The
chief of operations at the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) has
stated that The Gambia has taken a transformative initiative to protect food
security.
To
that effect, they signed the establishment agreement of the AU specialized
agency on drought (ARC), as well as ratifying the establishment treaty in May
2016.
This,
she added, could not have come at a better time given that the country and the
sub-region continued to be hit by either mild drought or erratic rainfall.
Oumie
Sissohko, NDMA’s chief of operations, made these remarks at the Ocean Bay Hotel
in Bakau, during the two-day Africa Risk View Validation and Risk Transfer
Parameter Selection Workshop, organized by the government agency.
Sissohko
noted that the ARC programme is of great importance to the continent and the
country, for the fact that it harnesses pan-African solidarity and also
provides a financially efficient solution to deal with extreme climate events,
such as drought, floods and now disease outbreak.
The
Gambia, she went on, is one of the first signatories to the ARC Establishment
Agreement, and one of the first countries to embrace this new model of
innovative funding, taking a major step in transforming the disaster response
paradigm on the continent.
Such
a risk financing tool paves the way toward the national commitment to food
security and economic development.
“The
technical working group which was constituted by the government has worked hard
since June 2014 to ensure that a drought profile is developed. The group has
finalized two contingency plans, and government in 2014 through to 2016 has
taken out coverage with the ARC.”
The
NDMA chief of operations further stated that all efforts should be made by
participants to synthesize the information in the software and deduce sensible
recommendations pertinent to the work done by their colleagues, so that right
decisions are made on The Gambia’s taking out insurance for the policy year
2017/18.
“I
look forward to receiving your recommendations on both the parameters and
contingency plan,” she added.
Tuga
Alaskary, country engagement manager, also emphasised more on the Africa Risk
View, noting that Gambia is in the process of finalising the Africa Risk View
(ARV) software on floods, and the selection of risk transfer parameters for
policy year 2017 to 2018 for drought.
Mawdo
Amadou Jallow of the NDMA also gave a briefing on the ARV, noting that ARV is a
specialized agency of the African Union, established in 2012, and it is
composed of 32 member states.
