Page 57 - UN Gambia 2020 CCA stakeholder consultations report

spouse”. Youths are mostly affected by development challenges within the community, from lack of financial support, unemployability,
and lack of quality education especially in skills and technical vocational training.

• Most of the participants responded that, barriers preventing youth from actively taking up greater roles in development should be
eliminated. This includes sensitization to create awareness of the opportunities available for them. In addition to financial assistance youth

entrepreneurship should include apprenticeship training. Technical and vocational training should be incorporated in the conventional

school system so that at an early age, an individual would have a choice to either choose a formal or informal career. This would also create
more employment opportunities. Furthermore, regulations/laws on youth that hinder their involvement in national decision-making ought

to be reformed and youth to be given leadership roles in society.

SOCIAL INCLUSION/EXCLUSION AND VULNERABLE GROUPS

• The participants mentioned the following: poor households, persons with disabilities, and women as people that are most disadvantage

and excluded in the community. The causes of these conditions could be the negative stereotypes placed on them, and due to their inability
to access certain privileges in life, society considers them as unproductive in development drives within the community.

• The discussions revealed that their social interactions are restricted; they usually do not receive invitations to events within the community.
Their source of income is on hand outs (begging for survival), while some engage in criminal activities for sustenance.

• To promote social inclusions, it is essential to identify the needs of all especially the disadvantage and excluded groups in the community.

This should be incorporated in the planning and implementation process of development projects. They also repeated the need to empower
and build the capacities of the vulnerable groups.

• To mitigate the effects of the pandemic on vulnerable groups they all agreed that an assessment of the impact should be

conducted to be able to determine the losses, and thereafter provide solutions to the problems that are identified.

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