TITLE:
Role of Regulatory Authorities in Women’s Economic Empowerment through Community-Based Organization Programs in Montserrado County, Liberia
AUTHORS:
Tolbert Thomas Jallah Jr.
KEYWORDS:
Regulatory Governance, Women’s Economic Empowerment, Community-Based Organizations, Program Implementation Effectiveness, Montserrado County
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.13 No.8,
August
18,
2026
ABSTRACT: Even though community-based organizations programs have been introduced in order to empower women economically in Montserrado County, there are still worries as far as the role of regulation in the management of the said programs is concerned. This study focuses on the role of regulatory authorities in empowerment of women. Descriptive-correlational mixed-method approach was used. The population of interest was made up of 42,990 beneficiary women from CBO projects. A total of 384 sample size was established through the use of Kothari formula and out of which 310 responses were collected giving a total of 80.7% response rate. A total of 12 key informant interviews were conducted purposively from both government and CBO organizations. Findings reveal that local regulatory governance was fairly effective (Mean = 2.37 - 2.52; SD = 1.29 - 1.34) and was positively associated with the economic empowerment of women. Among the different factors of regulatory governance, accountability (r = 0.55; β = 0.28) and compliance enforcement (r = 0.49; β = 0.25) were found to have the strongest positive association with access to finances and income of women. The qualitative analysis has shown that the effective regulatory governance helped in program accountability, access to financial aid and training, and economic empowerment of women. The study finds that regulatory governance is positively related to the economic empowerment of women.