A big conference about getting more Gambian women into politics just kicked off at the SDKJ Conference Centre. International IDEA and some other groups are running the thing. Their goal is to check how things are going for women in politics since 2016 and figure out what is still broken.
The International IDEA head, Kevin Casas-Zamora, said The Gambia has done some good stuff for democracy lately. He also pointed out a huge problem, though. Even though women are most of the population, they hold less than nine percent of the seats in the National Assembly. A rep for the EU ambassador, Enya Braun, called this a major failure for a real democracy. She argued that having women in power is a basic right, not a favor.
A National Assembly rep, Abdoulie Ceesay, mentioned that women make up most registered voters and do a lot of campaign work. He said political parties need to stop just using them for support and start actually backing them as candidates. The conference wants to build a real plan to smash those barriers and train up new women leaders.
The International IDEA head, Kevin Casas-Zamora, said The Gambia has done some good stuff for democracy lately. He also pointed out a huge problem, though. Even though women are most of the population, they hold less than nine percent of the seats in the National Assembly. A rep for the EU ambassador, Enya Braun, called this a major failure for a real democracy. She argued that having women in power is a basic right, not a favor.
A National Assembly rep, Abdoulie Ceesay, mentioned that women make up most registered voters and do a lot of campaign work. He said political parties need to stop just using them for support and start actually backing them as candidates. The conference wants to build a real plan to smash those barriers and train up new women leaders.
