Anniversary Gala« back

Hon. Ms. Vabah Gayflor

Minister for Gender and Development
Republic of Liberia

Accepting the UNIFEM Global Leadership Award, 2006, on behalf of H.E. Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia.

Born and educated in Liberia, Vabah Gayflor was selected in 2003 to represent the women of Liberia in the National Transitional Government. She was soon appointed Minister for Gender and Development.

Minister Gayflor is largely acknowledged as the driving force behind the widespread campaign that became the tipping point in Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's presidential race. Under Gayflor's leadership, the Ministry of Gender has worked to promote female participation in the electoral process. From training women to run as candidates, to lobbying with the electoral commission to ensure women's inclusion, Gayflor and her colleagues mobilized women voters to get involved in politics.

All African women own Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Politics is no longer just the domain of men. Women have felt it, they have seen it with their own eyes, the strength that they have in numbers.—Hon. Ms. Vabah Gayflor

In the run-off to the 2005 Liberian elections, the Ministry initiated a massive campaign that saw Gayflor and her colleagues traveling from village to village to speak directly to people in their homes, in community spaces, in churches. "We rolled up our mattresses and went by bus or car to as many areas as we could; sometimes we ate and slept in the cars. We painted the picture for women that showed how, for the first time, our daughters could have a future we could only dream about."