UNDP Annual Programme Review Meeting successfully ended on Wednesday 25th April at the Corinthia Atlantic Hotel. The APRM  provides a forum to review the previous year’s Results and together with Government endorse the key areas and targets for programme intervention in 2008. The meeting was chaired by The Permanent Secretary Office of The President Mr. Ebrima Camara.

Senior Government Officials,  representative from the University of the Gambia, Project Managers and Coordinators, representatives of CSOs and NGOs participated in the meeting.

The Secretary to Cabinet Hon. Abdoulie Sallah on behalf of the Secretary General of the Republic Of The Gambia Ms. Teneng Mba Jaiteh warmly welcomed all delegates to the meeting and extended government’s profound gratitude and appreciation to the UNDP Country Team and through UNDP, all the UN Agencies here in the Gambia for their continuous collaboration in diverse areas pertinent to The Gambia’s immediate, medium, and long-term development needs.

In her statement, she said that, It was with a high sense of expectation due to their confidence in UNDP as a trusted  partner, that the Government embraced the current programme cycle with UNDP which as we all know is based on relevant programmatic framework documents notably, "the Country Programme Document (or the CPD)", the Country Programme Action Plan (or simply called the CPAP) and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (the UNDAF).

Signed in December 2006, She further said "the CPAP has become the reference for joint programming by UNDP and the Government covering a 5- year cycle from 2007-2011. The CPAP reflects the priorities of The Gambia, which hinge around  poverty reduction and the achievement of MDGs as well as the deepening of human rights and good governance. The implementation period of the CPAP is also consistent with that of the Country’s second PRSP which runs for the same period dovetailing all the critical areas addressed in the CPAP.

Through the CPAP UNDP has committed resources for the Implementation of  activities under the two main PILLARS of Poverty Reduction and the MDGs on the one hand, and Human Rights and Governance on the other’’. She further said

For his part, the Resident Representative a.i. for UNDP Vitalie Muntean said that 2007 was indeed a very challenging year but was happy to note that UNDP has been able to surmount these challenges and took significant steps that allowed us to provide support to key national development priorities. Most importantly UNDP have held key consultations and policy dialogues with relevant stakeholders culminating in the signing of the Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP).

The CPAP defines all UNDP interventions in The Gambia and is anchored within two main programme areas namely: (a) Poverty Reduction and Achieving the MDGs and (b) Governance and Human Rights.

He stressed that during the period under review one of the greatest challenges was to set in motion the operation of the new CPAP for 2007-2011. In partnership with the government and other stakeholders, in a relatively short period of time UNDP  managed to develop and kick-start the implementation  of seven programme  interventions, which along with the projects initiated at the tail-end of 2007 enabled UNDP to achieve notable progress in terms of development results, fostering partnerships and resource mobilization.

Amongst the most noteworthy  achievements, Mr. Muntean mentioned the assistance provided to the IEC to put in place systems and processes for effective conduct of the National Assembly and Local Government elections, participation of CSOs in voter education and monitoring and observation of elections, strengthening the capacity of the NAS and support groups of PLWHA, enhancing the oversight functions of the National Assembly and raising the awareness on the social benefits of women in leadership through a nationwide sensitizatio  campaign and capacity assessment.

He further highlighted that substantial amount of funds were mobilized from UNDP Thematic Trust funds and bilateral donors to support the Country Programmes.

‘’The Joint Basket Fund established through cost-sharing agreements between the UNDP, EC and DFID to support elections has proven to be an effective mechanism for resource mobilization.

With the support of the Spanish Government, a large amount of resources has been  mobilized for public sector reforms and implementations of the National Employment Action Plan. These efforts have contributed to practically a two-fold increase in the quantum of resource being made available to support our development interventions in 2008." He said.

During the meeting the permanent Secretary for the Office of The President presented the report of an independent Assessment of the First Year of Implementation of the Country Programme (2007-2011). The report identified early lessons and made recommendations to improve implementation performance.

Mr. Mamour A. Jagne and Mr. Bashirou Garba Jahumpa, on behalf of UNDP presented the 2007 UNDP programme Results and the programme  targets and priorities for 2008.  Mr. Vitalie Muntean presented UNDP Corporate Strategic Plan, 2008-2011. Plenary  discussion followed the presentations. Feedbacks and inputs were received from the delegates of the meeting.

On the way forward recommendations were made from which an action plan will be derived. The meeting agreed on: The 2008 implementation strategy focusing on key outputs, the 2008 programme   priorities, the pipeline projects, to initiate the Harmonize Approach to Cash Transfer (HACT), develop joint programming with sister agencies particularly in the areas of HIV/AIDS and Gender among a few. The Permanent Secretary Ebriama Camara in his closing remarks thanked all delegates presence at the forum for their contributions and UNDP for their courage and support.

UNDP is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge,experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national  development challenges. As  they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners.