Stories from Liberia: Daniel’s Story

I am Daniel Nyan Gboe, the Founder and Executive Director of Efficient Research and Development Institute, ERDI for short.

In 2012, we began outlining our purpose. We developed a roadmap for building our organisation, considering our mission, our supporters, and funders.

We decided to have our headquarters in Nimba as opposed to Monrovia, as we knew there was a lot already going on in Monrovia, and we wanted to have an impact within rural communities. We began gathering volunteers, raising finances, and bringing people with knowledge and experience on board so we could thrive. I started this with my family, my wife played a major role in our success, but today, ERDI goes beyond family. ERDI it’s for and by the community now.

A large portion of our work centres on women and youth empowerment. We realised that in rural Liberia, the women are the ones who are working more, but they do not own the land. So, if we try to improve the economic viability of women and youth, especially in rural Liberia, we must ensure that they have access to land. Their own land governance committees. They must have leading roles in their communities. For instance, if land is being divided up within the community, it is divided among family heads. You will find that the family heads are men; even if a woman is considered the head of her family, she is not seriously considered the family head in the eyes of the community. As a result, she will not have access to the opportunity of gaining equal access to land.

Another big issue in Liberia is that our culture and traditions often only support men to be leaders. It means that even if women are striving, they are overlooked. If you go to a community meeting in rural Liberia, you will see that more men come and contribute than women. The space has not been fully given over to them. So, we are trying to support women in leadership. We don’t just want to support the young, up-and-coming women, but those currently in communities who are being overlooked.

We see ERDI as a shelter for women and youth, a place where they can come and be warmed. Without ERDI, a lot of the groups of rural women that we support would have fallen apart without us bringing them together into our wider community.

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