Post conflict Liberia has a lot to learn from Rwanda in terms of good governance and women’s emancipation, Liberian Senator Jewel Howard Taylor who is leading her country’s visiting delegation has said. The senator led a five-person Liberian delegation into the country to observe the parliamentary elections concluded this week. The delegation which is made up of Liberian legislators and electoral commission staff paid a courtesy call to Senate President Dr. Jean Damascène Ntawukuliryayo on Friday. Senator Taylor said their trip in Rwanda was an eye opener on critical issues in good governance such as anti-corruption programmes, promoting reconciliation, and promoting women’s rights. “We came on a study tour to learn on the positive aspects of Rwanda as exhibited – Rwanda is now regarded as one of the stable nations in Africa, renowned for its low level of corruption, female participation, unity and reconciliation, and inter action collaborations at different sectors,” she said. The senator said that her own country has a lot to learn from Rwanda because Rwandans have been successful at managing their post-genocide situation and Liberians can take lessons to use in managing their own post-war situation. Taylor serves as the Chairperson of her country’s senatorial committee on health and social welfare and the promotion of gender, women, and children. Some of the most memorable lessons she would like to take back home from Rwanda is the integration of women in decision making institutions in Liberia. “They are part and parcel of what we do and they should be given equal access,” she said. The parliamentary elections concluded in Rwanda this week have handed women an overwhelming majority in the country’s Parliament, a world record of 64 per cent of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies. The Liberian delegation said the elections here were held in striking calm and peace in comparison to the electoral process back in Liberia which tends to be tenacious. “Things are just done differently here which makes us really pleased. In Liberia, there is a lot of tension during elections. We are having elections next October but now when you come to Monrovia (the Liberian capital), you see high tension packed. I think this is something we have to reduce,” Senator Taylor said. The two countries have a post-conflict connection with Rwanda having heavily suffered from the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi that killed more than a million people while Liberia was terribly torn up by a civil war in the 1980s that raged for over a decade, leaving thousands of people dead and the country’s social fabric wrecked. But both countries are now on a resolute path to development and are praised for their efforts to meet development targets in the global Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
