President Adama Barrow assured women activists of his government’s commitment to the advancement of women. The President made the remarks on Wednesday when he received members of the Gender Platform, an advocacy group promoting women’s political participation and leadership in governance.
State House said: “President Barrow expresses appreciation in receiving the team and called on educated women to step forward and participate in electoral politics and governance.
“The President of Gender Platform, Ms Tabu Njie-Sarr said their audience with President Barrow was to seek his support for a guaranteed quota of women representation in the National Assembly and other governance structures. Ms Njie-Sarr said since the attainment of independence women continued to be underrepresented in political office thus the call for reserving two seats in each region for contest among women, to change the status quo.
“Also present at the meeting at the State House was the Minister of Women, Children and Social Welfare, Honourable Fatou Kinteh, who welcomed the advocacy to increase women’s representation. She called on the Gender Platform team to continue to work closely with relevant stakeholders in all the processes to attain their objective.
“Other speakers included Honourable Fatoumatta Njie, National Assembly member for Banjul South and Maimuna Secka, representative of the Gambia Association for the Physically Disabled including rural women’s representatives, all of whom emphasised the importance of ensuring women are equally represented in elective and other leadership positions.”
