After its 14-year civil war, Liberia worked with multiple donors and partners to restore
security. This paper explores the Liberia National Police’s innovative efforts to create a more
gender-sensitive police service and describes the international and domestic support it received
in doing so. In particular, the paper analyses Liberia National Police’s efforts to (1) recruit
female police officers and (2) train a specialized unit to address gender-related crimes.
Ambitious recruitment efforts brought more women on board, but some critics regarded the
related fast-track program as misguided or ineffective. The specialized unit increased
awareness about and response to gender-based violence, but was impeded by a broken
judicial system. Success factors of both projects included the timing (post-conflict window
of opportunity), the context (momentum for gender-sensitive reforms), local ownership.