Emergency Response System Modernization
Building the systems so help arrives when every second counts.
No Gambian should die from a treatable injury, a preventable fire, or a medical emergency that arrived too late. Not in Banjul. Not in Basse. Not in Janjanbureh. Emergency response is not a service reserved for wealthy nations. It is a basic obligation of any government that takes seriously its responsibility to protect the lives of its people. The Gambia today has no functioning integrated emergency response system. There is no national emergency number that a citizen can call from any phone, in any region, and receive a coordinated response. There are no dedicated ambulance services stationed and ready to deploy outside of a handful of urban hospitals. Fire stations exist in name in some areas, but are chronically under-equipped, under-staffed, and without the vehicles or training to handle major incidents. Road accident victims die at the scene while help is sought on foot. Women in obstetric emergencies in rural communities have no ambulance to call. When an emergency happens in communities across The Gambia, the first call is not to a dispatch center. It is to a relative with a car, a neighbor with a phone, or anyone who might know someone who can help. This is not a system. It is improvisation in the face of institutional absence. And people die because of it. The National Builders Party will end this.
A Gambia where every citizen, in every region, can dial a single emergency number and reach a trained dispatcher who coordinates a professional response within measurable, published timeframes. Where ambulances are staffed by trained paramedics and stationed across the country. Where fire stations are equipped for the full range of modern emergency response including water rescue, structural collapse, and road accidents. Where police, fire, and medical services operate as a unified system under a shared national operations platform. Where every community knows what to do in an emergency, and where the infrastructure exists to back that knowledge with action. Where no Gambian dies because help did not arrive.
The NBP will establish the National Emergency Management Authority as the apex institution overseeing and coordinating all emergency response operations in The Gambia, operating under the Office of the Vice President with authority across all government agencies involved in emergency response.
NEMA will be led by a Director General with professional qualifications in emergency management or public safety. A National Emergency Response Council, convening quarterly and chaired by the Vice President, will bring together the heads of police, fire, health, disaster management, transport, and communications to review system performance and coordinate policy. NEMA will publish an annual State of Emergency Preparedness Report measuring performance against published response time targets, training completion, equipment readiness, and incident outcomes. A dedicated National Emergency Response Fund with ring-fenced annual budget allocation will ensure consistent operational funding that cannot be raided for general budget pressures. The existing National Disaster Management Agency will be restructured and integrated into NEMA as the Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Division, ending the disconnection between day-to-day emergency response and major disaster management.
The NBP will establish a network of 11 National Emergency Response Call Centers across the country, all fully operational by Year 2, linked to a single national emergency number accessible from any phone, anywhere in The Gambia, at any hour.
Every NERCC will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, staffed by dispatchers trained and certified under the National Emergency Dispatcher Certification Program. All dispatchers must complete a minimum 90-day training program covering emergency triage and prioritization, GPS dispatch operations, multi-agency coordination, medical pre-arrival instruction, and crisis communication. Dispatchers must be fluent in English and a minimum of two Gambian national languages. All emergency vehicles nationally will be GPS-tracked with live positions visible on the dispatch platform. Automated dispatch algorithms will identify and dispatch the nearest appropriate resource to each call. A National Emergency Operations Center in Banjul will serve as the command hub for the entire network, with real-time visibility of all active incidents and deployed units across the country.
The NBP will establish the Gambia National Ambulance Service as a fully funded, professionally staffed, nationally coordinated emergency medical service, because The Gambia currently has no such service.
Ambulances will be stationed at hospitals and health centers across all seven regions, with deployment planned to achieve full district coverage by Year 3. All ambulances will carry oxygen, stretchers, defibrillators, IV equipment, obstetric emergency kits, and the full range of basic life-support equipment. Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians trained under a new national standard will staff every unit. An obstetric emergency response protocol will prioritize dispatch to women in labor in rural communities. A dedicated Medical Air Evacuation Service, operating from the Basse domestic airport once commissioned in Year 3, will provide air transfer capability for critical patients in the Upper River Region who need to reach specialist care in Banjul. Published response time targets will be measured and reported quarterly for every region.
The NBP will establish the Gambia National Fire and Rescue Service as a properly funded, professionally staffed, nationally coordinated institution, replacing the patchwork of severely under-resourced stations that currently bears that name.
Fire stations will be retrofitted or newly built across all regions, equipped with modern firefighting apparatus, rescue tools for structural collapses and road accidents, water tankers, breathing apparatus, and specialist equipment for riverine and coastal communities including water rescue capability. Every firefighter will complete a minimum 16-week initial training program and every firefighter will additionally be trained to Emergency Medical Responder standard, enabling fire stations to serve as dual medical response centers when ambulances are not immediately available. All fire stations will carry automated external defibrillators, oxygen, and trauma kits. A National Fire and Rescue Training Academy will deliver initial training, specialist programs in water rescue, hazardous materials, and wildfire response, and annual recertification for all serving personnel. International training partnerships with the United Kingdom, United States, and West African regional partners will support curriculum development and instructor exchange.
The NBP will build a digital-first emergency response platform using modern tools for speed, coordination, accountability, and public communication across every region of The Gambia.
A free national emergency mobile application will allow users to call for help with automatic GPS location sharing, signal silently for police assistance without speaking, access an offline first aid guidance library covering CPR, bleeding control, choking, snakebite, and other common emergencies, and receive public alert notifications for declared emergencies in their area. A national public alert system will broadcast emergency warnings simultaneously via SMS to all mobile phones in a defined geographic area, radio broadcast, television interruption, and the mobile app, and will be used for flood warnings, severe weather, disease outbreaks, missing persons alerts, and major security incidents. Digitized call logs will capture dispatch time, response time, on-scene time, and outcome for every incident, creating a complete national emergency incident database that feeds into performance improvement and policy.
The NBP will establish the National Community Safety Corps, training ordinary Gambians to act as community first responders in the critical minutes before professional responders arrive, because the emergency response system cannot be everywhere at once.
The Corps will target a trained Community First Responder in every community across The Gambia. Training will cover CPR and AED operation, bleeding control, choking and airway obstruction, emergency childbirth assistance, recognition of stroke and heart attack, basic fire safety, and how to provide accurate information to a dispatcher. Corps members will be registered with the regional NERCC and may be notified when an emergency occurs near their location. Training will be delivered through schools, mosques, churches, community centers, workplaces, and markets. Secondary school students will have access to a full Community First Responder certification as part of their civic education requirements. An annual National Emergency Preparedness Week, featuring public demonstrations, open days at fire stations and ambulance bases, and community first aid competitions, will keep preparedness alive in public consciousness year-round.
The NBP will establish a dedicated Road Traffic Accident Response Protocol, because road accidents are the emergency most likely to happen to any Gambian and the one for which the current response is most consistently and fatally inadequate.
All road accident calls will be automatically dispatched to police, ambulance, and fire simultaneously, with the nearest unit from each service responding. Traffic police units will be equipped with basic medical first response kits and trained in hemorrhage control and safe patient extraction. A network of Emergency Road Stations equipped with first aid supplies, fire extinguishers, and emergency signage will be established at intervals along all major national highways. A national road accident data system will track incident locations, causes, and outcomes, feeding directly into road safety policy and hazard identification. Every formal workplace with more than a defined number of employees must maintain trained first aiders on duty, stocked first aid kits, fire extinguishers, and a documented emergency evacuation plan under the National Emergency Preparedness Standards Act.
The National Builders Party will ensure that building The Gambia's emergency response system from the ground up creates thousands of skilled jobs for Gambians and builds the permanent national expertise that keeps the system running for generations.
Dispatchers, call center staff, paramedics, EMTs, firefighters, rescue divers, drivers, engineers, and communications technicians will all be Gambians trained, employed, and paid competitively under the new national emergency services structure. Government scholarships for Gambian youth to study emergency medicine, disaster preparedness, and crisis management abroad with a commitment to return and contribute to the national system will accelerate capability development. Partnerships with international emergency service providers, the WHO, the Red Cross, and donor nations including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Turkey will provide equipment sourcing, training expertise, technical consultants, and curriculum support. Annual benchmarking against ECOWAS and international emergency response standards will be published, holding the system publicly accountable for continuous improvement.
For Every Community
One number. One call. From any phone. At any hour. A trained dispatcher who speaks your language, knows your location through GPS, and coordinates a professional response. Response time targets published quarterly for your region so you can hold the system accountable. A trained Community First Responder in your neighborhood who can begin care before the ambulance arrives. Emergency preparedness is no longer something other countries have and The Gambia does not. It is being built right now, for your community, starting in Year 1.
For Young Gambians
The emergency response system will create thousands of skilled, professional, permanent jobs. Dispatcher, paramedic, firefighter, rescue diver, communications technician, emergency educator, data analyst. These are careers, not postings, with training academies, certification programmes, and competitive salaries. Government scholarships will send Gambian youth abroad to study emergency medicine and bring that expertise home. Secondary students will train as Community First Responders as part of their civic education. This system is being built by your generation and for your generation.
For Every Family
A cardiac arrest gives you a narrow window of survival. A fire gives your property minutes before it spreads. A woman in obstetric emergency in a rural community needs an ambulance, not a relative's car. The emergency response system the National Builders Party is building is not an abstraction. It is the difference between life and death in the moments that count most. When it works, you will not think about it. You will just dial the number and know that help is coming. The National Builders Party will build that certainty for every Gambian family.
No Gambian should die because help did not arrive. That is not a campaign slogan. It is the New National Standard by which this government will be judged. Every call answered. Every unit dispatched. Every responder trained. Every community prepared. Every minute of response time measured and published. Under the National Builders Party, emergency response is not a hope. It is a system. A national emergency number, operational from Year 1. Eleven call centers, all running by Year 2. A national ambulance service covering every district by Year 3. Fire stations rebuilt and properly equipped across all regions. A mobile emergency app in the pocket of every Gambian. Community First Responders trained in every neighborhood. Response time targets published quarterly so that every Gambian can see whether the system is meeting the standard it was built to meet. That system will be built, funded, staffed, and held accountable for every life it was built to protect.
When seconds count, the system must be there. Not a relative with a car. Not a neighbor with a phone. A trained responder with the right equipment, dispatched by a professional who knew where to send them before you finished dialing. The National Builders Party will build that system for every Gambian, in every region, starting on day one.
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