How do you grow a culture of democracy from scratch?

Much of what we know about participatory democracy is from countries where “democracy” is an advanced practice and public participation is at least established. But how do you cultivate it in a nation that has a long history of dictatorship? For insight, Proximate interviewed Marr Nyang, founder and executive director of Gambia Participates.

 The Gambia was led by President Dawda Jawara for almost three decades (1965-1994), until he was overthrown in a military coup by Yahya Jammeh. He ushered in another dictatorship – for 22 years. During his regime, Jammeh started dismantling democratic institutions; the 1997 constitution was amended 52 times. 

During much of this period, Marr was an activist leader in school. In fact, in 2012, he was arrested and beaten for speaking against injustices. In 2014, he was working for a law office, digitalizing reports. “There were so many judgments that didn’t make sense to me,” he says. “Even someone who is not a lawyer could see that the verdicts weren’t supported by the facts.”

Change was desperately needed. But although the ban on opposing political parties was lifted in 2001, Jammeh’s opponents suffered from a lack of unity. That is, until 2016, when a coalition coalesced around one candidate, Adama Barrow, a real estate developer turned politician.

It was in this environment that Nyang founded Gambia Participates. In his interview, he discusses just how meandering and imperfect the path to participatory democracy is, but also how fulfilling the rewards are.

That’s a big victory – to vote out an authoritarian regime. To what do you credit that success? And what role did Gambia Participates play?

One of the factors that led to the dictator being voted out was the strategy of civic education and engagement we used to mobilize citizens and inform them about the political environment, the economic situation, and the need for a democratic transition. 

I started my work in January 2016 using social media, with the hashtag #GambiaParticipates. I used infographics to tell people about their civic duty to vote for a better Gambia, and what the consequences would be if they didn’t. Jammeh was known to say that, “If you vote for me, I will know. And if you don't vote, I will know.” This was the misinformation he was disseminating to the public.

We had to assure the public that we have a secret voting system. When you get to the ballot booth, there is no CCTV; there is no one else there but you and your marbles when you cast the ballot.

I was very careful in my messaging. I was not saying, “Go and vote against Yahya Jammeh.”  I'd not be talking to you today if that was the case! I simply focused on the need to vote. We knew the majority of Gambians were tired of Jammeh. The only thing we needed them to do is vote. We told them it could make a difference. And it worked.

I had zero resources at the time. But all that was needed, really, was someone to start the conversation and be bold.

When Barrow won, what happened next? How did Jammeh respond?

When the results were announced, I was in a state of unbelief; I was so excited.  But yeah…Jammeh lashed back. He said he was not going to accept the results and put the country in a state of emergency for 90 days. ECOWAS [the Economic Community of West African States] sent forces from Senegal because Jammeh was ready for war. But external pressure finally led him to accept the loss.

What was the aftermath of that upset? I’m thinking of Egypt, when the people ousted their own dictator in 2011, but suffered from a leadership vacuum that meant no one was happy with who filled it.

Well, the immediate problem we faced is that we hadn’t been too discerning about the type of candidate we were going to put in office to succeed the dictator. We just wanted Jammeh out. And that's the consequential effect we face. The president [Adam Barrow] went from being the owner of a real estate company to the treasurer of a political party to, ultimately, the president. So, experience is not there. We had a more democratic society and people felt that their rights were respected. But in terms of the quality of leadership and the way the economy was managed, it was still a headache. Still, I must say this: He should be given credit for respecting human rights, which is going on very well for the most part.

So…what was the next phase for Gambia Participates?

The next campaign we started was to “follow the money.” We called for accountability because corruption was the modus operandi in the Jammeh government. The central bank was like a personal bank account for Jammeh and those within his inner circle. The only way to stop that is to start raising awareness, while at the same time holding officials to account when they misappropriate public funds. The idea for the initiative was not born in Gambia. It started in Nigeria, and we adapted it to our own country. We also launched a related education campaign called Know Your Budget.

We didn't have the capacity to look at everything, so we went into specific communities and identified certain local projects to track. We looked at projects that focused on health, especially construction of health centers; education; and agriculture.

For example, there was a project that was approved for borehole drilling [to tap into fresh water]. We followed that money to see whether the work had actually been done. Later, we started building our capacity to understand how these projects came about. Most of them were from the budget, but sometimes the government didn’t actually fund them.

We went to the communities, held town hall meetings, trained committee members how to track projects on their own, etc.  We invited government officials to come, but most local governments faced the same challenges as the community members. Project development is very top-to-bottom; it goes straight to the community without going through the local government. But we invited local officials to inform them.

That activity evolved into an experiment with participatory budgeting, right? How did that happen?

The Follow the Money activity was very controversial, because it was what we call “confrontational advocacy.” We named and shamed, but it got us nowhere closer to achieving our desired goals.

So, we had to change strategy and switch to budget advocacy – going through parliament and influencing budget decisions. And that's what has worked.

We named and shamed, but it got us nowhere closer to achieving our desired goals. So, we had to change strategy and switch to budget advocacy – going through parliament and influencing budget decisions. And that's what has worked.

At first, this wasn’t what you would call true participatory budgeting; it was more like public consultation. We went into the communities for the Follow the Money program, and residents told us about a gazillion needs they have that they wanted us to help them with. But we didn’t have the money or the network to help them. So, we helped residents engage with their parliamentarians; after all, that is the reason why they have a representative in the National Assembly. Before the budget is delivered, we said, tell your parliamentarian about the needs of your community; ask him or her to find a way to influence the national budget. We also advised them to ask questions of the relevant ministry: “Before you put all this money into salaries, allowances and travel, why not reallocate some of it to the programs we need?”

Participatory budgeting in its true form was not tried here until recently. One of the largest municipal councils ran a very good participatory budget process, in which constituents assembled and voted on priority programs. But, unfortunately, the extent to which the results made it into the 2024 budget is not clear. We requested the budget and couldn’t get it. So clearly, this [participatory budgeting] is still at the infant stage and needs to be improved on.

As for Gambia Participates, the funding we obtained to support this project phased out. I don’t know whether the municipality is continuing it on their own. And I did not see an announcement on their social media this year.

That’s very disappointing. Too often, participatory democracy projects are driven by the funder – or the lack of one. So, what now for your organization?

Now we are focusing on a constitutional reform process. When Jammeh came to power in a coup, he introduced the 1997 constitution and revised it regularly to suit his political purposes. The people attempted to rewrite it to reflect their desires once before, in 2020, but it failed. (The draft was shot down mostly by MPs from the ruling National People’s Party and their allies, who were uncomfortable with several of its provisions, including term limits for the president.)

The country is trying again now, but the process leaves a lot to be desired.

The last draft (in 2020) was citizen centric; it was very participatory. Unfortunately, this time the constitution is being decided by the politicians. There hasn’t been a broader consultation. So, what we did is compare the new document with the previous one and track the changes. For example, the previous version had a chapter with a code of conduct for leadership. That has been deleted.

Then we worked to mobilize the citizens and other stakeholders, including faith-based organizations; make recommendations; and then engage the parliament.

If this constitution is rejected as well, which we think the opposition may do, we might as well just forget about constitutional reform, because the people will be tired of politicians deciding without giving citizens the chance to make that decision. So, we are telling parliament to let it pass because they can make amendments later. Yes, it has some undemocratic clauses, but if those are addressed, then the draft is not so bad.

Have you considered holding a citizens’ assembly to help shape the constitution?

In fact, we partnered with the National Endowment for Democracy to do just that. We went to all seven regions of the country and engaged citizens via assemblies, focusing on some of the questions that have caused the most controversy, like term limits and education. (In the 2020 constitution draft, secondary school was guaranteed to be free. But that, too, has been removed.) We are trying to collaborate with the Village Development Committees and the National Youth Parliament, which has members across the country. Its role is to kind of stimulate the National Assembly.

[Proximate note: Note These assemblies included invited participants, without the sortition that characterizes true citizens’ assemblies.] 

What do you see in the future for Gambia Participates?

After the constitution is (hopefully) passed, we are going to return to our focus on public finance transparency and accountability.

Economic progress is still a problem. We haven't made the economic advancement we need because of a weak economy – for example, the limited number of jobs, especially for young people. People are risking their lives by trying to get to Europe through dangerous routes. Crime is rising as well; it’s higher now than in 2016.

Overall, though, we've made good progress in The Gambia, in terms of citizens waking up, expressing their views and speaking against the leadership of the country if necessary. And the media are opening up.