form of care increased the number of paid hours of work of participating women.286 Improved care options for sick, disabled, and elderly, as a substitute for working-age women’s care responsibilities, would likewise increase women’s availability for more productive opportunities outside of the household. This would require a significant expansion of the health system, although more local efforts—such as mobile homecare workers or community centers for adults—are being employed in Vietnam and other Asian developing countries.287 Adapting facilities and organization of classes to accommodate pregnant girls or young mothers attending school (for example, by providing flexible class schedules) and to avoid stigmatization should also prevent school dropouts. Raise investments in publicly provided human development services. Liberia’s limited and externally dependent government resources need to be prioritized further toward human development sectors. For example, SGBV survivor health support is largely lacking and services focusing on emotional and psychological care need to be developed locally. Spending on education is low by West African standards and needs to increase, but it should be accompanied by policies to enhance quality such as school inspection, teacher training, and updated curricula (as outlined in the Getting to Best Education Sector Plan).288 As discussed, free and high-quality early childhood education and care services, which have been shown to have important benefits for cognitive development in children, can provide additional benefits to young mothers who need to attend school. Brazil, for example, has experimented with free childcare lottery systems for the poor, with highly positive results in raising women’s employment rates.289 Greater resources will need to be accompanied by accountability mechanisms to ensure the money is well spent, as well as to reduce spending inefficiencies that currently limit the return on investment.290 Strengthen the human resources base in human development sectors. Significant resources will be needed to replenish the devastating losses from the EBV crisis and rapidly expand the number of skilled health workers, especially in maternal health, and in psychosocial support (for SGBV survivors). Increasing both the number and skills of teachers, especially female, would be essential to achieve better outcomes. For example, the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) Plus program, which helped teachers more effectively teach reading comprehension in Liberia, raised learning gains for girls.291 To ensure that new hires will provide quality services, it will be vital to promote a system of transparent meritocratic recruitment. This can be challenging due to entrenched practices for distributing public sector jobs, but clear rules and transparent processes can begin to shift the norms.292 286. Mateo Diaz and Rodriguez-Chamussy 2013. 287. World Bank 2016. 288. World Bank 2021. 289. Jayachandran 2020. 290. World Bank 2021. 291. Piper and Korda Poole 2010. 292. World Bank 2021. 97 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS Upgrade school, health, transport, and information infrastructure to increase safety and health of women. Strengthening WASH infrastructure and providing sanitary products could both increase attendance and improve the conditions for learning for girls. A WASH intervention program in Ghana providing sanitary pads and puberty education found significantly improved attendance (9 percent); a program in Bangladesh focusing on WASH infrastructure found very similar effects.293 Better road infrastructure and support for public or regulated private transportation systems would increase access to education and health facilities, as well as labor and product markets. Given the high incidence of women who depend on selling produce in open markets, providing safer means of transportation and supporting market structures with gender-specific WASH infrastructure would increase their access to productive opportunity. Improved access to the media through which information is distributed (such as radios or televisions) can also improve outcomes in other important areas of concern in Liberia, such as educational accessibility and attainment in rural areas. Developing standards and minimum qualifications for service delivery can help guide the assessment of where service delivery upgrades are needed and monitor ensuring developments.294 Agency: provide training and role models to build aspirations and strengthen goal setting Direct or indirect short-term support can begin to shift women’s agency Incorporate soft-skills training to increase women’s ability to make plans and develop self-affirmation, as part of or independently of other forms of training or information activities. Growing evidence shows that building “psychosocial assets”—such as personal motivation, a growth-oriented mindset, and self-efficacy—can have very strong positive effects for a wide range of outcomes related to mental and physical health, education, and economic empowerment for both men and women.295 For example, a cash transfer program in Madagascar engaged beneficiaries in “behavioral nudge” sessions using interactive and pictorial activities to strengthen their ability to define goals for themselves and their families, to build confidence in their ability to make informed decisions on family welfare enhancement, and to make plans toward reaching their goals through outlining intermediary steps and mobilizing money for those goals. Beneficiaries reported higher belief in their ability to make good decisions and to set and act on specific goals. Psychosocial assets are increasingly incorporated into business or other training programs aiming to increase employment and earnings, including in Liberia.296 An entrepreneurship program in Kenya that provided refresher courses on business skills also offered a short (four-day) training to equip women with strategies to strengthen their agency as business owners, followed by regular meetings between participants to discuss progress toward business goals. Participants who received the four days of agency-related training were significantly more successful 293. McMichael 2019. 294. World Bank 2021. 295. 296. CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 98 saleswomen than women entrepreneurs who did not receive this additional support.297 Incorporate peer learning and role models into interventions targeting women and girls. Women learn from and are inspired by other relatable women who successfully overcome gender stereotypes and/or break away from inhibiting social norms. For example, through the Gbowee Peace Foundation, professional women mentor young women in their career development. Global examples similarly show the power of peer learning and role models. A program in Chile provided small business owners with classes given by role models who were former program students and now running successful businesses. The program was successful in increasing income and business survival, especially for less-experienced entrepreneurs. The evaluation showed that role models did not necessarily help participants increase their technical or business knowledge but instead strengthened their motivation and aspirations.298 In India, women who participated in business training with a friend were more successful in increasing business activity and profits. The evidence suggested that the presence of a friend helped women set, implement, and achieve business-related goals, with the most important effect being that of raising aspirations.299 Provide life skills training, privacy, and peer learning to give women more control over their sexual health and rights. Girls’ or young women’s “safe clubs,” such as the Gender Equitable Education Program (GEEP) offered by the Ministry of Education with support from UNICEF,300 provide a safe environment for girls to meet, socialize, privately discuss issues, acquire life skills, and receive information. These programs have helped girls acquire confidence in sharing their views among peers and family in addition to shifting attitudes, norms, and practices in communities.301 Uganda’s Development Clubs, led by young female mentors selected from the community, provide livelihood training and life-skills training in sexual and reproductive health, family planning, sexual violence, and related areas. Four years after the intervention, participant girls were significantly less likely (one-third) to be either pregnant or participate in sex against their will. Institution building or interventions that delay benefits contribute to agency development in the medium term Support building peer networks for women. Interventions that foster organization and networks contribute to collective agency, building aspirations and confidence among a group of women or girls. As with role models, evidence suggests these interventions help group members set goals and mobilize toward those goals. Programs that build psychosocial assets through increased access to professional (female) networks have proved effective—and cost effective—in contributing to more ambitious goal 297. Koczorowski (forthcoming). 298. Lafortune et al. 2018. 299. Field et al. 2016. 300. https://www.unicef.org/liberia/stories/helping-girls-pursue-their-dreams. 301. Marcus et al. 2017. 99 AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER GAPS IN LIBERIA THROUGH A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT LENS setting and action. In Liberia, the Girls Ebola Recovery Livelihood Support (GERLs) program created groups that were subject to life and business skills training. The groups developed group milestones, both individual and joint business plans, and agreed upon profit-sharing modalities and savings goals. Accountability toward the group and stronger social capital contributed to a near-universal success in launching businesses and greater savings.302 Build in commitment mechanisms through program design. Mechanisms that require commitment and “lock-in” of actions help to reduce present bias and thus support building toward long-term goals. To contribute toward agency, women must be involved in setting their own commitment and the rationale for the commitment, however. For example, a Green Bank program in the Philippines provided women with access to savings accounts with an agreed goal (a time-bound or specified level of savings), and withdrawal was not possible until the goal was reached. The program improved goal setting as well as self-perceptions of responsible savings behaviors and self-control.303 Implementation Commitments Implementation of these policies is a whole-of-government responsibility, but it is only feasible if there is political will for gender-responsive planning and related budgeting. The Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection can design and lead a process. But real action at the level of individual ministries may follow the money. Recent analysis shows that Liberia’s gender-responsive budgeting is meager, at best, due to a lack of financial resources, knowledge on gender, and prioritization in policy making.304 Even though the Ministry of Finance and Development Policy developed a Gender- Responsive Planning and Budgeting Policy in 2019 to guide planning and budgeting for gender equality, efforts have been hindered due to a range of institutional factors305 and the absence of an monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system to collect and analyze program performance, budgeting, and results data.306 Policy interventions to assist Liberian girls and women in realizing their full potential complement the traditional focus on closing resources gaps by also addressing obtrusive perceptions and structures at both community and individual levels. Girls and women face specific constraints to building their human capital in health and education and engaging in productive livelihoods. Gender-specific gaps include discriminatory social norms and regulatory frameworks; lack of skills, finance, assets, and information on their rights; and limited agency to set realistic goals and follow through on them. Traditional programming has focused on increasing access to resources such as skills, cash, schools, 302. Koczorowski (forthcoming). 303. Ashraf et al. 2006. 304. UN Women 2021. 305. For example, multiple and conflicting definitions of gender-responsive planning, inadequate budget classifications, weak interinstitutional coordination, insufficient engagement of nonstate actors and the House of Legislature, lack of gender expertise among implementing officials, and gender biases of implementing personnel. 306. UN Women 2021, World Bank 2021. CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 100 health care, or infrastructure. 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