AFL Targets 20% Female Ranks, Opens Recruitment Drive in River Gee | News

FISH TOWN, River Gee County — The Armed Forces of Liberia wants women to make up as much as a fifth of its ranks, roughly triple their current share, and its recruiters came to River Gee County this month to tell young women how to qualify.

Sgt. Patricia Munah Lincoln told women gathered at the Fish Town City Hall, and listeners of a local radio station, that Liberia is aiming for female representation of between 15 and 20 percent in the AFL. She put the current figure at 7.4 percent. The project document underpinning the campaign puts it at 7.5 percent, made up of 11.5 percent of officers and 7.1 percent of enlisted personnel.

The requirements, Lincoln said, are narrower than many assume. A high school graduate is eligible to apply. Applicants must be 35 or younger, subject to other conditions. She urged women considering the military to stay clear of narcotics, saying involvement in drug use or related offenses can disqualify an applicant during vetting.

The Fish Town engagements are part of a nationwide awareness drive the Ministry of National Defense, and the AFL are running with UN Women, funded by the Elsie Initiative Fund under a project launched Feb. 9 titled “Strengthening Armed Forces of Liberia’s women active participation in peace and security through deployment to peacekeeping missions.” Beyond recruitment, the project is designed to widen the pool of Liberian women qualified for deployment to United Nations peacekeeping missions, including in command positions, and to prepare soldiers of both sexes for deployment with training that includes basic computer skills.

The numbers explain the urgency. In 2017, the Gender and Security Sector National Taskforce found women made up 3 percent of the AFL, the lowest of any Liberian security institution at the time. Nine years later the share has roughly doubled, which is progress by one measure and slow going by another. In September 2022 the AFL assessed its own obstacles using the Measuring Opportunities for Women in Peace Operations methodology developed by DCAF, the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance, to gauge its capacity to deploy women and give them meaningful roles in peacekeeping.

The campaign is built on the premise that the barriers are as much social as institutional. Its stated aim is to challenge the assumption that soldiering is men’s work, and to win over the people whose opinions decide whether a young woman applies: families, teachers, county authorities, religious leaders and women’s organizations. It ties directly to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, which calls for women at every level of decision-making in conflict prevention and resolution, and for a larger role for women in UN field operations.

The plan covers all 15 counties, grouped into four regions and rolled out in phases, with community meetings, outreach to schools and universities, media work and stakeholder dialogues.

Women at the Fish Town sessions welcomed the drive and thanked the government and UN Women for opening the door, saying the outreach would push more Liberian women to consider a military career.