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When my mandate started, in 2018, it was not lengthy after the tip of the dictatorship [The two-decade rule of Yahya Jammeh]. The brand new Authorities was already embracing a number of reforms concurrently, reviewing the structure, the judiciary, and the safety sector, and the UN had allotted funds for peacebuilding.
Fact and reconciliation
An vital improvement was the institution of the Fact, Reconciliation, and Reparations Fee (TRRC), with the backing of the UN and different companions.
Folks have been enthusiastic to embark on the Fee, which has been essential for the nation. Expectations have been excessive from the victims, from the inhabitants, but in addition from totally different companions. It was vital that it needs to be a Gambian-driven course of, to keep away from any affect from outsiders. We helped to set it up and supplied the mandatory experience to run it.
The Ministry of Justice must be strengthened, as a result of they’re main that course of, and that is the primary time that they’ve needed to face a case like this. Right here once more, we’re offering the experience to work on a roadmap that can result in implementation of the Fee suggestions.
We’re concerned in communications linked with the method: we wish to be certain that the communities, native governments, and civil society all know what position they must play, and handle expectations. These reforms should not going to occur in sooner or later, it can take a few years, and we have to ensure that is known.
Now it’s time to place reforms into apply. Up to now, the Authorities has launched a white paper approving nearly all the suggestions. The COVID-19 pandemic slowed the method, however I feel that they’re nonetheless dedicated to do extra.
Laying sturdy foundations
It’s essential to have a authorities that exhibits management. If not, you’ll be able to define a imaginative and prescient for the place you assume the nation ought to go, however you gained’t get wherever.
We’ve got supported the Authorities’s creation of a Division for Strategic Planning and Supply, throughout the workplace of the President. We’ve got skilled the employees, and proven them greatest apply in different international locations.
After we arrived, there was no Minister for Gender, so we advocated for a brand new ministry to be established, and we’re seeing progress when it comes to girls’s empowerment.
Popping out of a twenty-year dictatorship, the place human rights have been abused, we supported the creation of a Nationwide Human Rights Fee, which is absolutely practical and, in some ways, a centrally vital establishment, which is able to monitor the implementation of the TRRC.
Going ahead, it’s essential for The Gambia to reach constructing sturdy establishments, one thing which is true for all international locations. If establishments are weak, you’ll be able to’t implement any plans, and also you waste assets.
I feel that this nation is shifting in the appropriate path. We’ve got many extra companions now, and the donor group is rising. After a five-year interval, the transition is almost full, and we have now helped the Authorities to put the foundations for a lot of the reforms, insurance policies, and methods.
Altering lives for the higher
Other than supporting the reforms, we’ve been an energetic associate in growing the economic system, empowering girls, and local weather motion.
By way of the economic system, the place tourism performs an vital position, UN companies have targeted on offering coaching for younger individuals and weak teams similar to returning migrants, and giving them seed capital to begin their very own companies. Typically, returning migrants really feel like a burden on their households, however with our assist lots of them have been in a position to thrive.
Sadly, this can be a nation the place there may be important violence towards girls, together with feminine genital mutilation. Typically girls don’t wish to discuss in regards to the violence they undergo, so we have now arrange hotlines they will name, and constructed centres the place they will go to be handled, and obtain assist.
The local weather disaster is affecting The Gambia, notably when it comes to flooding; final yr was the worst flooding skilled right here in 38 years. It will not be on the dimensions of the floods seen in Pakistan however, for a small nation with a small inhabitants, it made a huge impact.
Our companies supplied meals and shelter for these displaced by the flooding, and offering clear ingesting water, however we’re additionally serving to the inhabitants to adapt, and grow to be higher ready earlier than the following floods arrive.
I’m assured that we have now modified lives for the higher in The Gambia. We’re nonetheless within the early levels, however I imagine that we’ve created strong foundations for improvement, and that we’ll see even better affect within the subsequent 5 years, and see the nation develop in a cohesive method, in all areas of the nation, with nobody left behind.
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