Effective leadership and governance will be required to address the above issues. For the most part, current structures and capacities of national and local organizations and mechanisms exhibit significant managerial and technical deficits. Leadership needs to be tied to policies, coordination among stakeholders, and new programs as they come on board. As the Case Study shows, market women have not been given the opportunity to participate formally in leadership structures, although their experience and personal investment in the success of the markets in which they work warrant a greater and stronger role in decision-making and management. Good governance, both nationally and locally, will be required to ensure transparency and accountability in decisionmaking by the various national, county, and local market administrations as they deal with legal, property, financial, and contractual arrangements, as well as partnerships with civil society and municipal governments, in administering what are often large, complex market institutions. This will require effective implementation of supportive policies such as the National Gender Policy and a corresponding increase in coordination efforts among both national and local stakeholders. In addition, more resources will be needed to support the economic empowerment of women, the integration of formal and informal economies, and specific actions to improve the working conditions and capacities of market women. Mobilizing these resources could be an important role for SMWF as one of today’s most important champions of Liberian market development and advocates for market women. It is committed to overcoming the many remaining challenges and urges a similar commitment on the part of all stakeholders.
Background The Sirleaf Market Women’s Fund (SMWF) began with a 2005 celebration in New York City to honor the first woman to be elected President in Africa, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. The celebrants, an international group, had recently produced Liberian Women Peacemakers: Fighting for the Right to be Seen, Heard and Counted, a book that describes how, through 14 years of civil war, Liberia’s women had brought food and necessities to their markets against terrible odds, then organized for peace and finally elected “Ma Ellen.” The renewal of rundown and battered community markets was a special concern in Liberia’s pursuit of reconstruction and reconciliation. These are places where girls and women buy and sell food and basic goods, often from mats on the ground or temporary shelters. Even under these circumstances, they are community centers. The New York group determined to help Liberia rebuild its economy by providing these market women with decent workplaces that give them shelter, storage for their goods, clean water, sanitation, business and literacy training and access to credit to build their businesses and provide for their families.
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