Shortly after this picture was taken, Dr Jackson – one of the key partners for this Liberian-German project – was promoted to the position of County Health Officer in Grand Kru
Instruments and learnings from a German-supported project in Liberia
The tools and learnings presented in this toolkit all emerged from a joint Liberian-German initiative “Employment-oriented support to Women in the Health sector” (EWH). It was implemented over three years, from 2017 to 2019, with a focus on five counties in southeast Liberia (population 500,000) aspart of the Liberian-German Health Programme which aimed to strengthen health systems after the Ebola outbreak.
The project’s objective was to improve career opportunities for women in Liberia’s health workforce by bringing more women into ‘technical’ professions currently dominated by men (addressing horizontal occupational segregation) and by supporting women’s career advancement into (higher-paid) leadership positions in the sector (addressing vertical occupational segregation).
A career life cycle approach
The interventions followed a health worker career life cycle approach: It supported women at different stages of their careers, starting with career choice and pre-service education through recruitment, employment and retention to career development and growth. Tailored interventions sought to tackle gender-related barriers at each of these career stages. This holistic approach was designed to achieve short-term results in terms of developing women’s individual capacities, as well as to create momentum for longer-term institutional and social change in terms of strengthening the gender responsiveness of relevant systems and influencing gender norms in society.
To learn more, have a closer look at the following:
- Project overview “Employment-oriented support to Women in the Health sector” (EWH) in Liberia
- Article about health career guidance
- Health careers booklet for high school students
- Gender audit toolbox for health training institutions
- Gender and health workforce bibliography
- Training manual for gender responsive HRH management
- Article about leadership development programme