Hmmm-----------------------------------------------Working Towards PAGE
Backwards
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Wednesday, February 29, 2012
In its new development blueprint called PAGE, The Gambia government renews
commitment to ensuring, among others, gender equality. But in the watchful
eyes of a prominent gender activist, the country is not living up to stated
words. Amie Bojang-Sissoho, as she is called, recommends that government
scrutinises its own institutions and partners addressing women’s issues
because they are infiltrated with anti-women rights fellows.

With the Programme for Accelerated Growth and Employment (PAGE), the
Gambian government’s stated goal is to accelerate the implementation of the
government’s commitments to development.
However, there is need for the Department of State for Communication and
Information Technology -DOCIT to orientate its line institutions such as
the national broadcaster, Gambia Radio and Television Services to
synchronize its practices with the government policies, especially the
unequal access to the national media. It is contradictory for the policies
to be calling for the empowerment of women, while public personalities use
the national media to say things that will impede the implementation of the
policies without giving similar access to women to share their part of the
discourse.
PAGE launched in December 2011 is being used by government officials to
advocate for effective implementation of the development agenda of the
government. Various important issues have been recognised in the document.
These include social protection, child protection, disability, gender
equality and women’s empowerment.
It could be recalled that The Gambia has ratified several international
conventions, regional protocols and has made attempts to incorporate them
into national laws such as the Children’s Act 2005 and the Women’s Act 2010
to promote gender equality and empowerment.
It is common for government institutions to set up task forces or advisory
bodies to facilitate the implementation of government policies especially
ones dealing with social change. Such committees are usually dominated by
men who do not believe in gender equality and equal gender representation
in the public sphere. Patriarchs against gender equality and gender justice
have infiltrated many of such committees and task forces that are supposed
to facilitate the implementation of national plans. An example of the
resistance created by some patriarchs concerns the issue of Female Genital
Mutilation –FGM.
The Imam of State House Mosque is against NGOs working on the campaign to
stop FGM, to promote Family Planning and to advance many other issues being
addressed to complement the government’s efforts in the implementation of
its Policies and laws protecting the rights and wellbeing of women. His
misogynic sermons are also broadcast over the national radio and television
services, contradicting the policies of the government, yet he sits on the
committee on Violence Against Women under the Women’s Bureau. Such
contradictions need to be addressed, because they slow down progress but
cannot inhibit it. Despite all the resistance to the campaign against FGM,
the masses have been responding positively to the campaign to protect girls
from FGM as illustrated by the public declarations in 2007, 2009 and 2011.
The government attributes achievements in gender equality to the efforts of
women’s rights organisations, especially in the campaign to eradicate
Female Genital Mutilation, in its own document on the Situation of Gambian
Women published in the State House website. Yet, Women’s rights activists
working in this area are denied equal access to the national radio and
television as provided to the Imam of State House.
The Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Women’s Bureau have to double up
their efforts in the protection of vulnerable girls who cannot speak for
themselves to say no to FGM. The context has already been set. The Gambia
government in 2006 ratified Article 5 of the Protocol to the African
Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa which
calls for legislative measures. Communities are dropping the knife and
calling for a law against FGM. What is now needed is to accelerate the
process of protection of girls against FGM. Government should respond with
a specific law against FGM as has been done with early and forced marriages
laws.
To accelerate the gains, it is recommended that the government scrutinizes
its own institutions and partners who are brought in to address women’s
issues. The national broadcaster should be aware of what government
policies are to promote them through dissemination of information,
education and enlightenment of the populace so that the country will not be
working ‘towards PAGE backwards’.

Author: *Amie Bojang-Sissoho, a women's rights activist*
**
http://dailynews.gm/africa/gambia/article/working-towards-page-backwards


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