In a concerted effort, the Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP) and Integrity Watch Liberia (IWL), partner, over the weekend concluded a three-day gender sensitive political coverage and reporting in Gbarnga, Bong County.
The training workshop is part of the Liberia Electoral Support Project (LESP), in partnership with the embassy of Sweden in Monrovia/SIDA, the embassy of Ireland/Irish Aid, the National Elections Commission (NEC), UNDP and UN Women.
This first phase of four regional training workshops held from September 28—30, 2022 targeted twenty-five community radio journalists and social media networks from Bong, Lofa, Nimba and Margibi counties.
They have benefited from a specially designed manual that covered a range of topics, intended to deepen the understanding of training recipients on critical gender concepts and contextual appreciation of what women’s political participation challenges and barriers are in the country.
The trainers, Carolyn Myres Zoduah and Tennen Dalieh Tahoungue, with support from CEMESP Senior Program Officer, Albert Ansu, have effectively transmitted the training content to enhance the understanding of the participants in responding to the seism in media, issues of gender inequality, stereotyping, the ways the media hurt women in politics and elections, and skills and tools on how to effectively cover and report on women during elections.
Ruth Gbatoe, CEMESP Project Officer, at the start of the training held at the Women Center in Gbarnga, Bong County, provided an overview of the project in a welcome remark. She emphasized the need for positive portrayal of women in politics in Liberia, especially as the country looks to critical elections next year. She said the project’s activities entail the creation of a platform for training of journalists on gender-sensitive political coverage and reporting, gender profiling, conducting of focal group discussion and training, development of spot messages and support to other media development groups with shared objectives in de-emphasizing slanderous comments against women aspiring for elective offices in Liberia.
Speaking on behalf of the Mayor of Gbarnga, Pastor John Fogba lauded the initiative of CEMESP and IWL, describing it as useful for the development of Liberia. He said the mayor is very keen and supportive of efforts to politically empower women. He reminded the participants about their role as voice of the voiceless, and expressed the hope that at the end of the training the journalists will use the knowledge acquired to promote women’s political participation in Liberia.
Participating male and female journalists exhibited a high sense of passion for the topic, thereby bringing out specific experiences as it relates to the county on the challenges of covering and reporting women in politics. They all generally stated in post test evaluations that the training has enriched their knowledge on various issues of gender political empowerment.
At the end of the workshop on Friday, September 30, 2022, the journalists adopted a communique committing themselves to promoting women candidates in the 2023 elections under the banner of the proposed Network of Journalists to Promote Women’s Political Participation in Liberia.
