THE REPUBLIC OF THE GAMBIA’S COMBINED REPORT ON THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN & PEOPLES’ RIGHTS & INITIAL REPORT ON THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA Deputy speaker of the 1 - 1 6 49 55 National Assembly Total All except one of the eight local Government administrations (Area Councils and Municipalities) were headed by men. There are two female Regional Governors out of five. There are 39 District Chiefs and 1 paramount chief none of whom is a female; and of the 1873 villages in the country, there are only 5 female Village Heads (Alkalolu) a notable change in traditional decision-making structure.19Socio-cultural beliefs and practices such as patriarchy continue to hinder the full acceptance of women and their participation in leadership positions. and a socialization process has also led men and women to be perceived as leaders and women as supporters respectively. These perceptions have unwittingly led to women continuing to lag behind in high to mid-level positions in public life. 5.3 Right to food security Section 48 of the Women’s Act guarantees women’s right to food security. The Act requires the Government to ‘provide women with access to clean drinking water, sources of domestic fuel, land and the means of producing nutritious food; and establish adequate systems of supply and storage to ensure food security.’ The Food Act 2005 provides for control of production, manufacture, sale, distribution, importation and exportation of foods. The Act established the National Nutrition Agency (NaNA) charged with the responsibility of coordinating all nutrition and nutrition activities in The Gambia. Following a review of The Gambia Nutrition Policy, 2000-2004, which was aimed at mainstreaming nutrition into all aspects of development and attaining basic nutritional requirements of The Gambian population with emphasis on women and children, the National Nutrition Policy (2010-2020) was adopted. 157