By Awa Sowe
The Government of The Gambia on Friday, June 24th launched the sector working groups (SWGs) for the formulation of the Green Recovery –focused National Development Plan (RF-NDP 2023-2027) and a long term development vision 2050, which will serve as successors to NDP 2018-2021 and Vision 2020 respectively. This process is being supported by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The membership of the SWGs is drawn from ministries, departments, and agencies, academia, private sector, civil society, NGOs and other relevant stakeholders with expertise in the sector.
Speaking at the launching ceremony, held at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Conference Centre in Bijilo, the Secretary General and Head of Civil Service, Mrs Salimata Touray said that collaborations and optimisation of sector expertise and competencies is essential in the formulation process. Therefore, she noted, “government deemed it necessary to involve stakeholders from outside and within government through a participatory manner to formulate a plan that will address the socio-economic needs of the country and improve lives and livelihoods of all Gambians”.
The launching, Madam Touray said, marks the commencement of work of SWGs and that it provides an opportunity to discuss the terms of reference of SWGs, membership, work plan and expected outputs.
She informed that prior to the launching, both regional and national level consultations were held in 120 wards of the country and across all the local government areas targeting various stakeholders including women and youth, persons with disabilities, children, council of elders , multi-disciplinary facilitation teams (MDFTS)and technical advisory committees(TACs). She said the objective was to gather information in terms of progress registered, challenges and the impact of COVID-19 on our development.
According to Secretary General Touray, the work of the SWGs is very crucial to the formulation process of the plans as the SWGs will analyse outputs from the consultations , sector strategies, policies , surveys and studies to effectively provide the necessary technical inputs that will support the formulation, monitoring and evaluation of the two planning documents.
She assured the group of her office’s commitment to supporting the process and urged all to participate and work in their respective groups within the timelines agreed.
The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Mr Abdoulie Jallow said that the NDP 2018-2021 was extended to 2022 to enable government and stakeholders to work on formulating a successor green recovery-focused NDP that will adequately address the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic .
He added that the plan will also help address the triple development challenges of the pandemic, climate change and risk of debt distress.