The senior nutrition specialist at the World Bank (WB) has revealed that the Bank’s partnership with the government of The Gambia on nutrition is aimed at targeting a minimum of 1000 communities, and that the programme currently has moved from 300 to over 500 communities.

Menno Mulder Sibanba made this revelation last Friday shortly after meeting the vice president and minister of Women’s Affairs, Aja Dr Isatou Njie-Saidy at her office at State House.

Led to State House by the executive director of the National Nutrition Agency (NaNA), Pa Modou Phall, the top WB official came to brief the vice president about how things are going in terms of the cooperation and what they intend to do next on the issue of nutrition.

He described nutrition as the wellbeing of women and children, while acknowledging that the government of The Gambia shows strong leadership and commitment towards it. “The Gambia Government has requested the bank’s partnership and we have been able to respond since 2009 and working with NaNA on strengthening, developing and scaling up policy development on this issue,” he stated.

Commenting on the progress made so far, the WB nutrition specialist said that they started strengthening the whole institution capacity in delivering services that would really make impact on the nutrition and health of the women and children and also able to mobilise grants to scale out service delivery. Sibanba also revealed that the project is ending in December 2012.

He added: “So, by that time, we will certainly have integrated services at community levels and piloting new approaches to address some of the key issues that affect women and children such as ammonia. Ammonia is hard to detect and address but with the new approach, we will make it.”

The WB official stressed that there is always need for resources and that is why partnership is necessary. He also described the issue of illiteracy and medical care as a challenge, as well as the crop failure during the last season.

GCCI

The vice president Friday also received the executive director of The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Almamy Taal at her office at State House. Shortly after the audience with VP Njie-Saidy, Taal told reporters that he came to inform the president through the vice president, about the GCCI’s forthcoming dinner, on the theme ‘Standing by the Gambian farmers’ slated for June 2012.

He said: “As you all know, every year we have this annual award dinner to recognise excellence in the private sector. This year, because of the difficulty the country is going through, we would use the proceeds of the dinner to support farmers following the crop failure in last year’s season.” Taal also urged the private sector to come and put their bids in helping the farmers.

Swisscham-Africa

Joy Buchanan, the representative of Swisscham-Africa, which is also called Africa Chamber of Commerce, also on Friday met the vice president and minister of Women’s Affairs at her office. Joy informed reporters that she held talks with the vice president regarding her chamber. She explained that they are looking for partnership with businesses in the country as well as to collaborate in the development of the country.