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 areas which were designed to ‘right the wrongs’ and to reduce the huge inequalities and inequities between men and women and between boys and girls, due to the patriarchal nature of Gambian society. Success in implementation of the Policy was mixed with some sectors such as education and health doing much better than the other sectors. A mid-term review of the NPAGW in 2006 accorded the Women’s Bureau the opportunity to incorporate strategic issues such as rural development, HIV/AIDS and ICT. A major outcome of the key recommendations of the mid-term review of the NPAGW is the formulation of the Gender Policy 2010 – 2020.  National Gender and Women’s Empowered Policy 2010 – 2020, which has been validated at a workshop including all stakeholders, provides a framework for mainstreaming gender in national and sectoral plans and programmes and for monitoring and evaluation. It is expected to accelerate the process of creating a culture of gender equality in all institutions by influencing social change within the family, the community and the nation at large. The policy addresses the following thematic areas:  Capacity Building for Gender Mainstreaming  Poverty Reduction, Economic Empowerment and Livelihoods Development  Gender and Education  Gender and Health, Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS  Gender and Human Rights  Gender and Governance  Gender and the Government Other policies and programmes which have mainstreamed gender include:  The National Population Policy and Plan of Action 2007 – 2011  The National Health Policy “Changing for Good” 2001 – 2006  The National Health Policy “Health is Wealth” and the Health Master Plan 2007 – 2020  The National Reproductive Health Policy 2007 – 2014  The National Nutrition Policy 2000 – 2004  The National Education Policy “Rethinking Education for Poverty Reduction” 2004 – 2014 and The Education Sector Strategic Plan 2006 – 2015  The National Youth Policy 1998 – 2008 89