By Aisha Tamba
The United Nations Development Programme has recently held a three-day annual review and planning meeting with its partners.
The annual meeting was held at a local hotel in Senegambia. Speaking at the event, the UNDP resident representative Aissata De said the intense three days meeting shows that the Gambia is ready to move to the next level, and it’s already doing it. “At UNDP we are not a donor, we are a development agency from the United Nations.”
She added that the United Nations is a community to which the Gambia belongs and it is here to support The Gambia and the Gambian people. “So, we always need to keep that in mind that we are here to support you to achieve sustainable development goals, and to respond to the population’s needs. We all know that the needs are tremendous and enormous and we also know that we are going through a very particular context from one short to another. The Gambia has also shown that some of the shorts that are going through the country have managed to transform them into opportunities. The purpose of being together in the three days is to reflect based on the best practices and achievements to show the world how to move forward continuously doing the good work that we are doing. The other point is that we also need to be continuously aware of the level of accountability that we need not only for the use of funding but accountability that these are the population that we are serving. The Gambia has already shown that accountability is a foundation that everything can be done, we have seen it in the TRRC, during the electoral process, and even in the community development programs are done in a very inclusive manner.”
She thanked all their partners including the ministry of finance and the civil society organizations, youth organizations, and women’s organizations. “This is showing that we are working together and it is only by working together that we can achieve sustainable development goals,” she stated.
Finance ministry Director of development planning, Mr. Alagie Fadera said the meeting was productive and rewarding. He added the three days of training have enabled them to assess their performance and progress. “We were able to register what the challenges are within that context we have been able to drift our work plan for 2023, with a lot of dedication and energy to do things differently and better. Among this, we have committed ourselves to ensure that we will be able to improve the implementation rates in 2023 and also achieve development results for our people. We really as a government and as a country continue to appreciate the support that we have been receiving from UNDP over the years. They provided not only financial support but also technical support.”
