ECOWAS trains judicial, health and social actors in Liberia on preventing and responding to GBV and sexual harassment in Monrovia
27 Nov, 2025
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), through its Gender Development Centre (EGDC) organised a national training workshop on the prevention and response to gender-based violence (GBV) and sexual harassment for judicial, health and social actors from the 18th to 21st of November 2025 at the Boulevard Palace Hotel, a national training workshop on the prevention of and response to gender-based violence (GBV) and sexual harassment, aimed at judicial, health and social actors.
This initiative, carried out in collaboration with Liberia’s Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare, is part of the implementation of the “ECOWAS Regional Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and the Elimination of All Violence against Women and Girls”, and the “ECOWAS Policy for the Prevention and Response to Sexual Harassment in Workplaces and Educational Institutions in the Region”, adopted in 2021.
The workshop brought together representatives from the Ministries of Justice, Health, Gender, Youth, Education, Labour, Security and Defence, as well as civil society organisations working to protect the rights of women and girls, and community and religious leaders.
The opening ceremony was presided over by Her Excellency Ms. Laura Golakeh, Deputy Minister for Gender, in the presence of representatives from ECOWAS and several national partner institutions.
Over four days, participants discussed the concepts, causes, effects and consequences of gender-based violence, and were trained on holistic GBV case management tools, standard procedures for responding to sexual harassment, and mechanisms for referencing, collecting, securing and sharing survivors’ personal data, with strict respect for confidentiality and human dignity.
The participatory approach adopted, combining case studies, group work, plenary discussions and experience sharing, enabled judicial, health and social actors to strengthen their capacities for better coordination of the national response to GBV.
At the end of the workshop, participants developed a national roadmap for the dissemination of training tools on GBV and sexual harassment, as well as for supporting the judicial, medical and psychosocial care of survivors in Liberia.
A final communiqué calling for increased mobilisation of all stakeholders and a zero-tolerance policy towards gender-based violence and sexual harassment marked the end of the workshop.