Sirleaf Market Women's Fund Records, 1998-2017

Contents and Arrangement

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Collection Overview

Creator:

Sirleaf Market Women's Fund

Title:

Sirleaf Market Women's Fund Records

Repository:

Public Policy Papers

Permanent URL:

http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/3n204276g

Dates:

1998-2017

Size:

10 boxes and 110 items

Storage Note:

Mudd Manuscript Library (scamudd): Box 1-10

Language:

English

Abstract: The Sirleaf Market Women's Fund (SMWF) was a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring the livelihoods of market women in post-war Liberia. The collection documents the operations of SMWF International, the fundraising arm of SMWF, including its administration, governance, outreach, finances, fundraising, and programming.

Collection Description & Creator Information

Scope and Contents

The Sirleaf Market Women's Fund Records document the operations of SMWF International, the fundraising arm of SMWF, including its administration, governance, outreach, finances, fundraising, and programming. The collection contains information on members and meetings of the Board of Directors of both SMWF International and SMWF Liberia, as well as well as materials related to SMWF's strategic planning and general policies and procedures. Promotional materials related to SWMF's work on behalf of Liberian market women compose a large portion of the collection in the form of videos, press releases, newsletters, and reports. Materials on specific fundraising and advocacy events are also included, such as the launch of the "Adopt-a-Market" campaign in June 2008, along with more general fundraising resources and planning. Most of SMWF's programming files relate to the building and renovation of local markets, but SWMF's support of literacy training, Ebola awareness, micro-finance, and other issues is also documented. To a lesser extent, the collection contains research on topics and organizations relevant to SMWF's mission.

Arrangement

Paper materials in Series 1: Shelly Ross Files were arranged by an archivist according to the organizational scheme of the digital records. Digital records in Series 1 remain in their original order as received from the donor.

Paper materials in Series 2: Dorothy Davis Files remain in their original order as received from the donor. In the digital records, all folders within top-level folder "Sirleaf Market Women's Fund" were moved to other top-level folders or became their own top-level folders. The "Sirleaf Market Women's Fund" folder was renamed "Uncategorized" and contains 12 files that were not in any subfolders. "SMWF Ford Foundation" within top-level folder "New folder (2)" was moved to the top-level and the empty "New folder (2)" was deleted.

Collection Creator Biography:

Sirleaf Market Women's Fund

The Sirleaf Market Women's Fund (SMWF) was a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring the livelihoods of market women in post-war Liberia. SWMF was founded in 2007 and named after Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the twenty-fourth president of Liberia and Africa's first female president. Structurally, SMWF had a board of directors and staff in Liberia, while SMWF International, headquartered in New York and also governed by its own board, served as the main fundraising arm. SMWF built new markets and renovated existing markets in Liberia following the country's civil war, using funds provided by its "Adopt-a-Market" campaign and from partners like the United Nations Development Programme, UN Women, African Women's Development Fund (AWDF), the government of Liberia, and various non-governmental organizations. Other services SMWF and its partners provided for Liberian women included adult literacy programs, day care facilities, training in small business management and village savings and loans, and micro-credit facilities. SMWF also raised funds to train market women in Ebola prevention when an epidemic of the disease broke out in West Africa in 2014. In 2017, the Sirleaf Market Women's Fund formalized its transition into the Sustainable Market Women's Fund, passing the ownership of the organization to market women.

Collection History

Acquisition:

The collection was donated by Shelly Ross in July-August 2016 (accessions ML.2016.019 and ML.2016.035) and by Dorothy Davis in August 2016 (accession ML.2016.023), March 2017 (accession ML.2017.005), and May 2017 (accession ML.2017.018).

Appraisal

Approximately one linear foot of out-of-scope and duplicative paper materials and CDs/DVDs from accessions ML.2016.019 and ML.2016.023 were removed from the collection.

From the digital files in accession ML.2016.019, directories titled ""Off Limits" and "Database" were deleted.

From the digital files in accession ML.2016.023, 44 empty directories were deleted. Two individual files and three directories containing sensitive data were also deleted.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Rachel Van Unen in 2017-2018.

Access & Use

Conditions Governing Access

Collection will open for research use on April 27, 2026.

Conditions Governing Use

Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.

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