Presentation of The Gambia

Transcription

1 African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Development المرآز الا فريقي للتدريب و البحث الا داري للا نماء Centre Africain de Formation et de Recherche Administratives pour le Développement Conference on Strengthening Women Capacities in Administration, Governance and Leadership Presentation of The Gambia By Mr. Omar Kanteh, Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator Women s Bureau Tangier (Morocco), March 2009 Women.09 1

2 Chairperson, ladies and gentlemen, We would like to indicate our appreciation to CARAD for the opportunity given to us to participate in this important seminar. We would like to congratulate the organizers for taking aboard view point of the common development needs of our continent. May we be allowed to affirm once again the long standing commitment of the Republic of The Gambia to African Training and Research Center in Administration for Development for its endeavor to train Africans in Administration and leadership. In response to the call made by the organizers of this important seminar, we have made a serious effort to ponder very carefully on the theme of the seminar namely:- Strengthening women capacities in Administration, Governance and leadership: We have found this theme to be particularly relevant, tropical and useful and to indicate the importance which we are attach to the scope and outcome of the seminar, we have tired to prepare brief comments on the sub-theme. Additionally, we are also taking this opportunity to share with our distinguished colleagues here a brief country profile. 2

3 Country Profile The Gambia is one of the smallest countries in Africa. It has a population of 1, and population density of 128 persons per square kilometer (2003 National population and Housing census). At 2.8% per annum, the population growth rate is selectively high and almost 40 % of the population is concentrated in the urban areas around Banjul. According to 2003 housing and population census 51% of the population are women? The country s economy is mainly agrarian. Agriculture contributes 24% to the countries gross domestic product (GDP) and supplies about 75% of the active labour force. Women are mainly the producers of the staple food rice, and vegetables. Men are mainly into cash crop production, such as groundnut, coose, etc Chairperson, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, The struggle for women s equal and effective participation in politics and decision making has gained momentum in The Gambia during the fourteen years of the Second Republic. It is pertinent to underscore here, the fact that The Gambia has the longest serving Female Vice President in the world as well as speaker of The National Assembly. The country enjoys an unprecedented political will for women empowerment from the highest office. 3

4 Since 1994, The Gambia government has instituted several policy frameworks and publicly demonstrated its commitment to women empowerment and gender equality. For example, the , National Policy of women for the Advancement and girls, the complete ratification of the AU protocol on the rights of women and the ratification of CEDAW are all indications of governments commitment to gender equity. For the first time, chairperson, the 1997 Constitution of the Gambia, clearly stipulates that discrimination based on gender is not acceptable. To crown it all, in 2008, the Department of State for Women s Affairs and the Women s Bureau drafted a bill called the Women s Bill, which aims at harmonizing all the national and international treaties and conventions signed by the government.this bill when ratified will fast tract the government s commitment to gender equality and women full participation in decision making. Situational Analysis of Women in the formal sector Chairperson, distinguished ladies and gentlemen The process of change is gradual as we all know. Despite the favorable political will, in both the private and public sectors, women constitute only 25% of the labor force. There are 5 female secretaries of state, including the Vice President, out of 15 member cabinet, representing 33.33%. This is a laudable achievement, since it surpasses the A.U recommendation of at least 30%. 4

5 Gambian women constitute 58% of the registered electorates, yet only 10% of the representatives in the National Assembly. There are 5 female National Assembly Members, including the speaker, out of 53. Out of these NAM, 3 have been elected and the other 3 have been nominated by the President The proportion of female political representation is indicative of the fact that the 50% quota stipulated by the UN and 30% by the African Union for gender equality at all levels has not been attained, however the government is committed to this vision and series of efforts are under way to achieve it. In Local Government administration, all the seven Administrative Areas are headed by male Governors, with only one deputy female governor. Out of 114 ward councilors at decentralized levels, 25 are women. Of the 1873 villages in the country, 5 are headed by a woman. This picture clearly needs improvement. In the Gambia Civil Service, effective monitoring and evaluation of Gender decision making affairs is lacking. This results in poor co-ordination and duplication of efforts, owing to human resource capacity limitations and inadequacy of efficient evaluation tools and equipments. According to the National Population and Housing Census 2003, the Gambia had a total economically active population of 513,410 out of which about less than 45% are women. Further analysis of the gender breakdown for employment of the formal economically active population for the different economic sectors indicates the following results. 5

6 Economic Total number Total number Percentage Sector employed of women employed Fisheries % Manufacturing 24,580 5, % Hotels and 10,155 4, % Restaurants Transportation, 24,030 1, % storage and communication Financial 7,415 1, % service Commercial, 59,627 3, % social and personnel services Whole sale/retail 74,495 32, % Sources: The Gambia s 2003 National Population and Housing Census Barriers to women advancement in public and private sector A survey conducted by the Women s Bureau in 2008, revealed that hierarchical structures exist in the families and communities, which have been transferred into the public arena of decision making. Social stratification and religious exclusion (The Gambia is 95% Muslim) in society are serious 6

7 barriers to the participation of women who are sometimes seen by some segments of society as belonging to the lower rung of the social ladder. Therefore they tend to be excluded from taking part in public discussions and decisions. There are no constitutional obstacles to women s participation in politics or in decision making process in the Gambia. Yet these under representation continue to be caused by historical, cultural and traditional factors as well as structural constraints posed mainly by the structure and selection procedures of political parties. In addition, meager economic access to social and material resources; the nature of the traditional family decision making at household levels, high illiteracy rate among women and some social and traditional practices such as early marriage, forced marriage, teenage pregnancy and male child preferences contribute to the production, maintenance and perpetuation of male dominance and resistance to progressive social change that would make room for women advancement, particularly those in the formal sector. The disparities in the formal employment indicated earlier are mainly due to men attaining high levels of education than women. The education gap is clearly reflected in the status division or job position. For example, in 2007, the Women s Bureau conducted a survey, that revealed that of the 13,807 formal government employees, 35o1 are women. Approximately 80% of these women are in the lower cadre. The Civil Service of the Gambia has 2 female Permanent Secretaries, 11 female Deputy Permanent Secretaries, 3 female Directors and 14 Principal Assistant Secretaries. The 7

8 position for Judicial Secretary and Deputy Solicitor General and Legal Secretary are being occupied by women. It is worth noting that the Secretary General, Head of the Civil Service is a woman. In the diplomatic area the Gambia has 3 female Ambassadors (Nigeria, USA and U.K.). And the Gambia representative at the U.N. is also a woman. Mr. Chairperson, as I said earlier, the commitment of the government to fully tap the human potential available cannot be over emphasized. This is why, under the able leadership of our president, Prof. Alhagie Dr. Yahya A.J.J Jammeh, series of programmes, and project have been implemented to address this anomaly. Key among such programmes, are the affirmative action projects at most tertiary institutions of government, where women are encouraged to enroll and pursue careers. These programmes such as the RIFT (Redial Initiative for Female Teachers) and the access programme at the University of The Gambia has enabled enrollment of girls to dramatically increase in all the schools. The P.G.E.P. girl s education programme, which provides free tuition for all girls in lower and senior secondary schools in the rural areas, is also another example. Mr. chairperson, let me take this opportunity to inform the conference that the Gambia has attain gender parity at lower basic levels and is in line to attained MDG goal in education. The government equally conducts capacity building training for in-service worker. Today the number of Female professionals has increased, and one sector where this is apparent is the judiciary, where more than 55% of the country s lawyers are women. 8

9 The Women s Bureau and the department of State for Women s Affairs recently implemented a three year project that trains rural women on leadership skills, negotiation skills, confidence building etc. I am delighted to note that, 20 women also were trained under this project, and contested in the 2007, local government elections, won and are currently serving. In conclusion, what the Government of the Gambia intends to do is to consolidate what has been achieved in order to ensure sustainability, and also to concentrate on areas where improvement is needed. I thank you all for your attention. 9