By Adama Makasuba
Vice president of The Gambia, Dr Isatou Touray, has said that Barrow’s administrations is committed social proception and address the plight of the poor and vulnerable people.
The vice president was speaking at the opening of a two-day forum organized by the National Social Protection Secretariat in partnership with her office that seeks to identify common challenges in the implementation of social protection policy.
“My presence together with several cabinet ministers for the second day of the forum is a clear manifestation of our government’s commitment to social protection and the plight of the poor and vulnerable,” she said at Sir Dawda Conference Centre in Bijilo.
“Recognising the vital role social protection can play in fostering development across the sectors, the government created the national social protections secretariat and dedicated outcome 7.8 of the National Development Plan to social protection. [The] government leveraged on the inherent complementariness that exist between the various flagship programmes and strategic social protection interventions,” she affirmed.
United Nations country representative, Her Excellency Seraphine Wakana commended the government for its response to climate related shocks and the promotion of food and nutrition.
“Let me quickly commend the government of the Gambia for the on precedence social protection risk fund programme as a result of the pandemic: the climate related shocks and the promotion of food and nutrition security as well the support for labour force and the market. You have demonstrated your readiness to respond to shocks and these shocks reminds us that all the social protection must be designed to address the underlining historical and new drivers of poverty including urban poverty and other forms of vulnerability,” she said.
According to her, the UN is working on supporting “the social protection policy, promoting legislations development, setting up social registry, infrastructure and training of key governments and civil society organisation partners.”
Alhagie Barra, national coordinator of Social Protection Secretariat said his office in partnership with the office of the vice president were able to staffed adequately the human resources need of the secretariat and hope the capacity building programmes his office is implementing will help greatly.
