The ActionAid International Director for West and Central
Africa, Mrs. Dede Amanor Wilks, will visit
The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau
from the 18thto the 24thof February 2008.
During this time she will meet with partners including senior government
officials, UN agencies and other donor partners. She will also visit ActionAid
programme sites in the field and Guinea-Bissau
which is a cross border initiative managed by ActionAid The Gambia.
Mrs. Amanor-Wilks recently took up her appointment with
ActionAid International, and is based at the Africa Regional Office in Nairobi,
Kenya.
Her visit to The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau
is part of a tour of ActionAid Country Offices in West and Central
Africa to acquaint herself with the country
programmes.
Mrs. Amanor Wilks' visit comes at a time when ActionAid the Gambia's
third Country Strategy Paper (CSPIII) for 2008-2012 has been drafted and
submitted for approval. The drafting of the new strategy involved the
participation of all stakeholders including government representatives, NGO's
and CBO's as well as communities. The Country Programme focuses on four core
strategic priorities; Women and Girls' Rights, the Right to Food, the Right to
a life of dignity in the face of HIV/AIDS and Malaria, and the Right to Just
and Democratic Governance. There are also the cross cutting issues of the Right
to Education and Human Security in conflict and Emergencies which are subsumed
in other priority areas covering climate change, urban growth, youth population
and youth migration among others. It is expected that at the end of Mrs. Amanor-Wilks'
visit the CSPIII for ActionAid The Gambia will be approved and a new Memorandum
of Understanding will be signed between ActionAid Guinea Bissau and the Bissau
government.
