By Yunus S Saliu
The Institute of Travel and Tourism of The Gambia (ITTOG) officially launched its No Woman Left Behind’ training program and also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Gambia National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on raising awareness on human rights issues and tourism.
The launching and signing of the MoU, Friday, took place at the institute premises in Manjai Kunda.
Delivering a keynote address on behalf of Honorable Fatou Kinteh, Minister of Women Affairs, Children, and Social Welfare at the launching was Mr Kajally Sonko
He explained that ‘No Woman Left Behind’ training program is a capacity building for vulnerable women through responsible tourism in The Gambia for migrant returnees, domestic workers and young women at risk of exploitation.
However, “women empowerment is a critical enabler for sustainable development,” he stated.
Adding that in spite of growing recognition of the differential vulnerabilities among women as well as the unique experiences and skills they bring to development efforts, women still have less economic, political and legal influence and are less able to cope with and are more exposed to – “inequalities and biases.”
He reiterated that “women make up 51% of the population with literacy levels standing at 48.1% among ages 15 – 49 according to MICS 2018 report. At least 7 in 10 Gambian women have experienced a form of physical violence in their life.”
Mr Sonko said tourism sector has been widely used by perpetrators to capitalize on the vulnerabilities of low skilled, employment seeking and poor folks to subject them to discriminations sexual and gender-based and a lot other vices.
Therefore, it is prudent to not only build the capacity of the beneficiaries on hard skills but also develop their soft skills to be able to come out of their vulnerabilities, he said.
Sheikh Tejan Nyang, Head of School – ITTOG explained that on ‘No Woman Left Behind’ training program, in terms of recruitment ITTOG has recruited 100% women only course.
He added that the institute is probably the only training institution in The Gambia that has a Gender Equality Scheme and harassment and bullying policy which they called a scheme and not policy because it is evaluated every 3 years by an independent assessor based in the UK.
And the scheme is “to actively endeavor to promote gender equality in terms of recruitment and advertising and undertaking all aspects of college procedures. Our institution together with our committed partner in Spain is all geared towards providing training for vulnerable women in the promotion or responsible tourism.”
He explained further that through their long partnership with Aethnic, a responsible tourism association based in Barcelona, Spain they acquired funding from the Catalan Agency for Cooperation and Development (ACCD), while they are also working in partnership with two women’s organizations in The Gambia – the Gender Platform and Women Initiative Gambia.
Mr Nyang thanked their partners for the trust and confidence having in ITTOG in supporting this initiative while also thanked the National Human Rights Commission “for agreeing to work with us in raising awareness on human rights issues and tourism.”
Also speaking at the launching ceremony were Dr Cherno Omar Barry who made statement on behalf of chairman of NHRC, Emannuel Joof on the ‘Need for Human Rights Education in all Schools,’ while Mr Adama Bah gave an introduction to the ‘No Woman Left Behind’ project, Mrs Tabu Sarr from CSO Gender Platform discussed ‘Skills and Entrepreneurship Training for women’, while Jesus Martin – President of Aethnic Sustainable Responsible Travel Association and Jordi Tolra Project Manager showcased the project as a sustainable and responsible tourism best practice and on the global significant of the project respectively.
