The commemoration of World Population Day each year, presents an opportunity for countries to reflect on emerging population trends and identify ways to improve on issues affecting their populations. Based on this, on 10 July 2020, Her Excellency the Vice President of the Republic of the Gambia and UNFPA Country Representative engaged the media on this year’s World Population Day theme “Putting the brakes on COVID-19: how to safeguard the health and rights of women and girls now”.

Speaking at the engagement, Her Excellency the Vice President Dr. Isatou Touray highlighted that “during emergencies, attention and critical resources are diverted from the provision of sexual and reproductive health, rights and wellbeing of women and girls, causing delays in implementation and making the achievement of these goals a distant reality.” This she said, calls for concerted efforts to ensure that the COVID-19 pandemic does not impede the rights and wellbeing of women and girls in The Gambia and that the government of The Gambia and its partners are working closely to make this a reality.

Delivering the partnership statement, UNFPA The Gambia Country Representative Mr Kunle Adeniyi, reiterated that “during this pandemic, the communities we serve, particularly women and girls have been forced into new realities that expose them to heightened risks thus threatening their dignity, wellbeing and security.” He recognised that as The Gambia continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic and its immediate impact on various sectors of society, attention must be drawn to the vulnerabilities and needs of the one in every three Gambian women and girls married off before their eighteenth birthday, the three in every four women and girls subjected to Female Genital Mutilation in the country and the pregnant women in communities furthest behind who do not have access to emergency obstetric care and may lose their lives while giving birth.

Mr Adeniyi concluded his statement by calling on all stakeholders to synergise efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic and the parallel pandemic of Gender Based Violence, because together we can put the brakes on COVID-19 and safeguard the health and rights of women and girls now!