The West Africa Network for Peace building (WANEP-The Gambia) in partnership with PRO-HOPE International and the Forum for African Women Educationist (FAWEGAM-The Gambia), with support from the United Nations Democratic Fund Project on Monday 6th February 2012 began a four-day mentorship training for women in democracy and political dispensation process  in The Gambia.

The capacity building training with the theme; “Enhancing women’s participation in the democratic and electoral process in The Gambia” brought together some 50 women from different political parties across the country. It is being held at the Rural Farmers Agricultural Training Center in Jenoi, Jarra West District, Lower River Region.

In her opening remarks, Pamela Cole, National coordinator of WANEP-The Gambia outlined the significance of the training, stressing that it is meant to empower and encourage the women folk to effectively participate in the decision-making process of The Gambia particularly at this time that the National Assembly and Local Government Elections are forthcoming. She urged the women to unite and support each other’s endeavours noting that the issue at hand is not about their political differences, but howwomen can come together to form a common bloc that would make it possible for them to ascend to leadership in society.

The WANEP national coordinator further challenged the participants to take the training seriously so that they can impact on society using the knowledge and skills they would acquire during the training.“We want this forum to signal the commencement of the nurturing process to transform women to serve as effective leaders in our various localities,” she stated, whilst emphasising that women’s participation in democracy dispensation is fundamental for the meaningful development of any country. She also thanked their implementing partners as well as the donors for their support.

Delivering the keynote address on behalf of the governor of LRR, Lamin Saidy, the coordinator of the Disaster Management Committee in the LRR, commended the Gambia government under the leadership of President Jammeh for empowering Gambian women, noting that concrete steps have been taken by the government in the past two decades to mainstream women into the political and developmental process of The Gambia.

He went on to thank WANEP and partners for taking up the challenge to empower the women folk by building their capacities, adding that the training will go a long way in encouraging Gambian women to actively participate in the political process of the country. He further called on the participants to actively participate throughout the training so that they can efficiently share the knowledge and skills acquired from the training with those women in the larger community with their various localities.

Anna Jones, WANEP-UN Democracy Fund project assistant, explained that the training is among series of ongoing capacity building forums geared toward empowering women with the required knowledge and skills to actively participate in the decision-making process of The Gambia. She disclosed that the project has already developed a training manual which will be used by WANEP and partners to build the capacities of aspiring women candidates so as to enable them to effectively participate in good governance and serve as agents of change within their communities.