Dr. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first female president made a keynote speech at a workshop on gender and infrastructure co-sponsored by the World Bank and the Government of Japan
during the Fourth International Conference on African Development.
President Johnson-Sirleaf exposed the infrastructure-related challenges faced by women in post-conflict countries like Liberia. "We inherited a devastated country with damaged infrastructure, a country without electricity or running water," President Johnson-Sirleaf explained. "Our market women spend a lot of time travelling under poor transport conditions at high costs, to be able to bring goods to the market to feed the population. The lack of storage facilities means that their perishable goods suffer spoilage, thereby reducing the little profit margin they were able to get." President Johnson-Sirleaf discussed the far-reaching societal consequences of the lack of infrastructure, including an increase in HIV/AIDS infection rates linked to gender-based violence occurring as a consequence of girls being out of school and vulnerable.
President Johnson-Sirleaf continued by stating the importance of involving women in the construction of infrastructure services to position them as stakeholders in their society.
"Let me tell you something about the urban works and the road construction program," President Johnson-Sirleaf said. "Women are so anxious to get ahead, because they want to be a part of society, they go beyond the extra mile. So you see women breaking rocks, to ensure that the roads have gravel. And some of them have begun to so excel that they have become the supervisors [of road constructions]. They keep the tally to make sure the men come to work. They are proud of doing that because they feel that now they are true stakeholders in their society."
With funding from the Gender Action Plan and UNICEF program amongst others, President Johnson-Sirleaf said that programs such as the Liberian Education Trust that aims to rehabilitate and construct 50 schools, and the Market Women Fund designed to improve the conditions for market women were progressing significantly.
