Banjul — The Gambian leader, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya AJJ Jammeh, has said that women are first and foremost human beings with God-given rights, citizens with indivisible rights, guarantee the survival of the human species and serve as inevitable partners in all genuine efforts aimed at human development, advancement and global progress.

According to him, this accounts for the reason, , women in The Gambia are visibly placed at all levels of leadership, decision making, programme design and implementation and in all spheres of national development. The Gambian leader's statement was read on his behalf by the vice president and minister of Women's Affairs, Aja Dr Isatou Njie-Saidy, at opening of the ministerial meeting of the 8th African Regional Conference on Women (Beijing+15) yesterday at the Kairaba Beach Hotel.

According to President Jammeh, The Gambia serves as a model where women empowerment is not grounded in empty rhetoric but in the respect for the dignity, potential, status, rights and realities of the female citizen. He said The Gambia is a firm believer in the importance of gender mainstreaming and the promotion of gender equality, adding that women have special importance in advancing Africa's socio-economic growth and development.

The presence of women ministers in the country, he said, demostrates clearly, the growing political resolve and determination to empower the country's women, and to ensure that they enjoy their inalienable rights to equity, justice, fair-play, and equality. He further stated that the Beijing Platform for Action which is one of the global cornerstones for ensuring gender equality is indeed a powerful pathway to empower women and girls, improve their living conditions, and by extension, humanity as a whole. He added that the Platform for Action is also built around political, economic, social, cultural and environmental objectives agreed to by African nations and supported by the wider international community and development partners.

President Jammeh then indicated that the contribution of African women to the continent's development is clearly evident, as African women are well known for their brilliance, creativity, hard work, commitment and unwavering determination to shape their own destiny. "Among the objectives of the African women's decade is the resolve to preserve and build on the African women's strength and enhance opportunities for them to occupy leadership positions.

The dynamic traits of resilience and assiduity that characterise the typical African woman have to be nurtured and sustained if the gender agenda is to be what we envision it to be. Women should be provided with equal opportunities to access the means and factors of production, which include critically, land, credit, knowledge and technology. Under the current global food, economic, and financial crises and the multitude of effects these crises represent, the call for enhanced collaboration at bridging the gender gap at national and regional levels, is therefore even more urgent" he stated.

He then clearly stated that the transformation of this continent cannot and will not take place if her people, in particular, the women folk remain poor, hungry, illiterate, and from the combination of all these, marginalised. For President Jammeh, people operate within specific contexts and cultures, detached from which their functionality is undermined. "One of the factors that continue to dissipate our efforts is undue realiance on borrowed ideas that are often incompatible with the realities of our context and culture. The African culture has all the requisite value and value systems, principles and precepts to draw on for peaceful co-existence, partnership and female empowerment. Africans are what they are and must seek solutions that are responsive to their peculiar circumstances," the president pointed out.

Then Gambian leader then revealed that in The Gambia at the level of the executive, policies that address gender issues have been formulated and are being implemented. He further revealed that "The National Policy for Advancement of Women and Girls (1999-2009), the Education Policy (2004-2015), the Health Policy (2007-2015), the Youth Policy (2008) and the proposed Women's Bill (2009), are a few of the policies that have adequately mainstreamed gender issues. "In the area of education, the approach to empower women starts with providing free education to the girl child and the provision of scholarship under the President's Empowerment of Girls' Education Project (PEGEP)" he added.

Through these interventions, he said, The Gambia is witnessing significant bridging of gender gaps in such areas as school enrolment (where girls now outnumber boys at the basic cycle level), access to productive resources, and poverty eradication. In employment he added, women are given equal opportunities with many now occupying top executive as well as business and entrepreneurial positions. From a legislative perspective, he reiterated that his government has done much to ensure the protection and participation of women. He then assured that government would not relent in its efforts to secure more rights for women, including land tenure and ownership rights through interventions requiring the use of legislated instruments to achieve this.

President Jammeh then urged the delegates to bear in mind the hopes, aspirations and expectations of African women and girls during their deliberations in order to come up with outputs and outcomes that are relevant to their needs and concerns. He saluted the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the Africa Union Commission, and the African Centre for Gender and Social Development (ACGSD) for their efforts in effectively and efficiently coordinating this important conference. He also thanked UNDP country office for providing significant preparatory assistance.

For his part, Jean Ping, the chairperson of the African Union Commission, said implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action is esssentially the responsibility of governments as well as public, private and non-governmental institutions at national, sub-regional and international levels. The platform according to him, acknowledges that achieving any significant progress in women's advancement and gender equality will depend on building strategic partnerships and involving all stakeholders in efforts at bringing about change. "The Platform for Action embodies the commitment of the international community to women's advancement and to implement the platform. It ensures that the gender perspective is mainstreamed in all policies and programmes formulated at national, regional and international levels," he remarked.

The Gabonese born top AU official further indicated that at the African Union, they have taken major political decisions and strategic measures at regional level designed to promote gender equality and women's empowerment. According to him, in collaboration with the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), member states and African Union organs, they have deployed political will to move forward the political, social, cultural and economic development dimensions of gender. The African Union he added, remains firmly committed to the full and effective implementation of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action.

Chairman Ping then stated that the Assembly of the African Union in its twelveth Ordinary Session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in February 2009, declared 2010-2020 the African women's decade. This decade according to him, offers yet another opportunity to measure the progress made regarding speedy implementation of AU gender policy commitments, the protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, and the Solemn Delcaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA) in the context of the Beijing and Dakar Platforms for Action.

He then called on the UN family and the international community to support the AU African women decade and further work together to make 2010-2020 an excellent decade for the realization of women's empowerment as well as women's rights and gender equality. For his part, Abdoulie Janneh, the UN under-secretary-general and executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, said the Beijing plus 15 review aims among others, at tracking progress made so far in implementing collective commitment on gender equality and women's empowerment. He commended the excellent progress achieved especially in the area of increased participation of women in decision-making, citing the first female president in the continent - Mrs Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia as an example. This, he said has set precedence and provided a role model on the continent.

For her part, Elizabeth Fong, the acting deputy regional director at UNDP regional bureau for Africa, who deputised for Helen Clark, the UNDP administrator, said the Beijing Platform for Action provided the first global commitment to gender mainstreaming as the methodology for achieving women's empowerment, by ensuring that an analysis of the concerns of women and men, as well as the impact of policies and programmes on both sexes are conducted at all stages and levels of development.

In this light, she said UNDP has adopted a two-fold approach to gender mainstreaming. "Firstly, we support the empowerment of women to expand their capabilities, opportunities, and choices as well as to claim their rights and move into full substantive equality with men. Secondly, we are supporting the development of capacity of government to respond positively to women's interests and concerns," she said.