By Sirrah Touray
Vice President Muhammed Jallow yesterday launched The Gambia’s first strategic plan for the country’s food regulatory body, Food Safety and Quality Authority FSQA.
According to him, the five- year plan is a blueprint that ties safe food to public health, trade and economic growth, and will cost an estimated $188 million over five years.
“That’s just less than $40 million a year, which is affordable,” he said.
He therefore called upon the Ministry of Finance, development partners and the private sector to view food safety not as an expense but as a strategic national investment.
He warned that unsafe food is “a threat rather than a blessing, citing 600 million cases of foodborne illness globally each year and over 420,000 deaths, with Africa bearing 137,000 deaths and more than US$20 billion in losses.“
“So this event is an affirmation of our national commitment to protecting public health, strengthening our economy and safeguarding the dignity and well-being of every Gambian,” VP Jallow said.
Director General Mamodou Bah of the FSQA said his institution has moved from “turbulent times” in 2020 to a full policy and strategy framework. “Regulating the food that we eat is something very fundamental because without it, everything that we do in terms of our health, productivity and well-being will be affected,” Bah said.
He reported that China took “more than 27 staff of the FSQA to Beijing for training last year. “We already are on the right path. What we needed was a structured document,” he said.
FSQA board chairman Amadou Sowe said the launch “signals a decisive shift in The Gambia’s approach to food safety, governance and quality assurance: “Food safety is not an isolated regulatory function. It is a national development priority. When safe food undermines public health, it weakens productivity and it impinges on constraints related to trade opportunities and erodes consumer confidence.”
The Minister of Public Service, Baboucarr Bouy said an unsafe food is “a silent but significant threat” that strains health care and productivity.
The Strategic Plan rests on five objectives: strengthen FSQA’s institutional and operational systems; ensure financial sustainability and resource mobilisation; strengthen risk assessment, inspection, surveillance and enforcement; modernise laboratory services and digital infrastructure and expand stakeholder engagement and public awareness.
