By Omar Bah
The UN resident coordinator, Ms Seraphine Wakana, has reaffirmed the United Nations continued support for The Gambia’s National Development Plan.
“I want to reassure you of the UN’s continuous and unflinching commitment to supporting the national development agenda of The Gambia to revitalise and transform the economy for the wellbeing of all Gambians,” she told participants at a two-day workshop designed to ensure effective participation in the NDP.
The UN, she said, believes this is the time for The Gambia to move forward and implement the transformational agenda of the government to revitalise the economy, restore good governance and respect for human rights.
“The NDP belongs to all of you and the strategic priorities and enablers identified here will provide the opportunity for each and every citizen to empower themselves and ensure that no one is left behind on this development journey,” she noted.
The UN through its development assistance framework (UNDAF), will continue to support the government in realising its national development priorities through the ‘delivering as one’ approach to enhance focus and maximise chances for achieving sustainable development goals.”
“We will provide policy and strategic advisory service as well as dialogue through the multi-stakeholders high level national steering committee and government-donor consultative forum as outlined in the NDP. To successfully achieve this desirable goal, there is need for strengthened collaboration among all stakeholders.,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Mambury Njie, said the workshop is premised to design an outreach strategy for multi-stakeholder engagement in the implementation of the SDGs including an annual citizen forum on NDP implementation, develop a framework for citizen feedback on impact of the NDP implementation on livelihoods.
“As a government, we are more than ever resolved to further make development more inclusive. The outcome of this workshop will serve as a vital tool for ensuring open communication with the citizenry at all levels and transparency on the part of government in the implementation of the NDP,” he said.
The NDP, he further emphasised, is premised to restore good governance, respect for human rights, the rule of law, and empowering citizens through decentralization and local governance, stabilise the economy, stimulating growth, and transforming the economy among others.
