Hon. Fatou K. Jawara has urged African parliaments to treat governance, peace, and security as a single, indivisible agenda in the face of mounting political, economic, and technological disruptions.
Speaking at the 55th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Africa Region Conference, Jawara seconded a motion on Governance, Peace and Security, warning that parliaments across the continent are operating within “three overlapping storms” contested political transitions, fiscal distress, and the rapid spread of digital disinformation.
“Where governance falters, peace is postponed; where peace is postponed, security is borrowed against the future,” she told delegates, stressing that institutional resilience must be built long before crises erupt.
Drawing on The Gambia’s own democratic transition, Jawara noted that resilience is forged through ordinary parliamentary sessions and committee work, not in moments of upheaval. She cautioned that public confidence in elected institutions has been shaken by perceptions that parliaments serve incumbency rather than citizens, while fiscal constraints continue to test the traditional power of the purse.
She called on the CPA Africa Region to use its convening power, peer review mechanisms, benchmarks, and the Parliamentary Academy to strengthen legislatures collectively, rather than leaving each parliament to improvise resilience in isolation.
The conference, themed “Renewing the Social Contract: Parliaments as Catalysts for Inclusive Growth and Citizen Trust,” brought together parliamentary leaders from across Africa to deliberate on strategies for restoring citizen confidence and advancing inclusive governance
