Officials of the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources (MECCNAR), recently gathered to validate the ministry’s Strategic Plan 2019-2023.
The Strategic Plan was endorsed at a workshop attended by departments and agencies under the purview of the ministry with a critical focus on the action points identified by the consultant. The officials also reviewed and incorporated other inputs into the Strategic Plan.
Speaking at the event, the environment minister said the country cannot develop without planning.
Lamin Dibba explained: “It is difficult to measure when one does not have a plan and this is why it is important to graduate from business as usual to go into a more result based approach to development”.
He said the strategic plan aims to facilitate the harmonisation of all environment and natural resource policies and interventions under the purview of the ministry.
“The draft strategy highlights major intervention that will help to improve the management of environment matters,” he said.
The document, he added, was timely in complementing government’s efforts in the implementation of the NDP.
“We will ensure that the strategic plan is aligned with the NDP and the national climate change policy and all other policy and legal documents that serve as guide for the ministry,” he said, adding that The Gambia faces significant challenges with regard to the environment and climate change.
He said the major issues affecting the environment are land degradation, coastal erosion and loss of forest cover.
“cognisant of the fact that environment is key determinant of sustainable economic development, the NDP has identified key environmental, natural resources and climate change issues to address including the vulnerability of The Gambia to climate change.”
The PS of the ministry, Pateh Jah, said: “As a public institution, it is necessary to have a strategic plan to know the direction we are heading and a clear roadmap to guide us in our work.”
He said the strategic plan will help the ministry change its approach when implementing projects and will also guide them in their daily activities to effectively improve their input performance.
