H.E Mohammed B.S Jallow
Vice President
Her Excellency, Dr. Isatou Touray is the Vice President of the Republic of the Gambia. She was part of the Coalition that remove the authoritarian regime for 22 years in the Gambia. Before she was appointed VP, she served as Minister of Trade, Regional Integration, and Employment, and as Minister of Health and Social Welfare.
Before her current political engagements, Dr. Touray Co-founded a feminist organization, The Gambia Committee on Traditional Affecting the Health of Women and Children (GAMCOTRAP), a leading women’s rights organization in the fight against FGM, GBV and promoting the effective participation of women in politics and served as the Executive Director.
She has supported and empowered many grassroots groups to organize and contribute to the national development of the Gambia which earned her great respect and recognition across the country. She is well known for her decades-long efforts on grassroots activism towards women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. Her relentless efforts in advocacy and lobbying for gender equality has impacted positively on the creation of a Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare under the leadership of His Excellency, President Adama Barrow.
In 2016, Dr. Touray was the First Female candidate in history to run for president in the Gambia. She served as the chairperson of WANEP-Gambia for six years and has initiated many peace gatherings across the country with a specific focus on women. She also served as the Secretary-General of the Inter African Committee on Traditional Practices (IAC), a Pan African organization fighting to protect and promote the rights of the girl-child from harmful practices. She founded and created the Gender and Development Unit of the Management Development Institute (MDI), which started a certificate and diploma in gender and development program in The Gambia. She is part of many global networks that promote gender equality and human rights.
Currently, Dr. Touray is mentoring some young women who have various aspirations in the field of entrepreneurship and business by encouraging them to engage and make a mark. She is also impacting the institutions that shape those policies that create structural imbalances which makes it difficult for women to reach out and fulfill their dreams.
She holds a Ph.D. in Development Studies, with emphasis on gender and development, from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom.