Source: The Daily Observer
Women's Bureau under the Office of the Vice President and Ministry of Women's Affairs, with support from the United Nation Funds for Population Affairs (UNFPA) Thursday validated the first draft of the 2nd periodic report of the African Union (AU) Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality, at the NaNA conference hall in Bakau.

Making an opening remarks on behalf of the vice president and ministry of Women's Affairs, the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Honourable Fatou Mbay, explained that the development of the second report on the status of implementation of the African Union Solemn Declaration is a requirement for all member states that have ratified and adopted the declation, as part of a wider effort to promote gender equity and equality.

She said the report comes at a strategic time, in view of the momentum created since the advent of the second republic for women's advancement and gender equality, with the enactment in 2010 of Women's Act, "a legislative milestone for women's rights in The Gambia, which has been hailed as one of the most comprehensive attempts to domesticate international and regional conventions on women's right". Highlighting some of the constraints, the deputy stated: "You would no doubt agree with me that one of the key challenges in promoting gender equity and equality in The Gambia is the limited capacity to conduct indepth gender sensitive planning and analysis and to carry out effective gender mainstreaming in national policies, strategies and programmes." She added that gender statistics also remains a key challenge to evidence-based gender responsive policy making and programming.

While acknowledging the impressive move by the Gambia Bureau of Statistics in establishing a Gender Statistics Unit, the deputy speaker indicated the Unit's constraint in terms of limited trained manpower in gender analysis.

She however expressed satisfaction that the recently concluded population and housing census 2013, has accorded gender a top priority, as it provided an opportunity to generate population-based data that will be essential to effective policy making on gender equality in The Gambia.

Hon. Mbay further indicated that gender training has been key modality for building capacity among all stakeholders, that the investment in gender training activities over the years has yielded tangible results, such as enhancing women's right promotion and protection, the introduction of the specific budget for women by the Local Government Council, and gender mainstreaming training for the National Gender Focal Point Network.

In the field of education, she reported, significant progress has been made in terms of enrolment and retention of girls in school; that measurable progress has been registered on the MDG3, and that gender parity at basic level has been achieved.

Ida Faye-Hydara, the executive director of Women's Bureau chaired the occasion.

• Gambia