We recognise the fact that women are engaged in trade, farming, education, the health sector, security, managing financial and banking institutions, and are generally playing key role in the economy.
However, the impact of this new ministry on the lives of women, children and persons with disabilities has been receiving divergent views, some of which posit that women and girls advancement were more prioritised and attended to in the period before the establishment of the Ministry.
One of the reasons being suggested is that when they were separated entities, namely the then Department of Social Welfare under the Ministry of Health and the Women’s Bureau under the Office of the Vice President respectively, there was more influence, resources, independence and power that most people of the current Ministry tends to stifle and curtail under the newly established Directorates than the previous Departments. Downsizing the Departments and the Bureau to Directorates has led to the curtailment of resources allocated to them for women and children-specific projects and persons with disabilities programmes as other needs for the day-to-day running of the Ministry itself are prioritised. Notwithstanding these assessments of the new ministry’s impact on women and girls advancement, The Point, as part of the women’s month celebrations, still finds it necessary to shed light on some achievements and challenges of the women.
Mr President, the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day 2024 is ‘Investing in women: Accelerate progress’, which reminds us of the Government of The Gambia’s first National Development Plan (NDP) 2018-2021 and its successor plan which listed Women’s Empowerment as one of the critical enablers for national development. The NDP has over the years aimed to empower the Gambian woman to realise her full potential, and while significant steps have been taken through several legislative Acts, in gender parity in primary education among others, the welfare of the Gambian woman as compared to that of their counterpart men continues to lag significantly behind. Government is therefore challenged to further promote gender equity, equality and empowerment of women and girls for sustained socioeconomic development.
The establishment of the Women Enterprise Fund to improve access to finance for women is believed to be a positive development although one needs to see how the allocation of funds as per regional distribution is conducted. Some women have raised concerns that their regions are more densely populated and wider yet other smaller regions have benefited more than them since the establishment of this fund. This is a matter of concern and that information about the Fund should be published widely to promote more transparency and accountability of the fund.
Mr President, other areas where heavy debate also lies are legislative reforms and advocacy for enhanced representation and participation in decision making; gender-based violence reduction programmes, and abolishing harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation (FGM) and early marriage are important.
On women’s representation in decision making for instance, women make up more than half of The Gambia’s population and 57 per cent of its registered electorate. Yet in the April 2022 legislative elections, only 8 per cent of candidates were women. Only 3 of the 19 women who stood for the polls were elected and only one of those represented a political party, the other 2 being independent candidates. This is the same number of women who were elected in the legislative elections of 2017, indicating definite lack of progress when it comes to women’s political empowerment in the country. The problem exists not only at the level of the National Assembly but at all strata of elected office in The Gambia. In fact, the farther down one looks in the political hierarchy, the smaller is the proportion of women who hold office. Only 3 of the 22 Ministers (13.6 per cent) in the current Cabinet are women, down from 21 per cent in the previous Cabinet. Only 5 women sit in the current 58-seat National Assembly (8.6 per cent), down from 10.3 per cent in the previous National Assembly. Also, only 5 of the 20 ambassadors are women and there are 2 vacant ambassadorial positions to be filled in Cuba and Sierra Leone, since The Gambia has 22 embassies in total.
Finally, Mr President, what is clear is that what we are seeing today is a far cry from what we expected from the regime that replaced the decades of Department of Social Welfare and the Women’s Bureau. The new Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare has clustered the well-structured Department of Social Welfare and Women’s Bureau of the former Jawara and Jammeh regimes into little micro-managed Units in the name of Directorates, which has not so far produced much fundamental influence on gender equity hence more needs to be done.
Good day!