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another for a study other than that being researched by the researcher (Quinlan 2011). The secondary data for this study was mostly desktop reviews and included peer-reviewed journal articles, books, research papers, newspaper and magazine articles and media reports, and policy briefs, theses, and reliable and verifiable information available on the Internet. These sources of information were particularly important as they served to strengthen and complement the quality of the primary data gathered. More so, the sources of information were readily accessible and of relevance for use to achieve some of the study’s goals. Likewise, these sources were valuable and robust for the build-up of the theoretical and textual background of this dissertation.
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structured interviews, and four (4) focus group discussions, consisting of a total of forty five (45)41 participants, in which six (6) are also part of the 16 who participated in the individual interviews. This is to say fifty five (55)42 is the total number of people who participated in this study. While the problem of time constraints and limited financial resources were the reasons for the selected sample, the element of the small sample size was necessary for the simplification of the data collection process and for the integration and critical examination of both theory and practice. More so, this sample was easily accessible to me. For simple comprehension, this sample size or participants constituted of four groupings as delineated by the study, and these included:
Women’s organizations: This group comprised of women organizations in Monrovia the capital of Liberia, Gbargna City of Bong County, and Ganta City of Nimba County. These two counties were purposefully chosen because they were the entry points of the rebels during the first war, and major conflict encounters occurred in these counties during the two conflicts, resulting in death of thousands of civilians, displaced population, the kidnapping and rape of children, women, and girls, as well as the destruction of property. Nimba County in particular, was an active conflict battlefield throughout the fourteen years of conflict. At the level of the capital city, five (5) interviews were conducted with individual women representatives of the following Monrovia-based organizations WANEP/WIPNET, MARWOPNET, NAWOCOL, LIFLEA, and WONGOSOL. In the same light, another (1) interview was also held with Mother Mary Brownell in Monrovia, a prominent peace activist and a retired educator. In Gbargna City, Bong County, two (2) focus group discussions where held with the women of WIPNET. The reason for two separate focus groups with the same organization is because most of the women turned up to participate in the discussion. More so, three (3) semi-structured interviews were conducted with one leader and two members of the
41 While the study indicates that there were 45 participants in the four focus group discussions, it also draws attention to the fact that it would have been a total of 50 participants, however, five participants arrived a few minutes to the close of the second focus group discussions held in Ganta City, Nimba County and therefore did not contribute to the discourse. Also, because of time constraints, another focus group could not be conducted with these five participants, neither could they be interviewed individually.
42 It is worth mentioning that the sample is focused only on women organizations that emerged and were very active during the conflict times and have continued in the post-conflict. This means the findings of this study can be used to make generalizations to the scope, while suggestions would be for other studies to explore women organizations that emerged post-conflict.
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same grassroots organization. Likewise in Gbargna City, Bong County, another (1) interview was held with a representative of DEN-L. In Ganta City, Nimba County two (2) focus group discussions where held with Ganta Concern Women, given the turn out. Also, three (3) semi- structured interviews were conducted with one leader and two members of the same grassroots organization.
Government Entity: The government body consulted for the purpose of this study as of the Ministry Gender, Children & Social Protection (MoGCSP). In this Ministry, the interview was conducted with one (1) of the female deputy ministers, and I was also referred to consult several government reports and policy papers as more information on the research subject of focus are contained in these documents.
The Media: often, the media has a wider coverage and is up to date with events and information, generally playing a major role in the development of societies. This study conducted an (1) interview with one leading male representative of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL).
International Body: The international agency consulted for the purpose of this study was the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) Office of Gender Advisor (OGA). With a mandate which includes the facilitation of gender sensitive approaches as it relates to UNSC 1325, including the support and inclusion of women in all UNMIL mandated priorities, an (1) interview was also conducted with a leading male representative of this office.
The rationale for interviewing the male representatives from PUL and UNMIL was to gain alternative and across-the-board insight on how men perceive the role of Liberian women in the arena of peacebuilding. Stating this importance and in line with the above grouping, a demographic of the participants in this research is presented below. In profiling the research subjects, I uphold the ethical requirement of confidentiality and anonymity agreed upon and uses pseudonyms for participants who preferred not to be mentioned in the presentation of the data. In this given, the pseudonyms (UI-1 up to 16) July 2015 are used for the sixteen individual interviews conducted. While, these pennames are not used in all the instances as some of the participants permitted for use of their actual names, which was also necessary to facilitate the flow of the data being presented and analysed. An important point to note in the
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given of the semi-structured interviews conducted for this study is that the respondents’
responses were guided and linked to the activities and works of the organizations they represent. For the focused group discussions, I used the aliases (FGD-A & FGD-B, and FGD- C & FGD-D) July 2015 for the four focus group discussions held with women of WIPNET in Gbargna City, Bong County, and Ganta Concern Women in Ganta City, Nimba County.
UI-1 July 2015: UI-1, is Chair of National Women's Commission of Liberia (NAWOCOL) and has worked with the organization since its inception in 1991. She left the United States of America November 1990 and came back to Liberia during the heat of the war to assist and contribute to efforts towards bringing peace back to her country Liberia.
UI-2 July 2015: UI-2, is the Executive Director of Women NGOs Secretariat of Liberia (WONGOSOL). She is in her forties and her level of education is University, plus several other certificate training course. Before joining WONGOSOL in 2007 as a project supervisor, she worked with the NAWOCOL office during the war and right after the war, as a monitor of war survivors, especially women survivors. Since 2010, she has been responsible for the day to day running of the activities of the NGO in her capacity as Executive Director.
UI-3 July 2015: U1-3, Mother Mary Brownell is in her eighties, and holds a Master’s Degree in Education from San Francisco State College, United States of America. She is one of the pioneer’s and former president of the Liberian Women’s Initiative (LWI) formed in 1994 during the first civil war. She is also a retired educator and former commissioner of the National Elections Commission of Liberia. She is widely recognized in Liberia for her peace activism during Liberia’s civil wars, and though retired, she remains vocal on the subject and need of women’s politicking for peace and decision-making roles in Liberia.
UI-4 July 2015: UI-4 is one of the Deputy Ministers in the Ministry of Gender, Children &
Social Protection (MoGCSP) in Liberia, which was formed by an Act of the National Legislature in 2001. UI-4 is in her forties, holds a Master degree, and is also pursuing a doctorate degree. She is concerned with research, training and working both with women, girls and women organizations in Liberia as a representative of her Ministry.
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UI-5 July 2015: UI-5 is one of the management personnel in the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), established in 1964. UI-1 is an influential media personnel in Liberia and his level of education is university, with qualifications in Mass Communications among other specific- oriented course trainings and credentials. He has played significant roles in the Liberia’s Media Law and Policy Reform Working Group. Among other things, he consults and coordinates various projects, including on subjects of human rights, governance and community inclusiveness in Liberia.
UI-6 July 2015: UI-6 is in her fifties and she is educated to the level of university, and holds other credentials in women and child welfare protection, peacebuilding, security sector reform, among others. She is head of planning and training in the Liberian Female Law Enforcement Association (LIFLEA) founded in 2000, and has been working with the organization since 2009. Advocating for female security officers in all the security agency (private and Public) in Liberia, advancing for training for security female officers, seeking redress when their rights are trampled upon or when they are discriminated against or harassed in within the security sector, are among her many responsibilities.
UI-7 July 2015: UI-7 is a gender expert and advisor in his forties, and holds a Master’s degree.
He works for the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) Office of Gender Advisor (OGA) as a Gender officer, and has been involved in post-conflict developments with UNMIL for over eight years. Generally, he provides strategic advice on issues of gender mainstreaming and women empowerment, partnering with the government and NGOs to ensure the implementation of UNSCR 1325 on women peace and security, as well as and other regional and international policy instruments on gender and women rights in Liberia.
UI-8 July 2015: UI-8 is in her thirties, holds a university degree, and works with Mano River Women’s Peace Network (MARWOPNET) established in 2000, as one of its project representatives. She is concerned with peacebuilding networking, lobbying and advocating in collaboration with other NGO’s to ensure the implementation of projects that empower bother women and girls, especially UNSCR 1325, as well as establishing peace committees in communities and clubs several clubs in in secondary and high schools in and around Monrovia.
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UI-9 July 2015: UI-9 is in her fifties and is a degree holder. She coordinates the activities of West Africa Network for Peacebuilding/Women in Peacebuilding Network (WANEP/WIPNET) Liberia. She is concerned with the day to day running of the activities of the organization, and is involved in advocacy where protection and addressing issues of rape and domestic violence are prioritized, as well as training on how to carry on advocacy, engage community leaders, legislature and national leaders on issues of gender, women empowerment, leadership, reconciliation, and capacity building, among others.
UI-10 July 2015: UI-10 is one of the executives of the Development Education Network - Liberia (DEN-L), Gbargna City in Bong County. UI-10 is in her forties and has university as well as several professional credentials from both home in Liberia and abroad. She is charged with the day to day running of the activities of the organization, of which major among is enhancing the voices and participation of grassroots women and communities in the areas of peacebuilding, good governance and sustainable development through literacy training workshops and community awareness among women’s groups and local communities.
UI-11 July 2015: UI-11 is one of the coordinators of the activities of Ganta Concern Women Development Association, Ganta City in Nimba County. UI-11 is in her forties and has been a leading personnel of the organization since 2004. She is concerned with the empowerment of women through education, community outreach, but most specifically agriculture programmes. She is also involved with tackling women, youth, and children’s human rights concerns, addressing domestic and gender-based violence through training, counselling and advocacy projects, with the specific support and assistance of the organization’s members.
UI-12 July 2015: UI-12 is one of the women in charge of ensuring the smooth running of Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET), Gbargna City in Bong County, together with other grassroots members of the organization. UI-12 is in her forties with a level of basic secondary education. She organizes meetings (like the focus group discussion conducted with the organization’s women) at the WIPNET Centre where they carry out their activities.
Likewise, she works in collaboration with the women to empower women, young girls and their community through community outreach programmes, advocacy and awareness raising
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on issues of rape, sexual and gender based violence (SGBV), and inheritance, some of which she plays lead role when advocacy is conducted through creative means like theatre act.
UI-13 and UI-14 July 2015: UI-13 and UI-14 are both members of WIPNET, Gbargna City in Bong County. UI-13 is in her fifties and UI-14 in her forties. Apart from their active involvement with the organization, both are farmers and trade part of their farm produce at the local market to sustain their families.
UI-15 and UI-16 July 2015: UI-15 and UI-15 are members of Ganta Concern Women, Ganta City in Nimba County. Both women are in their fifties, widowed and have been with the organization since 2005, especially in the organization’s cassava agricultural project. Besides this, they are also small farmers and traders of farm produce to the running of their homes.
FGD-A and FGD-B July 2015: FGD-A and FGD-B, July 2015 are focus group discussions conducted with Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET) in Bong County. As earlier explained, two focus groups were conducted with the same organization because of the turnout of members to participate in the discussion. FGD-A discussion was made up of eleven (11) members, and FGD-B discussion also constituted of eleven (11) members. These women are in the age groups of the forties to the sixties, and they are all involved in the realization of the peacebuilding activities of the organization, as profiled in “Appendix II” at the end of this study.
FGD-C and FGD-D July 2015: FGD-C and FGD-D, July 2015 are focus group discussions held with Ganta Concern Women Development Association (Ganta Concern Women) in Nimba County. Two focus group discussions were also held with members of this organization. FGD-C discussion constituted of twelve (12) members, and FGD-D discussion was held with eleven (11) members. These women are in the age groups of the forties to the sixties, majority of them are widows and are involved in the organization’s peace and development activities, also profiled in “Appendix II:” at the end of this study.
The discussions and interviews carried out with the above participants were all audio recorded with their permission, and eventually transcribed. I enlisted the services of a research assistant and colleague, Tarnue Marwolo Bongolee. The medium of communication and discussion
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with the participants was the English and Pidgin English (broken/hybridized English) languages spoken and used in everyday communication in Liberia. I am proficient in both languages, given that I hail from the Anglophone region of Cameroon, where the English language is an officially documented teaching and learning linguistic and Pidgin English is a lingua-franca commonly and extensively used in everyday communication in the region. At the level of the grassroots field engagements where some participants responded in the vernacular, the research assistant and some members in the group of participants translated the responses to English. The reason for holding four focus group discussions with just two organizations owe to the readiness of the women to share their experiences and the work they do, thus the sizeable turn-up for the discussion. To ensure the participation of all, I divided the discussion questions into two sections and also grouped the participants’ as such. Apart from Mother Mary Brownell, who was interviewed at her home, all the other discussions and interviews took place in the participants’ work environment, that is, offices and organizations’
assembly centres throughout the month of July 01 to 31, 2015.