Prof. Jhazbhay stressed that decisive leadership and rights-based frameworks are essential to counter this regression.
Monrovia, – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted a high-level signing ceremony on Tuesday, bringing together government officials past and present, foreign partners, and members of the diplomatic corps, for the launch of the project “Women Legislators in Liberia: Promoting Voice, Leadership and Gender-Responsive Governance for Sustainable Development (2025–2027).”
By Patience M. Jones
The initiative, funded through the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation, will be implemented by UN Women Liberia in partnership with the Women’s Legislative Caucus of Liberia. It aims to strengthen women’s leadership, promote inclusive governance, and expand economic opportunities for women across eight counties.
Delivering remarks at the signing ceremony, H.E. Prof. Iqbal Jhazbhay, Ambassador of South Africa to Liberia, underscored the importance of the project, while sounding a warning about a growing global pushback against women’s rights.
“The past few years, if not the last decade, have borne witness to an emboldened and intensified pushback against the advancement of women’s and girls’ rights in multilateral spaces and engagements, often regarded as a broader anti-gender movement,” Ambassador Jhazbhay stated.
He noted that this trend has been visible in critical forums such as the United Nations General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, and the UN Commission on the Status of Women, where agreed language on gender has been watered down after decades of advocacy. He further highlighted how authoritarian and conservative governments often frame gender equality as a “Western agenda,” undermining progress and weakening global solidarity.
The Ambassador commended Liberia, South Africa, India, and Brazil for their resilience in advancing gender equality, especially through initiatives like the IBSA-supported project. “Countries and partners such as ours, committed to progressive gender norms, have increasingly coordinated their positions to defend gains in multilateral fora,” he said.
Prof. Jhazbhay stressed that decisive leadership and rights-based frameworks are essential to counter this regression, adding: “Through such projects, we need to recommit to ensuring that the most vulnerable do not lose their opportunities and realization of substantive equality to ideological and political power strategies.”
He also recalled South Africa’s broader commitments to gender equality and highlighted the IBSA Fund as “a unique forum bringing together India, Brazil, and South Africa – three large democracies, three major economies, and three multicultural, multi-ethnic, multilingual, and multi-faith countries on three different continents.”
The Ambassador placed Liberia’s efforts within the global context of women’s leadership, drawing inspiration from Liberia’s two Nobel Peace Prize laureates – former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and activist Leymah Gbowee – as well as Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor, who continue to symbolize women’s transformative role in peace and governance.
