A Justice of the High Court of The Gambia has emphasised in strong terms the commitment of the Gambia government towards achieving an affordable and accessible justice delivery system for all.

Justice Mama Fatima Singhateh made the remark while addressing the closing ceremony of a four-day intensive training for judicial court clerks at the Management Development Institute (MDI) in Kanifing.
The training is part of a series of ongoing capacity building programmes initiated by the Judiciary and the UNDP office in Banjul for the judicial staff. It covers both the judges and magistrates, as well as court registrars and clerks. “The judiciary of The Gambia under President Jammeh is committed to the spirit of having an accessible and affordable justice delivery system for all Gambians and non-Gambians alike, as it could be seen in the 2007-2011 Legal Sector Development Programme,” Justice Singhateh, who deputised for the chief justice of The Gambia, said.

She stressed on the crucial role of court clerks and registrars in the justice delivery system, pointing out that while judges and magistrates are there to adjudicate cases, it is the court clerks who often handle files and other court documents in assisting the judge or a magistrate. She then assured the participants of the commitment of the judiciary to build the capacities of its staff through organising similar programmes.

Justice Singhateh equally urged the participants to make good use of the skills gained and be prepared to work hard towards achieving the objectives of the judiciary. She seized the opportunity to extend what she called ‘warm greetings’ to the participants from the chief justice, who she said could not make it to the closing ceremony due to other pressing official issues.

She also on behalf of the chief justice thanked UNDP for sponsoring the programme, and went on to highlight the historical capacity building cooperative link that exists between the judiciary and the UNDP office, ranging from provision of computers and other electronic equipment given to the judiciary by the UNDP office over the years among others. For his part, Alieu Jarju, the deputy director general of the MDI who deputised for his director general, emphasised the need for human resource development and its importance towards achieving development objectives in any given country, especially Third World countries like The Gambia.

“In our context, we must understand that poverty and under-development are structural rather than natural conditions that can be reversed through the development of a strong human resource capacity, otherwise called the human capital. Many factors are said to contribute to the poor state and poor economic performance in West African sub-region. However, experience of many countries across the globe supported the proposition that the missing link in our development is strong human resources base,” the MDI deputy director told the participants.

He then buttressed his statement with a reference to the World Bank economic indicators assessed across the globe saying the Bank report pointed out that fast economic growth requires three fundamental factors known by economists as the three factors of production. “These factors comprise of natural, human and physical capital, but out of the three, human capital is the most important in stimulating economic growth,” he explained.

He assured of the MDI’s commitment to the capacity development of the country in-line with the mandate of the institution. “As part of our mandate, MDI will continue to organise series of training programmes for public and private sectors and it is the objective of MDI to have adequate human resource in The Gambia by the year 2020, in accordance with the Vision 2020 development blueprint of the country,” he added. Dr Sisau Ndure, a resource person for the training chaired the ceremony, which was also attended by media practitioners and some judicial staff.