Women Policy 1999 - 2009
Foreward (President of the Republic of The Gambia) Thus, while the familiar problems of women exist in terms of limited access to development resources, modern educational facilities and health care; a patriarchal legacy that restrict decision-making power at the various levels of the state, the community and family to men; a traditional agricultural system that relies on the labour of women while at the same time discriminating against them in land ownership and employment. The Gambia has never lost sight of the importance of our women. A National Women’s Council Act was enacted in 1980 to set up a body to advice Government on Women’s affairs and a Women’s Bureau was established to implement decision of this council. Non-governmental organizations have also been encouraged to operate in areas that address women’s issues and this experience his created awareness on the concerns of women. H.E PROFESSOR ALHAJI DR YAHYA A.J.J. JAMMEH
The Gambia is a nation with an acute sense of unity amidst its diverse ethno linguistic composition. The is a function of the advantage of small size which nurtures familiarity, inter-marriage, miscegenation and a high degree of mutual tolerance.This sense of togetherness, which is at the root of the extended family system.This also provides the mental framework and attitudinal disposition, which enables us to manage tensions related to the cleavages of class, caste, religion, ethnicity and gender relations.
At the International level, The Gambia participated in for that brought women issues in the forefront of development concerns and the recommendations of such gatherings have been taken into account in the appropriate sectoral policies and programmes. These international conventions include The Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Beijing Plan of Action. This high level of commitment to the women question led the World Bank to identify The Gambia as a pilot site for the Women In Development Project in 1990. This intervention that was jointly funded by the African Development Bank, the Government of Norway and the government of The Gambia, experienced on a multi-sectoral approach to the gender problems and one of the activities called for the development of national policy for women. The project thus sought to mark a point of departure from the price meal; ad-hoc and incremental approach t6o the advancement of women, which had since been the modus operandi and a comprehensive approach and the strengthening of the machinery of government for women to directly manage their affairs. Thus, the structure of government in the transition period featured an unprecedented proportion of women in Cabinet and a rational allocation of port-folios allowing women to run the sectors that are strategic to the elevation of their status and their socio-economic advancement.
Cabinet in the transition period included four female members assigned with the portfolios of Health, Social Welfare and Women’s Affairs, Education, tourism and the Law. The majority of health personnel in The Gambia are women teachers are a high percentage of the teaching force. The informal sector and the horticultural sub-sector, which are linked to the tourism industry, have women as the main agents just as their numbers are significantly increasing in the legal profession. Further, the priority programmes of the transmission period whim expanded educational and health services were into alias predicated on the intention to increase access of such services to women. Similarly, the agricultural program in the transition period was oriented towards support of women activities in rice, cereal and horticultural production.
Naturally, the government of the Second Republic intends to build on achievements of past programmes and to sustain and improve upon the momentum of the transition period. Through this policy, the framework exists to translate the objectives of the national Vision 2020, which is to harmonies the relationship between the sexes through the elimination of inequalities and the empowerment of women. It was therefore, reassuring that the process to formulate this policy embraced the principle of collective self-reliance which is central to the philosophy of the Second Republic, by consulting a wide spectrum of all categories of women, contracting national consultants and the setting up of a review committee composed of Gambians with the institutuional memory of past interventions and with the knowledge and expiries on the development concerns of women. It is evident in the policy that this core of expertise was successful in anchoring the policy in the national strategies vision and in and in integrating it with the policies and programmes of other relevant sectors. This has ensured the internal consistency of the policy and its conversance with both the macro-economic framework and the thrusts of sectoral policies.
The development in thinking and intervention activities that have influenced the national policy on women have of necessity, created an imbalance between the original legislation and the policy itself. The need therefore, arises to revisit the National Women’s Council Act in order to revise its provisions accordingly. The outcomes of the preliminary review by the national consultants have been quite instructive.
However, my government will further subject these into moretinyith a view to/ending the relevant provisions of the Act to create the appropriate environment to implement the policy. Implementation capacity is however, not only constrained by an obsolete level environment, but by limited human resources, a weak institutional framework and the scarcity of programmed resources. The action plan along with this policy, will then serve as the basis of partnership in program and project development and implementation on the advancement of women between government and the donor community. Already government is in collaboration with DFID to mainstream poverty and gender with a 1 million grant from the British Government.
I therefore, commend this policy on the advancement of Gambian Women to all friendly donor agencies and take the opportunity to extend an invitation for partnership to execute it and implement its corresponding programmes in order to achieve its objectives, which are reflections of joint international/commitments towards the global advancement of women.
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE GAMBIA