The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) in The Gambia from 17-18 March 2021 held a review meeting of its Country Programming Framework (CPF) and Project Planning.
The convergence held Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Centre in Bijilo, brought together stakeholders from the both public and private sectors to critically review FAO’s work done in 2020.
The FAO Country Representative, Ms. Moshibudi Rampedi reminded that, this is an annual event which seeks to discuss critical issues with all their development, implementing and planning partners; to deliberate on outcomes of the previous year’s programming cycle and discuss future plans.
The CPF sets out government priority areas and guides FAO’s support and partnership with the government of the Gambia, Madam Rampedia told the gathering, stating the CPF has been implemented between 2018 to 2021. It has brought innovative international best practices and global standards with national and regional expertise.
However, she described 2020 as an unusual year due to the global Covid-19 pandemic which has disrupted economies and food production and productivity in a larger scale, stating FAO had to adapt to new procedures to continue its mission in these difficult times. “As FAO, we had to adapt to continue our mission,” she stated.
The FAO top envoy in Banjul further informed her audience, the current CPF project had been extended to one more year–to 2022 for the Gambia. Through this project, her office in collaboration with the government and partners, have been able to address key priority areas of the National Development Plan (NDP), namely food security, employment creation for women and youth, capacity building and value chain and climate change resilience, she pointed out.
“We have spent over 416 million dalasi in three years in the Gambia,” the Country Representative disclosed to the meeting.
The CPF project is anchored on the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) between 2017 and 2021, and implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture; the Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources; the Ministry of Environment, Climate change, Forestry and Natural Resources; the UN Country Team as well as non-state actors such as Civil Society Organizations and partners.
For the Gambia’s Minister of Agriculture, Madam Amie Fabureh, the FAO has been the longest standing partner to the government of the Gambia, especially to her ministry. She informed the gathering that, over 14, 000 farmers have benefited from technical, seed and farming implements support in 2020.
Mrs. Fabureh reassured FAO that government is always ready to modernize agriculture to meet the national food priorities of the country. She explained the three-year project is to promote efficiency as well as improve agriculture in the Gambia.
Also speaking was the Minister of Fisheries, Forestry and National Assembly Matters, Mr. James Gomez, who highlighted the enormous significance of fish and fishery products for Gambians, declaring over 200,000 families are directly or indirectly employed by the fisheries sector in the country.
Gomez said the artisanal fishing sector plays a key role in food security, and that majority of Gambian families depend on fish for their daily meals–different from the monetary gains that ordinary citizens derive from the sea.
Minister Lamin Dibba of the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change, hailed FAO as one of the key partners in effecting change in the fight against climate change, through capacity building programmes for officials of his ministry’s and funding of projects that are meant to create climate change awareness and mitigation efforts in the country.
He tasked the gathered reviewers to critically look into the country’s ecosystems that have been degraded to the extent that it needs urgent restoration to improve the ecosystems in the dry land areas as well as invent possible alternatives.
Minister Dibba recommended alternatives are needed urgently, because agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change, and communities need to be given alternatives for living to prevent deforestation and degradation. He noted the fact that, communities largely depend on forestry products for their living, which is a threat to the natural environment in the Gambia.
At the end of the two days deliberations, stakeholders were expected to come up with resolutions and action plans that would lay future interventions of the UN food body in the country for the remaining period of the Country Programming Framework and Project Planning.
