The Government of The Gambia (GoTG), through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA), is formulating a Green Recovery-focused National Development Plan (2023-2027) and Long-Term Development Vision (Vision 2050) (RF-NDP and LTDV).
According to the said Ministry, the RF-NDP, as a successor to the NDP, will serve as the vehicle through which the short-and medium-term needs of the country will be comprehensively addressed. The LTDV on the other hand, the Ministry informs, would chart the long-term trajectory of the country’s development and transformation.
“The Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs has,therefore, commissioned a consultancy to support the formulation of these two key development frameworks. A draft inception report outlining the scope of work, expected deliverables, methods and processes to be applied in the plan formulation process, have been finalized”, MoFEA disclosed.
In view of this, the Directorate of Planning on Friday, 11th March 2022, at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara (SDKJ) Conference Centre, in Bijilo, brought together stakeholders in the development process to a validation meeting on the inception report for the preparation of the two development plans, to discuss the content of the report and also give their views on how the process could be enhanced.
“It is worthwhile to note that the National Development Plan (NDP-2018-2021), which was extended to 2022, is in its final stages of implementation but has been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic”, MoFEA noted. It also informed that a mid-term review was undertaken and government is gearing up to develop a successor NDP. The pandemic is far more than a health crisis: it has affected nearly every aspect of the social and economic life of the country.
“To curb the effects of the pandemic, the government formulated a response strategy to address the short-term challenges it posed, but in view of its long-term impact, it is evident that the new NDP must have a green recovery as a central guiding theme of the new plan”, justified the Ministry. Government therefore, intends to ensure that the new plan is a green Recovery-Focused NDP (RF-NDP) in order to anchor the socio-economic response to COVID-19 firmly within the country’s medium-term development framework, especially, given the changing epidemiological pattern of the pandemic, the continued socioeconomic impact, and the urgency for climate action, it’s noted.
“The Gambia’s first long-term development plan (Vision 2020) was formulated in 1996. This 25-year plan was intended to guide The Gambia’s socio-economic development for the period 1996-2020,” the country’s Economic Affairs body continued. To help implement the said Vision, it highlighted that a series of medium-term development plans were formulated and implemented, namely Strategy for Poverty Alleviation I (SPA I) 1995-1999; SPA II or Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper I (PRSP I) 2003-2005; PRSP II 2007-2011; Programme for Accelerated Growth and Employment (PAGE) 2012-2015; and National Development Plan (NDP) 2018-2021.
Despite the achievements registered during the implementation of these development plans, the Ministry lamented that The Gambia still remains a Least Developed Country (LDC) with many challenges to overcome in order to attain middle income status as envisaged in the Vision 2020. “To this end, the Government is developing a successor Long-Term Development Vision (LTDV) for the period 2023 to 2050 (Vision 2050) for The Gambia.”
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA) has undertaken an evaluation of the Vision 2020 and findings from the evaluation would help guide the coordination and formulation process of the new long-term development Vision. The LTDV, as indicated, would serve as a strategic framework for the development of successive medium-term national development plans over the next 30 years.
“To effectively maximize the use of both human and financial resources, and to avoid consultation fatigue and enhance synergies, Government intends to strengthen the linkage between the two processes of formulating the Green Recovery-focused National Development Plan and the Long-Term Development Vision”, the Ministry stated.
It further averred that this was particularly important during the consultative phases of the planning processes; that economies of scale could be achieved through development of robust tools that could be used to gather adequate information and input from stakeholders that will feed into both processes.
