GAMCOTRAP’S PERSPECTIVE ON WOMEN IN POLITICS, LEADERSHIP
Friday 25th May 2007

GAMCOTRAP in partnership with Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), yesterday organized a two-day consultative meeting with five Women Rights Organizations in The Gambia, held at Girls Guides headquarters in Kanifing. According to the Executive Director of Gamcotrap, Dr Isatou Touray, "Gamcotrap is a Women’s rights organization whose aim is to empower women to improve their circumstances as individuals and a group, and also ‘to create and raise the consciousness of men and women about traditional practices that negatively affect the health and well being of children and women, whilst encouraging positive practices. In addition, she said, they aim to protect the rights of women and girl children by involving them to participate in decision-making processes."

In pursuance of this aim, she stated, Gamcotrap has undertaken a series of social mobilization activities to create awareness about women’s right in The Gambia. ‘The effect of these campaigns has resulted to demands from various women’s groups to discuss women’s participation in decision-making. In 2005 and 2006 Gamcotrap was part of the process to organize around women’s political empowerment and has made several attempts at creating awareness about women’s participation in top decision-making positions’.

   ‘The following specific recommendations emanated from the workshop held in 2006 on women leadership and political participation:’

Specific recommendations

Women’s political participation.

∑ Empower women on entrepreneurship skills development and other income generating activities in order to become independent to avoid financial interest in politics

∑ Encourage more discussion between women and their families about the need for women to be into elective positions

∑ Help and support women as independent candidates if they are not selected at primaries of other parties to contest for election

∑ Support women and women leaders on adequate adult literacy on political issues to be able to speak out on behalf of women

∑ Facilitate meetings for both men and women to discuss about the need for selecting female candidates

 "It is as a result of this that Gamcotrap plans to respond to the needs of Gambian women and politics, with the vision that Gambian women must be represented in parliament irrespective of their political, economic and social standing to contribute effectively to sustainable development of the country," she noted.

Dr Touray further contended that it is women’s fundamental rights to vote and be voted into parliament and other local government structures as stated by the constitution of the Gambia.

On the justification for the project Dr Touray disclosed that the proposal was influenced by the conviction of Gamcotrap that women’s rights are human rights. She pointed out that their engagement over the years with championing women’s human rights has given Gamcotrap insights into moving the agenda forward from advocacy to effective participation of women in decision making positions to make strategic changes in their interest.

The local government elections and grassroots democracy, she said, is an integral part of the decentralization programme that The Gambia is currently engaged in. The government is currently calling for civil society involvement and participation in the national elections and at the same time calling for increased female participation and the platform for civic and political education under the 1997 Constitution of The Gambia, which she noted creates the enabling environment for GAMCOTRAP to engage.

Dr. Touray however argued that the call for women’s participation in electoral positions within parliament and the local government structure is only rhetoric, adding that GAMCOTRAP is responding to the call to actually increase the number of women in all the relevant structures.

"In the past month a few Women’s Rights Organizations whose mandate is to work with women and vulnerable groups have undertaken a series of consultations to discuss strategies on how to work towards the realization of political empowerment of women.

To achieve the justifications therein given, GAMCOTRAP would pursue the following goal and overall objectives:"

Goal

To increase the number of elected females in decision-making positions in the Local Government Structures during the 2007 elections and beyond

Overall Objectives

∑ To target 20 women leaders and intellectuals to participate in the 2007 National Assembly/Parliamentary elections

∑ To facilitate the participation of local women leaders in the local government and constituency elections throughout the country

∑ To build strategic alliances with the media, political parties, parliamentarians and traditional leaders

∑ To do advocacy work and lobbying on women and political representation

∑ To use the airtime available to engage the public in critical analysis and awareness creation of women’s participation in politics.

Expected results

∑ Number of women contestants increased

∑ 20 women voted for parliamentary and local government elections

∑ Cultural barriers for women’s political participation will be reduced

∑ Number of youth participation for voting women politicians increased

∑ Public debates about women’s political participation conducted in the media

      Strategy

∑ To create awareness among citizens on the significance of women’s participation in leadership positions

∑ To use all the available channels of communication particularly the three community radios in the local languages

∑ To consult with women leaders to engage in mobilizing women and men at community level

Dr Touray finally opined that in order to achieve the stated objectives and the expected results, a social mobilization process plan would need to be in place to create the desired impact. Therefore, she disclosed, GAMCOTRAP plans to run a series of awareness creation and sensitization programmes in the seven constituencies to engage the citizenry in the dialogue to take account of women’s participation in the electoral process of The Gambia. "Specifically it is aimed at targeting the parliamentary and local government elections for 2007 and beyond. GAMCOTRAP will work closely with the Independent Electoral Commission to achieve the goal it sets out," she noted.