The Education Research Network for West and Central Africa (ERNWACA) The Gambia, on Saturday organised a one day capacity building workshop on social research and research finding dissemination for at least 30 young researchers from the University of The Gambia, Gambia College, Gambia Technical Training Institute (GTTI) and other private institutions, at its head office in Mile 7, Bakau.

Welcoming participants at the start of the workshop, Makaireh Njie, coordinator of ERNWACA Gambia, said ERNWACA is a network of 14 countries comprising of Anglophone and Francophone countries.

He noted that their main objectives are to disseminate research findings for stakeholders and policy makers to take note of the findings, to help them in policy formulation and to organise capacity building workshop for young researchers every year.

Mr Njie revealed that in 2007, ERNWACA conducted a study on “Madarassas” and Quranic schools in The Gambia, Niger, Senegal and Mali and in 2008, they are engaged in two studies; a study of the extent to which social policy development in The Gambia is informed by research evidence and a maping study of master craft persons in The Gambia.

He added that the previous study in 2008 is commissioned by UNESCO NATCOM while the latter is commissioned by the National Training Authority (NTA).

Dr Yves Benette, a resource person from UK, who is also the scientific adviser to ERNWACA, made a presentation on the development of proposals for social research projects.