By Mama A. Touray
Former Vice President of the Gambia, Her Excellency Fatoumatta Jallow Tambajang has recommended to the government to include peacebuilding in the national budget to show commitment.
This was said at the just concluded national stakeholder donor roundtable forum on the implementation of the TRRC recommendation held at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Center, Bijilo.
Speaking during the question and answer session at the forum, former Vice President Fatoumatta Jallow Tambajang said since she was in government she has always recommended the inclusion of peacebuilding in the national budget.
She added that one of the commitments that government should show and demonstrate is to have in its national budget peacebuilding as the Gambia cannot have sustainability when continues to ask and was quick to say that it is high time the Gambia started looking inwards.
She continued: “We have resources how do we now ensure accountability with the resources we have in the Gambia so that we can use those resources, mobilize them and whoever is helping us when they leave we can have sustainability as Peace is everybody’s responsibility. So, I call on Gambians to see this initiative as his or her initiative”.
Madam Tambajang stated that the Gambia should feel relevant and continue the process of peacebuilding and progress in development and that the Gambia has always been looking for partners “Why don’t we now look inwards as to what we have”.
However, she stated that she was and is still in the international development arena for twenty-four years coordination mechanism must be functional, driven by clear communication, roles, and responsibilities of stakeholders who will be part of it.
Meanwhile, the former vice president expressed happiness for the inclusion of civil society in the roundtable discussion stating that the civil society needs to be strengthened.
“The reason civil society is running helter-skelter is that most of them are not institutionalized, there is no organizational structure that’s why we are competing, it must be that component financial it must include building capacity of civil society so that they can be neutral. Thus, there must be neutrality to ensure just and balance as civil society is not an adversary; it should be a partner in progress in government” she disclosed.
She, therefore, urged the government through the National Assembly to adopt the new constitution saying constitutional reform is what Gambians currently need.
