Policy and Program coordination

In the context of this discussion, let’s say coordination is the art of mediation, negotiation, compromise and the building of bridges and meeting points between stakeholders/actors within and at different levels of local governance in The Gambia.

Efforts in achieving sound coordination outcomes for the deepening and strengthening of the country’s decentralisation process therefore will be fruitful, based on the extent to which this art is practiced in reality and perfected in line with stated intentions in the decentralisation texts of the country.

One of the first steps in this must relate to the putting in place of appropriate institutional and structural formations in the system which should allow for the pursuance of opportunities, ensuring that stakeholder organisations and agencies can easily participate in the process and they can identify their human, financial and material contributions as part of the overall progress.

Overall Framework

Government has approved a multi-level, multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral overall framework under the provisions of the constitution and existing laws for the effective conduct of good local governance in The Gambia. The prescribed coordination structures when functioning can maintain checks and balances at all levels between centralizing forces on one side and decentralizing forces on the other which may some times be pitched each pulling the reform in the direction of their interests.

This framework presents, also, practical avenues for the utilization of institutional processes which are clear in terms of horizontal and vertical relationships and decision making. In principle it can be said that The Gambia has achieved an acceptable standard of local government reform framework for the proper and effective coordination of efforts in the building of local governance and local development.

As evidenced in a number of consultancy studies in the past few years however, after ten years of decentralisation dialogue and analysis, there is only little real achievement on the ground in terms of local ownership, local accountability and local control of public funded projects in basic service delivery, poverty alleviation and food security.

One of the principal concerns in this is pointed at the lack of satisfactory progress in the establishment and or functionality of critical structures of the approved coordination framework established at central, regional and local levels within and outside of the government system.

Horizontal and Vertical Coordination

Horizontally the department of state for local government, lands and religious affairs constitutes the main frame responsible for the coordination of inputs and policies with other departments of state and non state actors at national level in (avoiding policy overlaps and contradictions), ensuring the coordination of overall support for coherence and consistency in the process, the coordination of strategies and linking decentralisation with other reform processes of the wider public sector.

In response to this, the department of state established a national steering committee (NSC) in 2006 with the permanent secretary of local government lands and religious affairs as chairman and the permanent secretary of finance and economic affairs as vice chairman.

The rest of the membership comprised the permanent secretaries of the departments of state for education, health, agriculture, works and infrastructure, forestry, fisheries, youth and sports and tourism and culture, the head of the women’s bureau and heads of major NGOs and Civil society organisations and program heads of UNDP, World Bank, and EC in the Gambia as observers.

This committee has never really functioned, and this lack of functionality may be part of the explanation for the slow pace of decentralisation, the poor state of financial support for national level processes and the so many cases of policy and functional overlaps between council and regional authorities on one hand and between councils and the sectors on the other.

Vertically, the department of state coordinates with the regions and councils in the transmission of policy directives and guidance, and the regions and councils in turn ensure coordination accordingly with districts, wards and villages.

At the regional level, the office of the governor constitutes the central coordination framework and it ensures liaison with the council and representatives of other departments of state, development partners and civil society organisations involved in local development activities. The principal coordination structure for this is the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), (provided in law).

This committee comprises heads of departments represented in the region with local development programs, representatives of civil society organisations and NGOs and other regional officials determined by the governor in consultation with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of council.

The regional governor is the chairman of this committee and the CEO is the vice chairman. For Banjul City Council (BCC) and Kanifing Municipal Council, (KMC) where there are no governors, the CEO, is the chairman. Although it is hardly the reality on the ground, as part of the prescribed coordination mechanism in the local government act 2002, the TAC should meet every two months with periodic subcommittee consultations and exchanges as may be required within thematic groups in Health, Education, Agriculture, Natural Resources, Human Resources, and Finances etc.

Although scantily, the holding of TAC meetings have been observed in some of the regions but regional resources and capacities are generally limited and so decisions are not satisfactorily coordinated and without a functioninig NSC, they have little means of linking with the anticipated national process. The TACs need to be reactivated and supported with technical and financial assistance and the NSC needs to be re-established and functional.

These structures could present the opportunity for much needed horizontal and vertical coordination on cross-sectoral issues between the centre and the regions. The ward development committee (WDC) and the village development committee (VDC) are the planning, coordination and implementation bodies at the ward and village levels.

In practice the law has accorded these prescribed amount of sovereignty. Ward development committees sometimes coordinate vertically with village development committees, and horizontally both levels coordinate with other state and non-state actors in local development matters in their jurisdictions.

Coordination Structures and Processes

The coordination of decentralisation calls for the anticipation of long-term processes, with longer term goals, objectives and strategies at the policy level, whilst assuming more medium and shorter term objectives and strategies at the lower programme and project levels.

At all levels the formation of coordination structures and processes should be geared towards the smoother and more efficient delivery of the approved decentralisation policies and programmes. This most certainly involves putting in place a system of stakeholder consultations and the mobilization of positive coalition forces in the formulation of policy goals, interfacing with government departments, civil society organisations, NGOs, international donor partners and the private sector.

It requires the setting of legislative and institutional objectives and strategies and optimising the use of scarce human and financial resources. In theory poor or non-coordination of decentralisation could inhibit opportunities for building strategic alliances and it could be responsible for wastages in the management of resources, the duplication of activities and lack of complementarities in actions.

With the focus of the recently launched World Bank supported Community Driven Development Project (CDDP), which is on strengthening downstream initiatives in decentralisation and local development, there is some hope that at ward and village levels at least, initiatives in strengthening local institutional development and capacity building will be adequately and effectively supported.  


Kemo Conteh is the former director of Governance, Department of State for Local Government, Lands and Religious Affairs, now he is the senior partner, Governance Development and Management Services (GDMS), a consultancy firm at 9 Mamadi Manyang Highway, Kanifing Industrial Estate:    email: octocorps@yahoo.com