Held at the SOS Children’s Village Conference Hall, the forum seeks to strengthen the Ministry staff's knowledge, skills, and capacity to effectively promote, protect, and uphold the rights of every child; enhance participants' understanding of child rights principles and standards; increase knowledge of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and relevant national child protection laws and policies.
Addressing the gathering, Amb. Habib T. B. Jarra, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare; the lead government institution responsible for promoting and protecting children's rights and welfare, reminded that the Ministry plays a critical role in ensuring that children's rights provisions are integrated into policies, programmes, and service delivery mechanisms of government, NGOs, CSOs, and other relevant actors and stakeholders, as enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), and national child protection legislation.
To fulfill this mandate effectively, he said the Ministry’s staff requires continuous capacity strengthening in child rights principles and practices, as well as in implementing national and international child rights legal frameworks.
PS Jarra also used the event to express gratitude to UNICEF-Gambia, a key partner in child rights and child protection, for facilitating this vital, comprehensive, and timely training programme for the Ministry's staff.
Mr Emmanuel Michaud, Child Protection Manager at UNICEF - Gambia, said the current training builds on the successful completion of the online Child Rights Essentials course, delivered to Ministry staff via the UNICEF Agora platform in April 2026.
Having established a foundational understanding of child rights concepts through the online learning programme, he said that participants at the event will use the two-day in-person training to deepen their knowledge and strengthen their ability to apply child rights principles in their day-to-day work.
This initiative, he remarked, will further support the Ministry in building institutional and staff capacity to integrate child rights into policy development, programme planning, coordination, and service delivery, thereby enhancing its effectiveness in fulfilling its mandate to protect and promote the rights and welfare of children in The Gambia.
He indicated that both the Honourable Minister Fatou Kinteh and Ms Nafisa Binte Shafique, the UNICEF representative to The Gambia, have further plans to provide technical support to the ministry.
Ms. Ouley Jallow, Deputy Director, Children’s Affairs Directorate at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare, explained the objectives, which also seeks to improve capacity to report on progress and acknowledge challenges in relation to child rights against international protocols and improvements; and develop practical approaches for integrating child rights into planning, programming, monitoring, and service delivery.
