With the technical and financial support from WHO, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has initiated the process of developing an all-hazard health sector preparedness and response plan. A workshop to develop the initial draft of the plan was conducted in Banjul from the 08 – 12 February 2016.

Addressing a wide range of stakeholders at the opening of the five-day meeting, the Director of Health Services, Dr. Samba Ceesay, who deputized for the Hon Minister of Health and Social Welfare, thanked the WHO for supporting this initiative, describing it as an opportunity to strengthen the health system to better respond to the many facets of emergencies that have serious health implications.

For his part, the WHO Representative, Dr. Charles Sagoe-Moses, reiterated WHO’s commitment to strengthening national health systems in the countries to effectively respond to hazards emanating from emergencies. Through an all-hazard approach, countries will be better placed to do this, Dr. Sagoe-Moses noted. 

The Director of National Disaster Management Authority, Colonel Sanneh and Vice Chair of the National Task Force for Emergencies, Dr. Kabir Cham also echoed similar views.

It will be recalled that The Gambia had already developed a national EVD preparedness and response plan, which was implemented under the oversight of the National Task Force (NTF). Through this plat-form, the NTF brought together all partners to ensure that actions taken in the country were well coordinated, and supported the national plan. Significant gains have been made in preparedness for public health emergencies through the work conducted for Ebola prepared-ness in Gambia.

The implementation of the plan has just been concluded and the there is a need to develop a new all hazard preparedness plan. The lessons learnt from the implementation of one country, one preparedness plan is being utilized for the development of this new national health sector emergency preparedness and response plan, which will be streamlined with the national disaster plan. This comprehensive approach will enable the country to best utilize its resources to ensure the health security of its population.

The new health sector emergency preparedness and response plan will build on the progress made in providing an evidence-base intervention when implementing national EVD plan 2015. The new plan will identify priority risks, strategic direction and core activities to be implemented in the coming three years.

The task force charged with the responsibility of drafting the new plan shall review the NEVD report of 2015 and utilize key recommendations made by the external assessment team. A costed operational/ action plan with key indicators for monitoring shall then be developed. Once completed, the new all hazard preparedness plan shall then be utilised to guide national preparedness interventions in a well-coordinated manner. This same plan shall be used to mobilize re-sources to support activity implementation.

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For more details, please contact:

Mr. Momodou Gassama, Health Promotion Officer,  gassamam [at] gm.afro.who.int, (+220)- 4462286

Mr. George. Williams, Health Information Assistant,  williamsg [at] gm.afro.who.int, (+220) 4462284