There is no empowerment without participation, no participation without inclusion. For International Women’s Day, we call for the inclusion of women and girls in all spheres of societal interaction including in leadership, decision making, rights and choices. – Kunle Adeniyi, UNFPA The Gambia Country Representative

International Women’s Day is set aside to celebrate women’s strides, shed light on their challenges and call for global action to proffer solutions to these challenges, while advocating for the promotion and realisation of gender equality in all spheres. The theme for this year’s celebration “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world” comes at a time when the world is grappling with the impact of a pandemic that has shattered economies, exposed health systems to severe and overwhelming breakdown and accelerated the vulnerabilities of key populations. It has considerably reversed progress made towards realising gender equality and women’s inclusion and participation in leadership at all levels, including in sports.

To mark this year’s celebration, UNFPA The Gambia partnered with the Fajara Golf Club to organise the UNFPA-Fajara Women Leadership Open, a three-game tournament in golf, tennis and badminton among female players on 6 March 2021. The event was used to shed light on the theme for this year’s Women’s Day, sensitise people on gender equality and encourage women and girls to engage in sporting activities. The gathering celebrated the tremendous efforts made by women and girls around the world and in The Gambia, in shaping a more equal future and informing the response to and recovery from the COVID 19 pandemic through sports.

Speaking at the opening of the tournament, Veronica H. Sabin, Manager of the Fajara Golf Club, called for concerted efforts to address barriers reducing women’s footprints in leadership in all spheres and highlighted the need to ensure that inequalities women are faced with and which have widened as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, are adequately tackled.

According to UNFPA The Gambia Country Representative Mr. Kunle Adeniyi, in order to ensure that women are not left behind, we must all be united in our commitment for increased women’s leadership and participation in decision making in The Gambia, especially as it concerns their bodies, communities and nation.

Today as always, I celebrate the ever resilient, industrious and powerful women and girls of The Gambia who have and continue to grow through concrete, beating odds and finding their voices. – Kunle Adeniyi, UNFPA The Gambia Country Representative

With sports being a major contributor to health and wellbeing, the event was used to call for increased involvement of Gambian women in sporting activities including taking up leadership positions.

Through this tournament and other initiatives, UNFPA continues to work with its partners to promote the health and wellbeing of women and girls and ensure their inclusive participation in leadership and development efforts.

Media contact:

Haddy Jonga - Programme Analyst Communications, UNFPA The Gambia jonga@unfpa.org