The Vice-President and Secretary of State for women's Affairs, on Monday offcially opened the two-day meeting of ECOWAS Ministers of Women Affairs on behalf of the President Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, at the Jerma Beach Hotel in Kololi.

The two-day meeting was organised by the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre in collaboration with UNIFEM.  The meeting  brought together Ministers of Women Affairs from the West African sub-region and was meant to examine and adopt the strategic plan of the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre.

In delivering her speech, the Vice President and Minister of Women Affairs, Dr Aja Isatou Njie-Saidy, said that the event is historic because, as it is first of its kind in The Gambia contemporary history.

She therefore seized the opportunity to express her sincere appreciation to the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre in particular for choosing The Gambia to host such a high profile meeting that is tasked with the responsibility to validate and adopt the 2009 - 2013 Strategic Plan of the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre.

Vice-President Njie-Saidy also outlined that the Strategic Plan,  which is a critical framework, revolves around four priority areas of intervention namely: Institutional and Organisational Capacity Building; Gender and equitable; Access to social services; Economic empowerment and Human Rights; Conflict prevention and resolution; Good Governance; Peace and Stability.

According to her, mainstreaming gender in the gevelopment process is a pre-requisite for uplifting the status of women within the ECOWAS sub-region. In this connection, she commended the ECOWAS Commission in general and the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre in particular for the laudable initiatives putting gender issues at the centre stage of the integration process.  

In his statement, Hon. Abdou Kolley, Secretary of State for Trade Industry and Employment, said that there is global consensus on the fact that regionalization constitutes a powerful tool for economic development. Consequently, he urged that they should never relent in their efforts to push the regional integration process forward, noting that gender issue is central to their development agenda in the sub-region.  

"I warmly congratulate the ECOWAS Gender Centre for having the vision to formulate a strategic Action Plan in which human development and gender constitute priority areas.  This confirms the commitment of ECOWAS leaders to promote gender equity and equality in the region, and in so doing, improve the living conditions of West African people", he said.

For her part, Madam Aminatta Dibba, Acting Director of ECOWAS Gender Development Centre, expressed her deepest appreciation and profound gratitude to his Excellency the President of The Republic of The Gambia Dr. Alhaji Yahya A J J Jammeh for accepting to support this important event.  She added that the importance the Gambian leader attaches to this meeting is no   surprise because of his well known commitment to the advancement of women not only in the Gambia but also throughout the African continent, and the world at large.

According to her, without the technical support of the United Nation's Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the strategic plan will never be finalized. The plan, she said incorporates the need for the ECOWAS Gender Centre to reposition itself and to articulate a more strategic approach in its effort to adequately respond to the changing economic, social and political needs of women and men within the ECOWAS region.

"I wish to underscore that, if adopted, the strategic plan wish is built around four priority areas of intervention, have been translated into twelve specific objectives and fifty priority action areas. This will, she noted, contribute towards the sustainable improvement of the well being of women and men within the ECOWAS region by creating a socio-cultural, legal, economic, institutional environment which will be conducive to gender equality and effective gender mainstreaming into national policies, development programmes and projects.  ''it will also strengthen the collaboration between the ECOWAS gender development centre and the gender ministries in the sub-region", she concluded.