A four-day work shop aimed at training and covering issues relating to the Millennium Development Goals and the Poverty Reduction Strategy ended last Friday at the Baobab Resort in Bijilo.

The workshop was organized by the Pro-Poor advocacy group (Pro-Pag) in collaboration with the Strategy for Poverty Alleviation Co-ordination Office (SPACO) and Action Aid International The Gambia. The week-long training event was a follow up to the message development workshop which was held recently with a view to enhancing the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals set for 2015 and vision 2020 respectively.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Mrs Adelaide Sosseh, chairperson of the Pro-poor Advocacy Groups board of directors, said the training is very important and a way to forge a successful national implementation program in meeting targets set by the Millennium Development Goals. ‘ This is why it is of great importance to both UNDP and government to embark on these laudable initiatives of consultations with the general public, all actors in poverty reductions, and the community in order to strengthen ownership and broaden their knowledge on the MDG’s/PRSP process,” she added.

For his part, Mr Sheikh Lewis, Administrative Office Pro-PAG said for any national development strategy to be truly MDG-based, it needs to do much more than mentioning the MDG’s as aspirations.

In his opening marks, Mr Falu Njie, Director of SPACO said a major issue to be addressed in the PRSP implementation is ownership in all dimensions of the poverty reduction programme.