Lasting peace hinges on everyone being on an “equal footing” and an all-of-society approach, a top UN official on Friday told the UN Peacebuilding Commission as it met to discuss national report cards on the pace of transitional justice reforms.
The majority of food consumed in The Gambia is imported, but a growing number of young entrepreneurs are starting food production companies, encouraged by the availability of UN-supported training.
In the last of our mini-series recorded in The Gambia, we look at the challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurs, and how the UN is helping new companies to grow, bringing much-needed jobs to rural areas.
Conor Lennon meets Musa Darbo, who quit his well-paying job in the US to return home and start a rice business, in order to employ struggling smallholder farmers, and end The Gambia’s dependence on imported rice.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Amadou Jobe, like many other Gambians before him, embarked on a perilous journey through northern Africa, in a failed bid to reach Europe. Now, with the support of the UN, he is making a life for himself and his family back home.
When it comes to climate action, The Gambia can proudly lay claim to being the first country to meet its commitments under the 2015 Paris Climate Agreements.
But, like all developing countries, its people are suffering disproportionately from the effects of the climate crisis, particularly more unpredictable rainfall, and flooding.
Women in The Gambia face high levels of female genital mutilation (FGM), period poverty (an inability to afford menstrual hygiene products), and domestic violence. In an interview with UN News, Ndeye Rose Sarr, the head of the UN reproductive and sexual health agency (UNFPA) in the country, underlines the challenges they face, and the efforts the UN is making to address the issues.
Many women and girls in The Gambia are affected by “period poverty”, meaning that they are unable to afford menstrual products, which puts them at risk of infection, and discourages them from attending school.
In the second of our Lid Is On episodes recorded in The Gambia, one of the world’s least developed countries, Conor Lennon from UN News heads to Basse, in the rural Upper River Region, to find out how the UN is addressing period poverty, and providing employment for vulnerable women and girls.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Seraphine Wakana, the UN Resident Coordinator in The Gambia, is coming to the end of her mandate. In this blog, she reflects on her experience over the last five years, which have seen the country emerge from a long period of authoritarian rule.
The Gambia, the smallest country on the African mainland, and one of the least developed countries in the world, has been going through a transition to full democracy since 2017, the end of a two-decade long dictatorship.