Partners
Our Partners and Supporters
VOSIEDA works with companies, governments, nonprofits, and other organizations to address complex challenges in West Africa’s Mano River Basin. Our partners contribute more than money. Their ideas, volunteer power, in-kind support, and more are helping to build stronger communities.
Partnering With VOSIEDA
VOSIEDA is committed to working in partnership. We believe we will better achieve our vision of ending extreme poverty in Liberia and the Mano River Basin region of West Africa through cooperation rather than competition. We also believe that if we pool our resources and expertise together, our collective actions will have a more significant impact than what we can deliver on our own.
Besides funding partners, we work with a range of other actors from community-based organizations, advocacy allies, and think tanks, universities, research and technical institutions, and service providers.
Project Partners
VOSIEDA works with grassroots organizations, cooperatives, small businesses, and local government at community levels, who best understand the issues at stake. We provide these stakeholders support and enhance their skills and capacity so that their communities can unleash their full potentials.
Advocacy Partners
In recent years, donors have spent more aid money in Liberia and West Africa’s Mano River Basin to improve the ‘supply-side’ (build schools, hospitals, create farms, etc.), which are necessary. Nerveless, assessments in many communities show that donors and international organizations make these investments at the expense of something equally important: creating demand for those services so that people who use these facilities can use them effectively. In response, VOSIEDA partners with the media and like-minded organizations to runs evidence-based advocacy and media campaigns to change behaviors and improve lives in Liberia and the subregion. See the ” Liberia Open Development Platform” manage by VOSIEDA.
Research and Technical Partners
VOSIEDA partners with academic, think tanks, research, and technical institutions to capture and apply new ideas, knowledge, and practice to real-world settings to support environment and natural resources security, poverty reduction, and social justice achievement in Liberia and West Africa. Also, see ‘Research for Inclusive Growth & Development‘
Service Providers/Suppliers
VOSIEDA works with service providers and suppliers to obtain essential goods and services needed to advance its development programs. We work with a range of suppliers, vendors, and contractors at the community levels. We thrive on supporting local economic development by developing collaborations to empower people, communities, and local businesses to contribute to equitable prosperity so that all can thrive.
Some of our partners, including some past and present supporters
No single organization has the resources and expertise to address all the pressing development challenges in West Africa sustainably. Therefore, we strongly believe in the power of partnerships to create a meaningful, lasting impact. By working with international aid agencies, governments, the private sector, foundations, civil society organizations, other NGOs, and local communities, we’re transforming lives in the Mano River Basin of West Africa.
European Union (EU)
The European Union partners with VOSIEDA to support governance and market reforms to reduce illegal use of forest resources and benefit the poor in Liberia. Our partnership is helping protect the livelihoods of millions of poor people dependent on forests for their livelihoods by reducing illegal logging. It give them a greater say in what happens to their forests and reduce the likelihood of conflict over forest tenure. Clear and secure forest tenure can enable forest dependent communities to double their incomes.
World Bank Liberia
The World Bank has partnered with VOSIEDA on different initiatives ranging from youth empowerment to smallholder tree crop revitalization support. Under different projects, our partnership with the Bank has increased smallholder tree crop farmers’ income opportunities and fostered youth empowerment.
Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS)
VOSIEDA is partnering with ECOWAS Commission to promote social stability in Liberia and West Africa’s sub-region since 2017. We worked with ECOWAS for a peaceful transfer of political power in Liberia in 2016/2017 contested presidential and parliamentary elections. Our partnership gear toward supporting ECOWAS’s ongoing efforts to promote peace and security in West Africa through preventive diplomacy.
United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP)
VOSIEDA first started working with UNDP in 2008 to reintegrate ex-fighters into their communities after the Liberian civil war. Since then, we work with UNDP to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in Liberia on many fronts. Some of our recent UNDP projects include Climate Resilient Agriculture and Ecosystem-Based Adaptation in Liberia’s Coastal and Agroecological Zones; and Mano River post-Ebola medical surveillance and livelihoods initiative. To get detailed information on these projects, kindly click the link below:
United Nations Human Right (Office Of The High Commission (OHCHR))
The United Nations Human Rights (Office of the High Commission (OHCHR)) is partnering with VOSIEDA through the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery to support victims and children affected by contemporary forms of slavery in Liberia. VOSIEDA is working to enable women and children held in modern-day slavery to leave slavery. We reach out to people most vulnerable to slavery and exploitation and help victims of slavery access the psychological, materials, and legal supports they need to recover. We also work at the grassroots levels to empower vulnerable people through campaigns and public education to better protect themselves from slavery. Moreover, we help communities demand respect for their human rights, tackle the root causes of servitude through access to education, eradicate extreme poverty, and eliminate gender inequality.
United Nations Democracy Funds (UNDEF)
Among the fundamental problems facing Liberia and West African democracies are continued barriers to widespread participation and inclusion. In responding to this problem in Liberia, UNDEF funded and partnered with VOSIEDA from 2010 to 2012 on a project that laid a foundation to empower civil society and encourage marginalized populations in Liberia about civic rights and duties following decades of marginalization, exclusion, and conflicts. Our collaboration with UNDEF promoted politically engaged, an informed citizenry and active civil society organizations in Liberia and immensely contributed to Liberia’s post-war second peaceful parliamentary and presidential elections in 2011.
United States Agency For International Development (USAID)
The United States Agencies for International Development (USAID) is active in Liberia and the Mano River Union region, partnering with governments and civil society, including VOSIEDA, to address underlying development problems, especially in fragile situations. As a viable Liberian civil society organization, VOSIEDA regularly partners with USAID-funded projects ranging from ‘Liberia Community Infrastructure Program (LCIP) with DAI; the ‘Ebola Community Action Platform ECAP to Economic Recovery from Ebola for Liberia (EREL) with Mercy Corps, among others. Click the link below to read the details of some of our projects with USAID.
World Food Programme (WFP)
Small scale farming remains the dominant economic activity among West Africa’s most impoverished families, but many farmers lack the resources, training, or funds to increase their farm’s productivity. In 2017, the World Food Program (WFP) started a partnership with VOSIEDA to provide up-to-date agricultural training to small scale farmers in Liberia. The aim was to build farmers’ capacity to improve their harvests, help farmers safely store their crops, and make relationships with local traders while managing their organizations. Other components included the Community Grain Reserves (CGRs) – a WFP Liberia program that provides a safety net to offset the effects of seasonal shocks. This partnership further sought to strengthen vulnerable communities’ resilience to reduce their hunger through the enhanced management of their food stocks. We are currently partnering with WFPon many other programs.
Australian Agency For International Development (AusAID)
The Australian Government’s aid program reflects Australia’s values and commitment to reducing poverty and lifting living standards through sustainable economic growth. Although currently focused on the Indo-Pacific region, VOSIEDA partnered with Australian Aid from 2011 to 2012 through the Australia-Africa Partnerships Facility (AAPF). In 2015 – 2016, the Australia Direct Aid Program (DAP) supported VOSIEDA to trained 200 female-headed households in horticulture, livestock farming, farm management, agricultural value chains, and post-harvest management. We also built a small scale farmers organizations capacity-building center that is currently benefiting small scale, Liberian farmers.
UN Women – United Nations Organization Dedicated To Gender Equality And Empowerment Of Women
UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women is very active in West Africa’s Mano River Basin. From 2012 – 2013, UN Women and VOSIEDA entered a partnership for rural women’s economic empowerment in Rivercess and Grand Bassa Counties in Southern Liberia. We provided training to 250 rural women in cassava processing, small business management, women’s rights, income generations, etc.
Japan’s Grant Assistance For Grassroots Human Security (GGHSP)
Even though agriculture is Liberia’s predominant economic sector, it is still in its primitive stage of development, and the role of private sector involvement still leaves much to be desired. The Japanese collaborated with VOSIEDA from 2015 to 2019 to Construct the Small-Scale Farmers Support Center. The center is bringing about a sector-by-sector transformation of Liberian agriculture through enhancing the competitiveness of value chains. The center identifies and supports existing pioneer small agri-businesses and small scale farmers. Also, it stimulates and promotes emerging dynamic small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs and nurtures innovative businesses whose primary mission involves addressing value chain problems and value addition, bringing subsector transformations in Liberia.
Tropenbos International (TBI)
Trobenbos International is a Netherlands based organization working to improve governance and management of tropical forests. TBI is partnering with VOSIEDA in Liberia to implement the Green Livelihoods Alliance – Forested Landscapes for Equity and Strengthening non-state actors’ capacity to improve FLEGT-VPA and REDD+ processes in Western Africa. Our partnership with Tropenbos is focused on increasing communities’ ability to resist destructive oil palm expansion and logging; increase the respect and recognition of tenure rights of local communities by government and concessionaires. We are working to improve adherence to the full implementation of policies and laws in forest and land management; and enhance non-state actors’ capacity to monitor, advocate and engage with State Actors in forest and land governance processes. We support the coalitions of CSOs, including the NGO Coalition of Liberia, to effectively advocate on issues important to them and pursue change through evidence-based advocacy and engagement.
Nature And Development Foundation (NDF)
The Nature Development Foundation (NDF) is a Ghanan NGO active in Ghana and partners in Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia. NDF’s focus in these countries has been interacting with the broader land-use sector, ensuring essential legal compliance by the forestry industry, encouraging responsible forest management and commodity production in general, and interacting with other actors who influence the forest landscape. VOSIEDA and Nature Development Foundation are regional partners working to promote responsible forest management, natural resources management, rural development, and governance in the West African Sub-region.
Liberia Agency For Community Empowerment (LACE)
The Community Empowerment Act established the Liberia Agency for Community Empowerment (LACE) under Chapter 50B of Title 12 of the Liberian Code of Laws as of July 22, 2004. LACE’s objective is to improve impoverished communities’ living standards through the provisions and strengthening of essential social services and promote a community-based approach to sub-project identification, preparation, implementation, administration, and maintenance. The Agency finances sub-projects of poor communities and disburses to those communities’ funds provided for them to support poverty reduction. Multiple donors, including the World Bank, European Union, etc., supports LACE. Nevertheless, LACE does not implement community sub-projects. Instead, LACE cooperates with communities or other implementing bodies. VOSIEDA and LACE entered into a partnership in 2008 and worked with communities in Liberia central providence of Bong County. Through this partnership, VOSIEDA assisted community-based organizations (CBOs) develop their technical and managerial capabilities in all aspects of sub-project activities. Check the link below to view detail of some of the LACE projects.