Development Education Network-Liberia (DEN-L), is a local non-governmental organization based in Gbarnga, Liberia.DEN-L’s primary activity is capacity-building training for civil society organizations (CSOs) and other grassroots
organizations and creating consciousness through community theater. The organization signed an agreement with the UN Women to implement activities under the European Union and United Nations (EU/UN) Spotlight Initiative, with the goal of “strengthening the capacity of CSOs and the women’s movement to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls”, in five counties: Montserrado, Grand Cape Mount, Lofa, Nimba, and Grand Gedeh. The project targets CSOs, coalitions, networks and women’s movements, and marginalized and vulnerable groups, including those facing multiple and intersecting forms of violence and discrimination, such as persons living with HIV/AIDs, disabilities, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender /transsexual, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) community at national and subnational levels in the five Spotlight counties. To track the progress of this Initiative, DEN-L embarked on an exercise to document and subsequently publish success stories, lessons learned, and best practices from selected CSOs and project beneficiaries in target communities in the five counties.
This report contains key accounts of project stakeholders and beneficiaries on what they considered achievements and impacts of the project; it also includes opinions of communities on the relevance of the project’s interventions, including the sustainability of long-term impact. These assessments were shared during interviews and collection of testimonies by field staff from 8 to19 June 2020 and with additional data collected from 7 to 17 September 2020. Success stories and interview data were mainly qualitative and collected through key informant interviews (KIIs) and focus group discussions. Focus group meetings involving community members were held in Lofa and Nimba counties while strictly abiding by all COVID-19 preventive protocols. Stories were also directly collected from project beneficiaries in Montserrado, Grand Cape Mount, Lofa, and Nimba. Interviews in Grand Gedeh were mainly phone-based. Below is a summary of key findings and recommendations (which mirror the key challenges).
