---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "IRIN" <[email protected]> Date: 9 Feb 2017 09:03 Subject: Can Barrow deliver on the promise of a “New Gambia”? ... To: "ElisabethJanaina" <[email protected]> Cc:
Today's humanitarian news and analysis *Online version <http://us12.campaign-archive2.com/?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=d46032e7cf&e=399c7ee738>* Can Barrow deliver on the promise of a “New Gambia”? <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=b5bb238161&e=399c7ee738> The Gambia’s new president, Adama Barrow, received a hero’s welcome when he returned to Banjul after his makeshift inauguration in neighbouring Senegal at the end of January. Tens of thousands of well-wishers came out to rejoice at the democratic victory that ended more than two decades of rule by autocrat Yahya Jammeh. Barrow and his coalition government are riding high on a wave of popularity. But they have major challenges ahead in reforming a country that effectively has to be rebuilt from scratch within a self-imposed three-year term. If the honeymoon period is to last, their first test is to prove to the nation that “New Gambia” really is a different country. *Great expectations* “We have got to start on the right footing,” said Sait Matty Jaw, a Gambian PhD student who went into exile in Norway after being arrested and imprisoned in 2014 for his human rights work. “Everything under Jammeh’s regime was tailor-made to suit his interests, so for us to move forward, the government has to show it is different from the former regime.” After 22 years of not being allowed to criticise the government, Gambians – especially the younger generation of educated professionals that played a major role in pushing for political change – are already scrutinising the new administration. For some, Barrow’s cabinet announcements last week carried disappointing echoes of the old ways of appointing: entitlement over merit. Out of the 11 filled posts (there are seven remaining), each of the seven parties that form the coalition got a major post, while Barrow’s United Democratic Party got three. One blog suggested he had chosen <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=c67d548abf&e=399c7ee738> a “cabinet that attempts to reward and preserve the coalition that brought him to power”. “The potential for patronage is still there,” noted Jeggan Grey-Johnson, a Gambian who works for the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa and hopes to play an active role in the reform process. “Barrow doesn’t (yet) have the experience and gravitas as a politician, and those surrounding him have 10 times the amount of authority, so he will have to defer to their competing interests.” The cabinet is old (the average age is above 60) and predominantly male, and that demographic has also come in for criticism. “They may have the wisdom, but they lack the dynamism required to deal with the modern challenges of the Gambian youth population,” argued Salieu Taal, a lawyer and founder of the #GambiaHasDecided opposition umbrella movement. [image: New Gambian President Adama Barrow] Jason Florio/IRIN By popular demand *Youth power* It is the younger generation that has been the driving force behind political change, voting in unprecedented numbers in the 2016 election. It is no surprise they want to make sure their voices are heard and represented in government after decades of repression. Last week, youth groups staged the country’s first peaceful demonstration without worry of harassment by the authorities. Around 1,000 youths protested outside the National Assembly, calling for all members of parliament that supported Jammeh’s motion for a state of emergency to resign. The National Youth Council is also launching the Not2Young2Run campaign to encourage and support young people in contesting for parliament in the National Assembly elections in April. The coalition government has already made clear it is a transitional administration with the primary goal of righting the wrongs perpetrated under Jammeh. Speaking before he was appointed as foreign minister, Ousainou Darboe, a former opposition leader, acknowledged that three years was too short a time to repair all the damage, but said “the foundations will have been laid”. So far, the government has not shared any kind of roadmap for what it specifically aims to achieve, and it runs the risk of failing to manage expectations. “The government needs to identify the magnitude of the challenge and where to prioritise its interventions,” said Grey-Johnson. “People need to be reassured that the coalition understands the challenges and to communicate there is a plan in place and how they’re going to go about it.” Economic crisis The economy is in dire straits. The Gambia’s poverty rate is 50 percent and its debt repayment rate is 100 percent of GDP, according to Grey-Johnson. “So, whatever we make goes straight out of the country,” he said. “Gambia is insolvent. We are broke.” Add to this the thousands of tourists during the December election crisis that went home in the middle of the season, the hotels that are only half booked, and the reality is “unemployment is about to shoot up”, Grey-Thompson added. [image: New Gambia] Jason Florio/IRIN It is unlikely the rate of youth unemployment can be tackled anytime soon. And this is the most urgent employment problem the government faces, with thousands of youths attempting the illegal “backway” Mediterranean route to Europe. “The backway trend is only going to be addressed if there are policies to attract the young people to come back and fulfil their dreams,” Employment Minister Isatou Touray told IRIN. That means “finding jobs and addressing the human rights situation, and having freedom of movement so that they can help themselves under this regime”. *Donors on board* The coalition is already making good on its promise of improving international relations and encouraging long-term business investment, development, and, ultimately, job creation. In its first weeks, ministers have met with officials from several donor countries, including China. There have been talks with the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, as well as the signing of the first World Bank-funded project to promote child and maternal health. A decision by the European Union to reinstate its 33-million-euro development fund, frozen from 2015/16 over human rights concerns, is also a welcome move. Abdul Aziz Bensouda, secretary general of the Gambia Bar Association, believes that establishing a truth and reconciliation commission will also be an important part of the reform process – a step towards healing after decades of human rights abuses and embezzlement under Jammeh. “We need a commission of inquiry to investigate the crimes over the years, to allow civil society to decide what to do with them,” he said. Momodou Sabally, a former minister who was imprisoned twice by Jammeh, agrees on the need for a truth and reconciliation process, but sounds a note of caution. “I know there’s a lot of anger and zeal for vengeance, but we should be careful,” he said. “So many people have served in Jammeh’s regime; some of the victims now have been villains too in this long stretch of time.” If not handled properly, “the government won’t be able to do any work,” said Sabally. “They’ll be having to deal with these things piecemeal until their time is up. So, it’s important to address this in as mature a manner as possible.” The young, in particular, are in a rush to create New Gambia, but how much real change can be achieved in just three years under a coalition government? For Bensouda, simply “righting the wrongs and democratising the country” would be a start. lh/oa/ag Can Barrow deliver on the promise of a “New Gambia”? new_gambia_barrow_2.jpg <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=ea6470edcf&e=399c7ee738> Louise Hunt <http:///authors/louise-hunt> Analysis <http:///analysis> Human Rights <http:///human-rights> Politics and Economics <http:///politics-and-economics> BANJUL <http:///publication-location/banjul> IRIN <http:///byline/irin> Africa <http:///africa> Gambia <http:///afrique/afrique-de-louest/gambia> *Read on <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=6855bc6574&e=399c7ee738>* ------------------------------ Tackling drought with emergency aid is not the answer <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=7329a890d2&e=399c7ee738> For those forced to live through them, droughts are less an unusual event than a way of life that constantly tests your resilience and resourcefulness. To be a farmer, or make a living from livestock in Ethiopia, where my organisation, Mercy Corps <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=5b0e726808&e=399c7ee738>, has been working for many years, you need to be innovative in the face of ever-changing weather patterns. And yet the 2015 El Niño drought cycle – the worst in 50 years by some measures – tested even this population. One seasoned pastoralist reported recently to our staff that he’d “never seen anything like this drought”. Though it has driven an estimated 10 million people <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=7e2c2151fa&e=399c7ee738> into food insecurity, the drought was not particularly surprising – weather-related crises have increased in frequency in this part of the world over the last decade. Facing these extreme climate patterns, many development organisations have recognised what former USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah stated: that “segregated humanitarian support activities and development activities” no longer work in these contexts. Time for a change What is needed are carefully sequenced, layered, and integrated interventions that work together to build household and community capacity to learn, cope, adapt, and transform in the face of shocks and stresses, rather than a reliance on costly direct emergency assistance after the fact. To this end, instead of the traditional humanitarian assistance <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=72ec4aeee7&e=399c7ee738> method of direct delivery of resources like food, medicine, or other equipment, Mercy Corps has adopted a new approach designed with resilience as a central feature. Our aim is to ensure that wellbeing like food security, economic status, and health are maintained or improved despite recurrent shocks. *RELATED: How much worse are African droughts because of man-made climate change?* <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=4b2a7d06a4&e=399c7ee738> Putting this into practice requires longer-term strategies that take into account the many factors that influence resilience and vulnerability at different levels of society – from household to community to region. One example of our resilience-building is the USAID-funded Pastoralist Areas Resilience Improvement through Market Expansion project in Ethiopia, which relies largely on strengthening the market systems in which households participate. The PRIME programme does this in part through strategic subsidies aimed at supporting individuals and local businesses to expand their livelihood options – including support to develop and adopt new technologies, skills training, and improved access to natural resources. Simultaneously, linkages are created between producers and consumers, potential employers and employees, suppliers and retailers, and communities and government institutions. By then providing support through ongoing research, demonstration, and training, these individuals and communities are given the help they need to access the global market and to sustain their gains. Promising insights This kind of resilience-focused programming sounds like a good idea – but does it actually work? Until recently, little evidence existed to address this question. But new Mercy Corps research <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=6211f6512f&e=399c7ee738> offers some promising observations about the effectiveness of a resilience approach. While such work has been evaluated before, no one to our knowledge has rigorously evaluated a programme‘s impact in real time in the context of a major shock. By conducting this study during a major drought cycle, we were able to leverage a rare opportunity. Since PRIME began in 2012, we were already well established in the drought-affected regions. The unique circumstances in Ethiopia allowed us to match households targeted by the PRIME project with a statistically similar group of other households not targeted by PRIME – giving us insight into whether this major investment in drought resilience actually worked as intended. The study showed that interventions enabled families to maintain their wellbeing in the face of the worst drought in decades. Specifically, these households were significantly more likely to be able to keep their families nourished, had greater assets and less vulnerability to poverty, and maintained healthier livestock and fewer animal deaths. The bottom line: These communities were better able to take care of themselves and less likely to require direct emergency assistance in the form of food aid or otherwise. Based on our findings, we advocate that donors increase investments that strengthen resilience in contexts experiencing recurrent crises. Projects need to have long timelines that allow for cultivation of functioning economic, social, and ecological systems by building linkages and addressing barriers. Donors should expand the amount of multi-year, flexible funding that enables programmes to pursue long-term development goals while being responsive to meeting emergency needs. A spectrum Moreover, resilience-building need not come at the cost of timely emergency response (and vice-versa). Emergency interventions should be designed and coordinated to not simply postpone suffering to the next shock, but to help reduce it all together. In practice, strategies will vary by context, but fundamentally this requires more robust coordination spanning the relief to development continuum, recognising that resilience is not a distinct achievement on the way from relief to development, but permeates the entire spectrum. Studies like this one are vital to creating the body of evidence needed to support this push. Donors and implementing agencies are under increasing pressure to demonstrate not only the effectiveness of resilience-focused projects, but also the return on investment for these types of interventions. Preliminary studies suggest that the comparatively high up-front costs of building resilience are significantly offset by the benefits <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=d0022c0151&e=399c7ee738>. These studies are a good start, but more research is needed to refine our knowledge of which programming tools and interventions are the most effective and provide the greatest value for money. If the aid community wants to get serious about addressing these issues and creating more demand for this kind of funding, we will need more studies across contexts: What works in the Horn of Africa may be very different from what works in an urban centre in Southeast Asia. At Mercy Corps, this study has prompted us to redouble our commitment to a resilience approach, and to hone our resilience research agenda to take on the critical questions of what works and at what cost. As we face a looming crisis in the Horn of Africa <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=2ec0cd7ca3&e=399c7ee738> – one eerily reminiscent of the 2011 drought emergency there – we should not lose sight of what this research tells us: Resilience matters, and it works. bs/oa/ag camel_drought.jpg <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=2b8586c3fe&e=399c7ee738> Opinion <http:///opinion> Aid and Policy <http:///aid-and-policy> Environment and Disasters <http:///environment-and-disasters> Climate change <http:///environment-and-disasters/climate-change> Food <http:///food> Health <http:///health> Tackling drought with emergency aid is not the answer Brad Sagara <http:///authors/brad-sagara> IRIN <http:///byline/irin> SAN FRANCISCO <http:///publication-location/san-francisco> Africa <http:///africa> East Africa <http:///africa/east-africa> Eritrea <http:///afrique/afrique-de-lest/eritrea> Ethiopia <http:///afrique/afrique-de-lest/ethiopia> Somalia <http:///africa/east-africa/somalia> *Read on <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=1b5d7a2f1c&e=399c7ee738>* ------------------------------ More news and analysis <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=8f203e86ee&e=399c7ee738> <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=dbaebebe7e&e=399c7ee738> <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=3dfa8dd7d5&e=399c7ee738> <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=e3b725edf5&e=399c7ee738> <http://irinnews.us12.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=31c0c755a8105c17c23d89842&id=daef55ef40&e=399c7ee738> *Copyright © 2017 IRIN Association, All rights reserved.* Want to change how you receive these emails? 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