As part of efforts to complement the government's efforts to achieve the national health goals, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently set-up a six-year Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) from 2008-2013 .

The CCS is also meant to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the work of the WHO and will also be based on a systematic assessment of the country's health priorities.
Speaking at a one-day consensus building seminar on behalf of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Welfare at the Kairaba Hotel yesterday, Sulayman Samba, Permanent Secretary, DoSH&SW said it is a known fact that the biggest partner to The Gambia Government and the leading donor for health is WHO.
According to him, the CCS is more or less a strategy that the Government of The Gambia can call its own.

"The formulation of a second CCS is very timely for a number of reasons as far as recent developments in the health sector are concerned. We are at a critical stage in our quest to achieve the Millennium Development Goals," he said.

He added that the outcome of the consensus building meeting will enrich the strategy document by providing suggestions on the areas where some omissions might have occurred as well as provide an opportunity for the different partners in health to be enlightened on the key areas of intervention for the WHO in the next six years.
For his part, Dr Nestor Shivute, the WHO Country Representative, said his office and the health sector believe and indeed recognise that health is a very complex concept, the attainment of which goes beyond the health sector alone.

"Most of the determinants of health are beyond the perimeters of our hospitals, our health centres and our clinics," he stated.
According to him, this is a strategy wherein we intend to work in a more effective and responsive way by addressing priority health problems in The Gambia within the purview of our comparative advantage.