MONROVIA, Liberia: The Recovery of Economic Activity for Liberian Informal Sector Employment (REALISE) Project on Friday November 13,2026hosted representatives of several women-led organizations at its Monrovia office for a one-day partnership and capacity-building training.
The lead organizer of the training Vivian Kanneh, the Project’s Gender Officer said “it aims to strengthen coordination with women-led organizations and to create a platform for exchanging lessons and good practice”.
Madam Kanneh said “the session will also help the Project gather first-hand insights from women entrepreneurs and build partnerships for gender-responsive entrepreneurship”.
She added that the training will help establish strategic partnerships and promote resource sharing and joint learning. It is also meant to support coordinated advocacy and to embed gender mainstreaming in project implementation.
Empowering Women, Advancing Equality
REALISE Project Coordinator Jesse H. Bengu said the engagement reflects the Project’s commitment to ensuring that women are central to its work, not only beneficiaries of it.
“Women empowerment and gender equality are not side issues for REALISE; they are at the heart of how we fight poverty,” Mr. Bengu said. “When a woman earns her own income, her whole household benefits, from her children’s education to the food on the table. By working hand in hand with women-led organizations, we are making sure our support reaches the women who need it most and that their voices help shape what we do.”
REALISE is a Government of Liberia program supported by the World Bank, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the French Development Agency. It is implemented through the Liberia Agency for Community Empowerment (LACE), the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection. The Recovery of Economic Activity for Liberian Informal Sector Employment (REALISE) Project aims to increase access to income-earning opportunities for vulnerable people in the informal sector in response to crises. It also seeks to expand income and livelihood support to poor and food-insecure households, and to improve the efficiency of managing social protection programs.
Reach and Impact
REALISE operates across 14 of Liberia’s 15 counties. REALISE is scheduled to conclude on December 31, 2026, and the Project says it is working with government institutions to encourage continuity after it ends.
