International Factors Promoting Women’s Involvement In The Gambia’s Politics (2006-2016)

Women’s political participation has been recognized internationally as an important measure of the status of women in any particular country.Hence,in recent years,women’s participation in politics and decision-making has received significant attention across the world.However,women remain seriously underrepresented in decision-making positions.The central objective of this study is to examine challenges and opportunities of women political participation in the Gambia.To this end qualitative research methodology was employed.Data was collected from secondary sources mainly from published journal article,books and report of government and non-government organization.The finding of the study shows that different International factors such as;International Policies,conferences and seminars,International institutions and Non-governmental organizations amongst other factors contributed to women’s political participation in the country.The study further revealed that political participation allow women to address their basic problems and needs in their community and ensures the openness,real fight against rent-seeking,accountability,political commitment,political leadership,and political responsiveness of the existing national,regional,districts,and local levels.It is true that more than half percent of the world’s population are women.But,they lack access to political decision making as compared to their counter parts at all levels of government.So that women’s equal participation in decision-making and politics is not only a demand for simple justice or democracy,but a necessary pre-condition for women’s interests to be taken into account.In West Africa,women remain under-represented as voters,political leaders and elected officials,and Gambia is with no exception.This situation persists,despite their proven abilities as leaders and agents of change,and their right to participate equally in public affairs.The percentage of women in elected office in the region is still well below the 30 percent critical mass representation,and far from the globally recommended target of ’gender balance’.Many countries such as Nigeria,Burkina Faso,The Gambia,Benin,Mali and Cote d’Ivoire,have even less than 10 percent women in parliament.This situation directly infringes on women’s political rights,and restricts their abilities to influence decision-making process more widely.The Gambia has taken steps in terms of legislation to promote women empowerment and this has resulted to a visible increase in women’s participation in the political process but women’s representation remains a critical challenge to women’s participation in community and national development processes will be made more meaningful by increasing female representation in policy-making,governance and decision-making structures at all levels."Despite constituting over half of the country’s population and enormous legislation to promote their rights and empowerment,there remain great challenges with regard to Gambian women’s ascendancy into public political leadership positions.In the National Assembly,only 5 out of the 53 members are women.At the Local level,there are only 18 women councillors out of 137 councillors and only 10 elected from a total of 109 councillors around the country.These figures not only demonstrate the disparity in The Gambia’s commitment to attaining gender equality in political participation but also indicate the volume of work at hand to building a democratic republic where every citizen regardless of gender becomes a meaningful and active participant".The study’s Structure is into five chapters.These are:Chapter one,this chapter introduces the background of this research,present the research question and the main argument,review some pertinent literature to this piece of work,and finally represent the theory and methodology employed in this researchChapter two analyses the background of Women’s Active Involvement in Gambia’s Politics,the system of Politics in the Gambia,the evolution ofPolitics in the Gambia over the years and finally women in Politics.Chapter three,discuss the Factors International Policies for Promoting Women’s Rights such as International Policies on Women’s Rights and International Conferences on Women in Political Governance and Decision Making.Chapter four.Evaluate the Factors International Institutions and Non-Governmental Organizations such as International organizations.Chapter five,finally conclude and summarize the findings of this research...