On 8 December 2019, the National Youth Parliament ended a nationwide Training of Trainers on Peaceful Political and Constitutional Debate Processes in Banjul. The trainings commenced in July and have since been conducted in Jarra Soma, Basse, Janjanbureh, Kerewan, Brikama, Kanifing Municipality and Banjul, targeting 60 participants each in every location, emerging from all the registered parties in The Gambia and the regional youth leadership structures.
This activity, inspired by the reality that young people have a crucial role to play in maintaining peace in The Gambia, brought together 34 and 26 women and men respectively, in the closing lap of the training held in Banjul, to dialogue and strategise on ways to hold healthy conversations on issues they have different views on, especially Politics.
In light of the new dispensation in the country, the rise of conflict amongst young people has been evident and as such, there is a need to promote healthy engagements for sustainable peace. The participants at the activity were led through presentations and critical thinking sessions which availed participants from different political parties to think deeply as to how they can make The Gambia more peaceful with specific focus on their roles as young people.
Following the discussions, the participations came up with key recommendations for The National Youth Parliament to engage leaders of various political parties in The Gambia, to inculcate the culture of spreading peaceful messages to their supporters and sympathisers. This, according to them, will strengthen peace and peacebuilding in the country.
The contributions from the participants include key ones from Isatou Jallow, a participant from The Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC) who believes that we can all disagree politically but that should not affect whatever relationship we have as people living in the same country. According to Fatou Dibba, a representative from United Democratic Party (UDP) “accountability is eminent in peace building. As such, we must make sure that we hold our party leaders to account first before anything else”. On the other hand, Aminata Lamin from the People's Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) emphasised that, “we cannot continue to support life presidents in our country. People must serve and give others a chance too. That is what democracy is all about”.
Through its UN Peacebuilding funded project on Increasing Women and Youth Participation in Decision Making and as Agents of Community Conflict Prevention, UNFPA The Gambia continues to support such platforms that will enhance inclusivity and ensure active participation of young people in peacebuilding and decision making processes, in order to empower them to realise their fullest potentials, thus leading us to harnessing The Gambia’s Demographic Dividend.
