Liberia: Armed Forces of Liberia Courts Women Recruits in Grand Gedeh
[Liberian Investigator] ZWEDRU -- Women fill fewer than one in 13 uniforms in the Armed Forces of Liberia. The AFL went to Grand Gedeh County this week to ask young women to change that.
ZWEDRU — The Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) aims to recruit more women to diversify its ranks, with women currently constituting only 7.5% of the force, including 11.5% of officer positions and 7.1% of enlisted positions. This initiative is part of a project launched on February 9, 2023, by the AFL in collaboration with UN Women and funded by the Elsie Initiative Fund.
The project seeks to increase the number of Liberian women serving in the military, particularly in peacekeeping deployments and command positions. The AFL aims to challenge the prevailing notion that soldiering is a male-dominated profession by launching a nationwide campaign targeting families, educators, county authorities, religious leaders, and women's groups.
The campaign will run across all 15 counties, grouped into four regions, through community meetings, school and university outreach, media work, and stakeholder dialogues. The AFL conducted an assessment in September 2022 to identify the barriers preventing women from joining the military and to gauge the military's capacity to deploy women effectively in peacekeeping operations.
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