A UN Resident Coordinator Weblog — World Points

When my mandate started, in 2018, it was not lengthy after the top of the dictatorship [The two-decade rule of Yahya Jammeh]. The brand new Authorities was already embracing a number of reforms concurrently, reviewing the structure, the judiciary, and the safety sector, and the UN had allotted funds for peacebuilding.

Fact and reconciliation

An vital improvement was the institution of the Fact, Reconciliation, and Reparations Fee (TRRC), with the backing of the UN and different companions.

Folks had been enthusiastic to embark on the Fee, which has been essential for the nation. Expectations had been excessive from the victims, from the inhabitants, but additionally from completely different companions. It was vital that it needs to be a Gambian-driven course of, to keep away from any affect from outsiders. We helped to set it up and supplied the mandatory experience to run it.

The Ministry of Justice must be strengthened, as a result of they’re main that course of, and that is the primary time that they’ve needed to face a case like this. Right here once more, we’re offering the experience to work on a roadmap that can result in implementation of the Fee suggestions.

We’re concerned in communications linked with the method: we wish to make sure that the communities, native governments, and civil society all know what function they need to play, and handle expectations. These reforms will not be going to occur in sooner or later, it would take a few years, and we have to make it possible for is known.

Now it’s time to place reforms into observe. To this point, the Authorities has launched a white paper approving virtually the entire suggestions. The COVID-19 pandemic slowed the method, however I feel that they’re nonetheless dedicated to do extra.

Laying sturdy foundations

It’s essential to have a authorities that reveals management. If not, you’ll be able to define a imaginative and prescient for the place you assume the nation ought to go, however you received’t get anyplace.

Now we have supported the Authorities’s creation of a Division for Strategic Planning and Supply, inside the workplace of the President. Now we have educated the employees, and proven them finest observe in different nations.

After we arrived, there was no Minister for Gender, so we advocated for a brand new ministry to be established, and we’re seeing progress by way of ladies’s empowerment.

Popping out of a twenty-year dictatorship, the place human rights had been abused, we supported the creation of a Nationwide Human Rights Fee, which is totally purposeful and, in some ways, a centrally vital establishment, which is able to monitor the implementation of the TRRC.

Going ahead, it’s essential for The Gambia to reach constructing sturdy establishments, one thing which is true for all nations. If establishments are weak, you’ll be able to’t implement any plans, and also you waste assets.

I feel that this nation is shifting in the appropriate course. Now we have many extra companions now, and the donor group is rising. After a five-year interval, the transition is almost full, and we’ve got helped the Authorities to put the foundations for many of the reforms, insurance policies, and methods.

Altering lives for the higher

Apart from supporting the reforms, we’ve been an energetic accomplice in growing the financial system, empowering ladies, and local weather motion.

By way of the financial system, the place tourism performs an vital function, UN companies have centered on offering coaching for younger individuals and susceptible teams similar to returning migrants, and giving them seed capital to start out their very own companies. Typically, returning migrants really feel like a burden on their households, however with our assist a lot of them have been in a position to thrive.

Sadly, this can be a nation the place there’s vital violence in opposition to ladies, together with feminine genital mutilation. Generally ladies don’t wish to discuss in regards to the violence they endure, so we’ve got arrange hotlines they will name, and constructed centres the place they will go to be handled, and obtain assist.

The local weather disaster is affecting The Gambia, notably by way of flooding; final yr was the worst flooding skilled right here in 38 years. It will not be on the dimensions of the floods seen in Pakistan however, for a small nation with a small inhabitants, it made a huge impact.

Our companies supplied meals and shelter for these displaced by the flooding, and offering clear consuming water, however we’re additionally serving to the inhabitants to adapt, and turn out to be higher ready earlier than the following floods arrive.

I’m assured that we’ve got modified lives for the higher in The Gambia. We’re nonetheless within the early levels, however I imagine that we’ve created stable foundations for improvement, and that we’ll see even better affect within the subsequent 5 years, and see the nation develop in a cohesive method, in all areas of the nation, with nobody left behind.