For 14 years, civil war devastated all aspects of life in Liberia. From 1989 - 2004, nearly 200,000 Liberians lost their lives, while millions were displaced to neighboring countries.

Liberia’s educational infrastructure was particularly hard hit. More than 80% of schools were damaged or destroyed during the conflict, and nearly 5,000 teachers left Liberia to escape the violence. Girls and woman were dramatically affected by the lack of education, creating a generation of over-age women in Liberia’s current educational system.

With wide spread violence coming to a close in 2004, Liberian citizens elected Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s first democratically elected President post-civil war, and Africa’s first female head of state.

She Looks Back, funded by the American Institutes for Research (A.I.R.), explores the current state of girls education in Liberia from the prism of two young students, Rose and Tina. The film tracks these girls as they face challenges that stem from the civil war, as well as gender-based discrimination, which often keeps them from attending school regularly, if at all.

The film also explores a research program funded by A.I.R. and implemented by USAID, which seeks to understand the challenges girls face in Liberia, as well as track several potential solutions for those challenges over the course of three years. The goal of this project is to develop and learn methods of keeping girls in school that work specifically for girls in Liberia.

LIBERIA: DESCRIPTION AND STATS

January 20, 2012

Country’s population of 3.5 million

According to the Poverty Reduction Strategy (2008-2011), 1.7 million Liberians are living in poverty and 1.3 million of them are living in extreme poverty. So most (3.0 million) of the population is living in poverty.

The war decimated the country and caused great human and material carnage as well as internal population displacement. Liberia’s infrastructure, institutions, governance systems and way of life have been irreversibly impacted by the fighting; constraining economic growth and curtailing the provision of health and education services outside of the capital city of Monrovia.

The war also caused large population dislocation, often decreasing the population size of villages and towns and swelling the size of the capital to three and four times its pre-war population size. Montserrado County (which includes Monrovia) now has over one third of the country’s population and is struggling under the weight of extending sewage, water, electricity and other basic services to its inhabitants.

Literacy:

In rural Liberia, approximately 31% of women are literate as compared to 61% for men. Thirty-eight percent of urban and 72.8% of rural women cannot read at all (to which one may add 9.7% urban and 11.5% rural who are only able to read part of a sentence.) (1)

Education sector:

The education sector suffered massive damage during the conflict and school enrollment for children was erratic during the conflict’s fourteen years. Seventy percent of schools were either partially or completely destroyed. A whole generation of Liberians spent their childhood and youth out of school, accounting for a large current over-age student population at the primary level. There are four types of schools in Liberia: public, community (subsidized by the government and considered part of the public domain), mission and private schools. Public and community schools account for 67% of the total enrollment at the primary level. Government schools suffered the greatest damage during the conflict with 31% of public and 22% of community schools completely destroyed, while 17% of public and 24% of community schools experienced major damage (2).

Many primary teachers were displaced or left the country and were replaced by volunteer teachers who did not meet the minimum (C-Certificate) qualification standards. In 2007, 62% of teachers in the system were unqualified and 40% did not even have a high school degree. Today, 55% remain unqualified. Furthermore, teacher salaries were suspended during the war. The lack of women teachers stems from the tendency for young women to drop out – because they are pregnant, because they are married young when leaving the Sande, because schools are not safe, etc. At this point, only about 10% of teachers are female. (3)

These issues coupled with the absence of direct government transfers to the county and district levels necessitated that public schools institute user fees. This resulted in a sharply increased drop-out rate which disproportionately affected girls. (4) The Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in primary for girls declined from 73% in 2000 to 36% in 2002, while the decline for boys was from 73% to 49%. That gender gap persists today at all levels of the education system.

Of the students enrolled in primary school in 2007/2008, 253,303 were girls and 286,584 were boys. The Gender Parity Index (GPI) in the 2007/2008 was 0.88 with large variations at the county and district level, ranging from 1.02 in Montserrado County to .67 in Grand Kru County. A large proportion of children under the age of nine are not in primary school and this contributes to the country’s low net enrollment rates. At the national level, the 2007/2008 primary level GER was 89% while the Net Enrollment Ratio (NER) was 33%, placing in evidence the large over-age school population. In fact, 58% of those who completed Grade 6 in 2007/2008 where between the ages of 14-18 while 23% of entrants into Grade 1 were between the ages of 7 and 8. (5)

Fifty-six percent of females and 39% of males have never attended ANY school. In the northwestern areas of Liberia, 70% of females have no education at all. (6) 

Teenage pregnancy is one of the contributors to low girls’ enrollment, especially given the large population of teenage girls and boys at the primary level. Recent 2009 statistics show that 47.6% of girls aged 18 and under have begun childbearing, while 62.3% begin at ages 19 or under. (7) Girls who do get pregnant and drop out tend not to return to school. Although there is no national policy that prevents them from re-entering the school system, many schools do not allow the young mothers to re-enroll. Gender-based violence (GBV) and sexual exploitation abuse (SEA) are other factors in making schools inhospitable to girls. Events during the conflict years contributed to an expanded prevalence of GBV while the poverty level provides an enabling environment for SEA with girls often being coerced into exchanging sexual favors for grades, food and other basic needs.

Other factors constraining girls’ enrollment, retention and completion of primary school include: lack of proper facilities, especially latrines, that make schools "girl" and even "child" friendly; lack of accessible and appropriate learning materials; lack of relevant teaching materials, supplies, desks and learning equipment; large distances to school; and the dearth of female teachers in schools despite very recent efforts to recruit more women into the teaching profession. 

Economic Issues

The Demographic Health Survey (DHS) reports that 59% of women and 78% of men are currently "employed", and that "rural women and men are more likely to be currently employed than urban resident." (8) (DHS, p. 37)

Regarding occupations, 55% of women and 53% of men are in agricultural occupations, and 37% of women and 21% in sales or services. Only 11% of all working men are in "skilled manual jobs", for which women are a much lower percent. Only 3% of employed women (and 8% of employed men) are in professional, technical or managerial fields. (9) (DHS, p. 40)

(1) Gender Assessment USAID Liberia May 2009
(2) Liberia Primary Education Recovery Program prepared for Fast Track Initiative, MOE, March 2007.
(3) Gender Assessment USAID Liberia May 2009
(4) Liberia Primary Education Recovery Program prepared for Fast Track Initiative, MOE, March 2007.
(5) A System in Transition, the 2007/2008 National School Census Report, MOE, October 2008
(6) Gender Assessment USAID May 2009
(7) Liberia Malaria Indicator Survey, 2009.
(8) Gender Assessment USAID May 2009

The American Institutes for Research (A.I.R.), established in 1946, conducts behavioral and social science research in the areas of health, education and workforce productivity. With projects going on both domestically and internationally, A.I.R. wanted to visually document the impact their projects have on people around the world. With new research programs beginning in both Zambia and Liberia, A.I.R. sought out MediaStorm to document the situation and produce a story about the real impact their programs are having in participating communities.

The main challenge for this piece was trying to find a way to make an ongoing research program both visual and engaging through video. International research programs are difficult to represent in a way that a large and diverse audience can connect with.

Additionally, there were many logistical challenges involved in planning a shoot in Liberia. The communities involved in the research program were often hours away from good roads and city centers, requiring preparation and planning on the part of both MediaStorm and A.I.R. to ensure that everything needed for the documentary was available.

MediaStorm, in conjunction with A.I.R. staff, determined that the research program in Liberia, which centered around the education of women and girls, held the most visual potential for a documentary.

Once the broader subject was established, MediaStorm producers worked with A.I.R. staff on the ground in Liberia to scout for subjects and communities that would be willing to participate in the film. MediaStorm helped A.I.R. staff identify subjects that could carry the narrative of the film, and allow viewers to connect with their stories on a personal level.

Based on extensive documentation of the program given to MediaStorm by A.I.R., MediaStorm producers developed a rough outline of what the story could look like before leaving for Liberia. It was determined that in order for the audience to more intimately connect with the purpose of A.I.R.'s research program, the audience needed to care about and identify with the beneficiaries of the program. For this reason it was decided that the project would need to be seen through the eyes of at least one girl.

Once on the ground in Liberia, MediaStorm staff conducted dozens of interviews to find subjects that could eloquently describe their role in A.I.R.'s research program, and who were willing to allow MediaStorm to document their everyday lives. In order to offset the chance of a subject falling through, MediaStorm chose two girls to interview and document.

MediaStorm also determined that there was a need for expert voices, to precisely explain the motivation and impact of A.I.R.'s research program in Liberia.

Based on the footage collected in Liberia, MediaStorm produced two versions of She Looks Back; a feature and a short version. This allows the project to be used in varied situations, at the discretion of the client.

On March 13th, 2012, A.I.R held a panel discussion in Washington D.C. on recognizing and remedying issues with girls' education in post-conflict nations. The panel included Jane Benbow, Vice President and Director of AIR’s International Development Program, Yolande Miller-Grandvaux, Senior Education Advisor, Office of Education USAID, and Rebecca Winthrop, Senior Fellow & Director of the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution.

She Looks Back was used to open the discussion, and to give some context around the Liberian civil war's impact on women and girls.

Additionally, A.I.R. licensed MediaStorm's player to host the project on their own website.

Established in 1946, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is an independent, nonpartisan not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of health, education, and workforce productivity. For more information, visit www.air.org.