Cerue Konah Garlo

Cerue Konah Garlo is the executive director of the Women NGOs Secretariat of Liberia (WONGOSOL), an organization connecting women's NGOs dealing with health, education, social justice, women's rights and security sector reform. A community peace builder and gender trainer, Ms. Garlo was a member of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs Pre- election Assessment Delegation to Sierra Leone's 2007 elections. To ensure the election went smoothly, Ms. Garlo assessed the political environment ahead of the elections, met with key civic and political party leaders as well as President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, and provided public feedback of the delegation's findings. She later became an international observer of those elections. Prior to her post at WONGOSOL, Ms. Garlo served as finance and administrative manager of the West Africa Network for peace Building Liberia, Where she managed women in peace- building programs.

During the civil war, Ms. Garlo staged a mass protest to persuade Charles Taylor to negotiate. She was later involved in the United Nations Development Programme's mid-term evaluation of Liberia's disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation, and reintegration process. In this capacity, she ensured that key stakeholders, especially female ex-combatants, were consulted in UNDP's evaluation. She contributed to grassroots mobilization that was instrumental in President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's victory. Through the Initiative for Inclusive Security; Ms. Garlo attended American University's Peacebuliding and Development Institute in the summer of 2007. She also participated in the World Bank's February2007 Liberia Partners' Forum, a transformative opportunity to engender Liberia's Poverty Reduction Strategy. Ms. Garlo participated in the Initiate for Inclusive Security 9th annual colloquium held in Boston and Washington DC in January 2008. Ms. Garlo holds a degree in accounting and economics from the University of Liberia and a diploma in social work from the Mother Patern College of Health Sciences of Don Bosco Polytechnic. She is married with three children.