UN regional humanitarian Envoy in Banjul Visit
The United Nations Regional Humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel Friday met the vice president and minister of Women’s Affairs, Her Excellency Aja Dr. Isatou Njie-Saidy at her office in State House. David Gressly was accompanied to State House by officials of the UN country team in The Gambia.
Speaking to reporters shortly after meeting VP Njie-Saidy, Gressly disclosed that he was at the VP’s office together with the UN country team to discuss the response to the problems they saw in The Gambia relating to the drought last year. He said they discussed the recent flooding and how to improve on both disaster preparedness and also make The Gambia more resilient to such disasters.
Gressly said his meeting with VP Njie-Saidy was very fruitful and constructive, and assured that they are committed to partner with the Gambia government in addressing issues relating to disaster. “I am very pleased with the meeting and the work of the UN country team here in The Gambia. We further discussed about areas that need to be strengthened in terms of increasing operation capacity on the ground, issues of resilience, planning process, data collection and management for more responsiveness, and as well how to forge the partnership with government,” he added.
The UN Regional Humanitarian coordinator described last year’s drought in the Sahel as a very difficult one across the region, as it left 18 000 000 people food insecure. He also applauded the good work by many governments in the Sahel including The Gambia government as well as the donor agencies. “A quarter of a million children died in the Sahel due to malnutrition every year, which is a chronic problem that has to be dealt with collectively in order to address such problems,” he remarked.
Gressly finally reaffirmed the UN’s commitment to working with the Gambia government to ensure a more fruitful partnership in addressing disaster problems in the country.
