Since Malagen’s factchecking platform exposed the falsehood spewed by the information minister Ismaila Ceesay about mortality rates in the Gambia, the Edward Francis Small Centre for Rights and Justice, which I head took it further to demand seriousness and truthfulness from public officials.
As a transparency and accountability organization, we are determined to ensure that Government and its agents do not lie and disinform citizens as Ismaila and his Ministry sought to do about maternal mortality rates.
On his Facebook page this morning, Ismaila Ceesay, instead of responding with facts and respect, once again went personal by seeking to caricature and insult my person and dignity, even as he is a public official. I will respond to him in due course.
On the issue of maternal mortality rate in the Gambia, here’s a visual summary of The Gambia’s Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) trend from 2010–2020 from Government and international sources:
- UN MMEIG modeled estimates that the rate was 620 in 2010 (other UN sources put it at 706) and gradually dropped to 458 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020 (Ref: GMB.pdf).
UN MMEIG stands for the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group, a collaboration between the WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, the World Bank Group, and the UN Population Division. Its purpose is to produce internationally comparable estimates of maternal mortality to monitor global and national trends, particularly in relation to development goals like the Sustainable Development Goals.
For context: the global SDG target for MMR for a country is to reduce it to below 70 deaths per 100,000 by 2030.
- Specifically, various UN sources provide the following MMR for the Gambia:
o 2010 – 602 or 706
o 2015 – 597
o 2017 – 458
o 2020 – 458 - The latest official MMR figures produced by the Gambia Government is in the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2019–20. The report estimates the rate to be 289 deaths per 100,000.
But this is what the report stated further:
“The maternal mortality ratio (MMR) for The Gambia is 289 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births for the 7-year period before the survey.”
This means this figure, 289/100,000 was the 2012 figure! The 2013 figure was 433/100,000.
This further means there is no current official MMR for the country from 2017 to 2025. This also means the Barrow Government cannot boast of any improvements in maternal mortality reductions because they have no facts and figures to show for it.
Hence, what justification does Dr. Ismaila Ceesay and his Ministry have to claim 38% reduction? What is your source?
Indeed, by the current 2010 – 2020 figures, maternal mortality in The Gambia has declined notably over the decade, yet it remains 6 – 7 times higher than the SDG target (<70 by 2030), signaling persistent gaps in maternal health services, emergency obstetric care, and rural health access.
WARNING!
I wish to put it to Dr. Ismaila Ceesay and the Ministry of Information that the days when public officials, without fear or shame bombard citizens with false narratives are over. As a public official, he has a duty by law to be honest and truthful to citizens. Above all, he has a duty to respect citizens even if they disagree with him.
Since he became a Minister, Ismaila has distinguished himself in engaging in insulting and caricaturing people, and in spewing disinformation and outright lies. Ismaila must know that being a President, Minister or any public official gives no one the authority or power to rudely insult citizens just because they check and expose your falsehoods.
The Office of the Minister does not belong to Ismaila Ceesay. Rather, he is merely a servant to work for the people who have the right and the duty to hold him accountable, whether he likes it or not. Otherwise, let him vacate public office!
So long as he remains in public, I hereby warn him that he will remain a legal and legitimate target for public scrutiny. To ease matters for himself then means he must be honest, truthful and respectful.
For The Gambia, Our Homeland
