-Undertake waste management initiative
By Jerromie S. Walters
Sister4Sister International, a local NGO that works across Liberia to empower Women and girls through education, awareness campaigns, advocacy and peace building is seeking support to heighten women’s literacy in land ownership, as well as improve waste management in Liberia, as the Executive Director shared her ambitious plans to revolutionize land governance and empower women in Liberia.
Mrs. Janice Smallwood Malekebu told WomenVoices in a one-on-one interview over the weekend: “I’m hoping with the knowledge acquired in land governance that I will be able to do some advocacies because this training was tied to a one-year project with the ITPZL and it’s an international training program but it comprises of Liberia and Zimbabwe. So actually the training is tied to a one-year project where we will be deeding government land because there are lot of government land that is being in use here that even private citizens have taken over that is not theirs so our task in this one-year project is to find government land, deed them (we have already identified a government land that we need to deed in the city of Bentor).”
She recently participated in an intensive training in Sweden in Land Governance that included Land Administration and Waste Management. With this, she wants to go beyond. She emphasized her plans to educate women on land ownership procedures and highlighted the importance of training women on acquiring, registering, and probating land. noting that many women lack this essential knowledge.
”I want to go beyond this and use the knowledge I gathered in land governance to train women on land ownership. Maybe run them through the procedures of buying land, to having it probated because most women don’t know that and I think that could be a policy change for Liberia with an increased ownership of land for women so that’s what I want to do with the knowledge on land governance.”
She added: “It had to do with city planning, it had to do with surveying, it had to do with the purchasing of land, the procedure in Sweden, the best practices that we could take away and bring back to Liberia. We also did a portion on waste management where we saw how the government in Sweden manages waste, how they started, and where they are now so it just brought me back home to Liberia because we have a waste management issue here, and we have land governance and rights issues here as well.”
Conspicuously, she rallied for aid and emphasized the need for funding to conduct training sessions in rural Montserrado and Bong County. Mrs. Malekebu stressed the importance of equipping women in these areas with the necessary tools to secure land ownership. She underscored that financial assistance from the government and international partners would be instrumental in achieving her goals and benefiting women in these communities.
“I need funding because my thematic area is rural Montserrado and Bong County so if I could go back to these areas and hold trainings and workshops with women, teach them the procedures and processes of owning or acquiring land for themselves, I think it will be beneficial to them so what I’m seeking is funding. If I can get funding from the government, international partners I think it will be a great help and it will be an asset to women.”
Mrs. Malekebu believes that empowering women through land governance is pivotal in enhancing their access to and ownership of land. She envisions a future where women across Liberia have the knowledge and resources to assert their rights and secure their rightful place as landowners.
“I think it will help women increase ownership of land because you know besides even owning land, women’s rights have ways been challenged and then the ownership to land for women has been a challenge so I think even now that they have certain rights, most women don’t know the procedure (s) so they are still being squandered because they are still entrusting people to buy land for them, they are still entrusting people to do documentation processes for them so I think if they have this knowledge, they can go to the seller, purchase their land, have it registered, have it probated and then protect their information.”
Howbeit, in October of 2021, Laurent Delahousse, the former Head of the European Union Mission in Liberia expressed his disgust about the filthiness of Monrovia, as he said the city (Monrovia) is “dirty and disgusting” after the pouring in of donors’ aid to clean up the city. Ambassador Delahousse addressing a forum organized by the Monrovia City Council disclosed that he was “a bit surprised” by what he saw.
Judging from this and other apt reasons, Sister4Sister Boss further emphasized: “For the knowledge on waste management, I’m seeking funding. I’m looking for an organization that can support me for a pilot project that maybe we can do in the city of Monrovia. Let’s say from Broad Street up to Crown Hill that we can put in specific waste baskets and show people how to go about disposing of their waste like we saw in Sweden so for me that’s what I want to bring back home to Liberia.”
She conti- “I think what we need to know about land governance that is important is that we don’t only need to have a sector where we only sell land, and proby it, we need to have a sector where land governance goes beyond selling and buying land. It should go as far as digital registering, it should go as far as city planning, it should go as far as allocating addresses to streets and homes because that way it makes it easier for the population, it makes it easier to know whether the land is being sold to multiple persons so for me that’s what I think we should do, we should just go beyond the buying and selling of land and registering that is not working properly,” she tells WomenVoices.
Mrs. Malekebu recently represented Sister to Sister International, Inc. at the
ITPLZ-Applied Land Governance Course in Sweden which was conducted by the LANTMÄTERIET International Department, from January 29 to February 16, 2024, on Land Governance that included Land Administration and Waste Management.
Sister 4 Sister International works across Liberia to empower Women and girls through education, awareness campaigns, advocacy and peace building.
