Dr Aja Isatou Njie-Saidy, Vice President and Secretary of State for Women’s Affairs, has called on women in the country, especially those in the civil service, to increase their support and advocacy for their fellow women in decision-making processes to help quicken the pace in attaining the Millennium Development Goal 3 (MDG 3).

Vice-President Njie-Saidy made these remarks at the recently concluded workshop on validation assessment of women in decision-making, held at the Corinthia Atlantic Hotel in Banjul.

The vice president attributed the challenges and problems encountered in the attainment of MDG 3 to a lack of the much-needed support and participation among women in supporting and advocating for their fellow women.

“Men are giving us all the support we duly require and we should be grateful especially to His Excellency the President Dr. Alh Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh, who has given us so many privileges and sometimes gives prominence to women in many areas and capacities that could have gone to men,” she observed.

VP Njie-Saidy further underscored the unprecedented representation President Jammeh has been giving to women, both at the national and international scenes, while appealing to women to support and come forward at this time of implementation to help in attaining MDG 3.

In delivering the vote of thanks, Mrs Maria Dacosta, an activist on women issues, urged all participants at the workshop to gear up and get poised for more efforts towards the successful attainment of MDG 3.

She thanked all the participants for sacrificing their time in fully scrutinising, considering and making recommendations to the validation document, which will greatly help the consultant in preparing a final assessment report to further quicken the pace in attainining MDG 3.

At the end of the two-day validation assessment, a host of recommendations were brought forward to help in the fulfillment of MDG 3.

To successfully implement the measures recommended at the workshop, the forum agreed that women’s capacities must be strengthened to enhance their roles in public life.

They also agreed that society’s attitude towards women in public life must change and society must be conscientised to change its negative perception about the status of women.

The current representation of women in elected and appointed public positions in The Gambia were outlined as follows: five secretaries of state (including the unprecedented appointment of a female VP), two female ambassadors, two female permanent secretaries, two deputy high commissioners and five female directors.

The representation of women at the National Assembly also include two women who have 13% representation in addition to other five women, as well as a female Speaker of the House.

There are also fifteen women councillors recently elected in the local government elections, and four women serving as alkalolou.