Statement by Ms. Seraphine Wakana, United Nations Resident Coordinator in The Gambia at Situation Analysis of Children and Adolescents in The Gambia Validation Meeting

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I take this opportunity to acknowledge the presence of the Secretary General (SG) of the Civil Service – Mr Noah Touray, Permanent Secretaries of Ministries present, Director of the Department of Strategic Planning and Delivery, Representatives of sister UN agencies, International Development partner representatives, Executive Directors and Coordinators of Civil Society Organizations, Representatives of Private Sector, Directors of Research and Academia institutions.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to this important meeting on the key milestone of The Government of The Gambia and UNICEF Gambia’s Country Programme Document (CPD) 2023 – 2027 development.  



Notably, the analysis of the situation of children and adolescents in The Gambia, called SitAn, is a key contribution to the CCA and a major building block of the UNSDCF, a core instrument for providing a coherent, strategic support from all UN entities at country level to national efforts. This SITAN validation is timely as the 2021 CCA is currently being developed and the incorporation of the SitAN can enable the CCA to be anticipatory and forward-thinking in projecting the achievements for children and adolescents as per the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other regional and global frameworks.

The SitAn validation is timely not only for CCA but also for UNICEF Gambia’s Country Programme Document (CPD) 2023 – 2027, an important contributor to ensuring the rights of children and women are achieved. CPD is indeed derived from UNSDCF to ensure greater convergence across UN Agencies

As outlined at the CPD orientation and kick off meeting in June 2021, where I also attended, the SitAn validation and following key milestones are in line with the development process of the new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) and government’s development of its own new National Development Plan (NDP).  Ensuring the parallel development of these key development plans has been key to ensure the UNSDCF and the CPD’s are all aligned to the new National Development Plan (NDP). 

Ladies & Gentlemen, Partnership with government, development partners, civil society, private sector and academia is critical in this process and as the UN we appreciate the strong partnerships across these different sectors which continue to help us make a difference in people’s lives and will continue to strive to enhance them.

Thank you once again for taking the time to join this important discussion and look forward to fruitful deliberations.