3.4 Recommendations

Strategic

Capacity Building and Trainings: For all key Government and Non-Government Organizations that are involved in electoral processes and management, there is need to continuously build on their capacities at the national, regional and grass-root levels. Specific ones include IEC, NGO Coalition, GPU, IPC, Women’s Bureau, Local Governments in their various election delivery mandates, roles and responsibilities

Strategic 

Strengthening the capacity of IEC: The IEC should consider undertaking an expert-led self- reflection and lessons learnt process in order to deal with the new and emerging political dispensation in effective and efficient electoral process management. This is due to the fact that there is need for future deeper and broader analysis of opportunities and constraints of supporting electoral processes in The Gambia. Upon completion of this exercise there is need to enhance and support IEC in its identified specific targeted areas

Strategic

The government with the help from the Development Partners both technically and financially should in addition to its current MoU signed support the institutionalization of the Inter-Party Coalition(IPC) as it’s a strong face epitome of national reconciliation, confidence building, unity and peace promotion. In the same breathe there should be establishment of a functional Inter-Party Women’s Network

Strategic

The GoG through the NCCE and other stakeholders with the support of Development Partners should develop a comprehensive Civic and Voter Education Policy and strategic framework

With the new initiatives of CRC, Electoral Reforms process as well as the TRRP, there is need for the GoG in partnership with Development Partners to put in place a national coordination forum and mechanism so that all the above important processes are linked and interfaced as well as popularized and publicized in a much more coordinated manner since they have broader impact on the short, medium and longer term democracy, peace and stability of The Gambia

Strategic

The Marble Voting System was hailed and should be retained with some modifications and adjustments to accommodate its current shortfalls. This is because the system has the advantages of low cost and simplicity, both for understanding how to vote and for counting the results, though voter secrecy is compromised. The method is reported to have an extremely low error rate for miscast ballots as compared to the conventional ballot paper system. The system also serves and accommodates well the majority voters who are semi or illiterate

Strategic

National Biometric Registration of Citizens: The Gambia government with support of development partners should plan and start a National Biometric Citizens registration which will help a lot in elections as well as in other service delivery programs and interventions to the Gambians. This will also help the  Gambians in Diaspora to participate in politics and development of their country

Strategic

Strengthening Monitoring and Evaluation System should be considered seriously not only at the level of individual government agencies/institutions such as IEC or project level but also the government should start looking into future development of a National M&E System across board

Design

In future, UNDP should adopt participatory approach in designing a project so that implementing  partners are  well prepared  to  take  on  activities  where  they  feel  comfortable  to efficiently  and  effectively  contribute to  outputs/outcomes

Design

IEC must in future gazette polling stations with special considerations to people with disabilities in order to enable them to exercise their constitutional right and franchise in a dignified and convenient manner

Design

The model of future electoral support to the Gambia should explore more of an enhanced partnership model for broader strategic electoral support and management

Implementation 

NCCE should be adequately and directly  funded   by the Gambia Government: There  should  be  adequate  funding  from  government  to  ensure   continuous National civic  education  programming  and  a  policy  put  in   place  to  support  such  programming. This is  to  avoid a mentality by the   general public and the politicians   yet   politicians have willingness to support NCCE. NCCE only visible during elections but hibernate after elections. NCCE is struggling to be more  visible

Implementation 

Boost journalist comprehension of civic education: There is need to boost the Journalists comprehension of civic education which is relatively low. Thus   there is need   to  build  capacity of all media practitioners  which  could  go a long way in  complimenting efforts  of  the  NCCE

Implementation 

NCCE should decentralize in order to effectively deliver on its mandate: There is need to decentralize NCCE to widen its capacity and depth of promoting civic education. The engagement by NCCE   with regional governors should be continued until decentralization of NCCE is adopted and implemented

Implementation 

There should be UNDP continuous support to NCCE: UNDP should support NCCE   beyond  the election period  to  make  sure they  utilize  opportunities  of  visibility  beyond  election  period. For  example the  bill  boards space with election  messages can be replaced with  other  messages on  civic  roles  and  duties   of the  citizens

Implementation 

IEC should work hand in hand  with GPU to put in place a robust media monitoring strategy: There is need for media monitoring strategies of 3-4 years before elections so that regular press releases are done on election   issues before, during and after elections. If reports are issued on weekly basis, politicians would know that what   they are doing is being monitored and therefore would be careful at making hate speeches or inflammatory statements.  If journalist is also aware that what they are doing is being monitored they would   also be careful on what to report in the media

Implementation 

UNDP should release funds in time to enable timely implementation of activities: Funds released in time to avoid delay of implementation of the activities like the other UNDP projects do. A lot of delays where banks do not exist and also risky to carry cash for long distance upcountry

Implementation 

UN and Development Partners should offer continuous support to CSO and other actors engaged in promotion of free and fair elections agenda: There is need for the international community including the UN to continue supporting CSOs and other actors to continue with civic education which will have a trickledown effect in promoting human rights, good governance and stability

Implementation 

Refresher training on UNDP processes and procedures: There should be some  refresher  training  for  implementing   partners  by  UNDP  on  procedures  and  processes . This could reduce on the back and forth movement of papers from the partners and UNDP which often delays release of funds i.e vendors who were registered in house training on the UNDP processors and procedures

Implementation 

Targeted legal reforms to enhance women participation in decision making: The Ministry of Justice should expedite Legal reforms that will enable enhancement of women inclusion in decision making positions particularly adopted the quota system of 30% women representation the way it is in Uganda

Implementation 

Targeted women Capacity building: If you want women in local governments and Parliament then efforts have to be put in civic education. The  Low level of  education is one of the barriers. For the elected women, we need to build their capacity and confidence so that they serve as role models. They don’t go sleeping in parliament and active  in  debates so they  when they  go  back  to their  constituency social  media  is  not  awash  with  pictures  of them sleeping  in  parliament. Capacity building should be a continuous thing for them

Implementation 

Youth and Targeted Mentorship to girls in high school: Like for the case of women, there is need for strategic and deliberate interventions promoting youth participation in politics and elections in order to have an equitable representation at all levels. In other   countries, they have leadership mentoring process done in   form of camps. Am  happy that  girls gender  programs  are  coming  up  and  good  areas  for  membership  girls  who  go  through  that  are  more  aggressive  and assertive. In countries like  Cameroon, they  have  summer  camps  and girls  from  each  region  are  identified  in the  school  system and  taken through  summer  camp in which   issues  of   gender  ideas , empowerment are  imparted   to them and  by the  time  they  reach  university they are  ready  to  take  leadership   positions and  power. The  selection  could  focus  on high  school girls  who  are  better  positioned.

Implementation 

Media House should institute a code  of  conduct: There is  need  for  code  of  conduct  specifically  designed   for political  reporting   by  journalists  so that if  any  journalist  derails, they  could  be brought  in  line.

Implementation 

Sustainability: There should be an elaborate exist strategy to ensure the project results are well anchored in future programming not by default to ensure sustainability. As of now this project as per design lacks a clear sustainability plan. In general the consultant also conquers with CSO coalition statements on.