Lala Touray
The Gambia

Lala Touray is a women’s rights leader and a Gambian politician with more than four years’ experience. She advocates for inclusive politics and governance in a patriarchal and male-dominated national political system and works to ensure young women’s participation in national political leadership. Lala currently serves as the youngest constituency secretary general of The Gambia’s largest opposition political party, the United Democratic Party. She is also the country coordinator for the Gender Centre for Empowering Development, in which role she leads dialogues with political, religious, and traditional leaders and conducts capacity-building training programs for young female leaders across The Gambia. She organized The Gambia’s first annual Young Women in Politics conference. Previously, she served as a program officer for the International Republican Institute, working with civil society organizations and marginalized groups to lobby National Assembly members to support The Gambia’s 2020 draft constitution. She was also the youngest staff member of The Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission. On completion of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, she will continue to promote the role of women in The Gambia’s leadership.