Adult Literacy and Skill Acquisition Programmes as Correlates of Women Empowerment and Self-Reliance in the Gambia

Abstract

Self-reliance and empowerment for women have been at the centre of the agitations for gender balance in Africa. Women are largely marginalised, and obvious gender disparity exists in school enrolment and completion rates in most African countries, particularly in The Gambia. Efforts to address this shortfall led to the adoption of adult literacy and skill acquisition programmes to build the capacity of women and out-of-school adults. Training contents were developed and centres set up across the six educational regions in the country, but most graduates of the programme are neither financially empowered nor self-reliant. Therefore, the study examined the relationship between these capacity-building programmes and women empowerment and self-reliance. The research employed a descriptive design of survey type with 250 participants from two educational regions in The Gambia. Four null hypotheses were raised and data collected through a questionnaire were analysed using t-test, mean, and simple frequency. The result showed that adult literacy and skill acquisition programmes correlate significantly with women empowerment and self-reliance in The Gambia. Recommendations were made on how to improve on the existing training structure.