The Pillars
Building Community Resilience to Shocks and Crises
Over the last few years, Gambians have been subjected to multiple shocks and crises in the form of disease epidemics (COVID-19) and the impact of food and energy crises arising from the Russia-Ukraine war that have had multifaceted and complex impacts on the economy and society. These crises have also aggravated fragilities arising from the effects of climate change, thus worsening food security, livelihoods, and poverty. Consequently, urban poverty increased with growing food insecurity/malnutrition in the urban areas. Against this backdrop, the Government in collaboration with development partners and stakeholders is committed to using the RF-NDP assisting communities and households to recover from these multiple threats and build resilience against future shocks. As a result, the Government will build upon existing initiatives and scale up its interventions at both household and community levels to mitigate the impact on the poor and vulnerable citizens.
Under this pillar, the Government will not only design and implement community-driven programs as mechanisms to address community-level needs but also as a complement to the ongoing household-level social protection interventions. Based on these community-driven programs and to ensure the sustainability of services and assets, Government will seek to address unmet needs in areas such as small-scale rural infrastructure for improved access to potable water, energy (off-grid), rural access roads (not more than 5 km), causeways and bridges, community food security (labour saving devices, year-round integrated food production schemes) and environment schemes.
The Government in the context of the RF-NDP 2023-2027 in collaboration with partners is committed to assisting communities and households recover from these multiple threats and build resilience against future shocks. This pillar focuses on strengthening resilience, building upon existing initiatives, and scaling up its interventions at both household and community levels to have the desired impact on the largest proportion of the poor and vulnerable.
Governance Reforms
The Gambia has registered significant progress in governance since 2017. This is recognized both externally and internally as manifested by the improved position of The Gambia in many internationally recognized indices of good governance and the widened democratic space, proliferation of media outlets, and the freedom of speech.
It would be admitted that the country’s performance in other areas has been dreary. These are manifested by challenges relating to a new constitution, transitional justice, and security sector reform. Cognizant of the fact that the governance agenda is a work in progress, the Government committed itself to consolidating the gains made and addressing the outstanding gaps during the RF-NDP. Additionally, the Government will pay particular attention to issues related to decentralization, in which land governance remains a critical and urgent matter – and ensure that the government machinery is efficient and effective in meeting citizens’ expectations.
Accordingly, this pillar will seek to create the enabling conditions for the consolidation of good governance, including the protection of human rights, rule of law, political and electoral governance, land sector governance, and security sector reform in a bid to improve the country’s constitutional democracy, transparency, accountability, government effectiveness, and regulatory quality.
Macroeconomic Stability and Growth
The Gambia continues to experience macroeconomic instability characterised by low and volatile growth because of shocks and low investment in the productive sectors, high poverty rate, high public debt, limited financial inclusion, rising inflation, exchange rate fluctuation, and high trade and current account deficit. These macroeconomic challenges have been the sources of macroeconomic instability that has affected inclusive growth in the country for decades. Thus, the key issues to be addressed under the plan are high public debt, limited financial inclusion, rising inflation, exchange rate fluctuation, high trade and current account deficit, and low and volatile growth.
At the sectoral level, tourism is hampered by a narrow market, small and undiversified tourism products, inadequate human and financial resources, and poor policy implementation. Private sector growth has also been stalled by an unconducive business environment such as business registration process, access to land, complex taxation regime, access to finance, labour market issues, and access to the regional markets.
Achieving macroeconomic stability and inclusive growth is therefore a top priority of the Government, which recognizes the importance of sound monetary and fiscal policies for poverty reduction, social equity, and economic growth. In this medium term, the goal of the Government is to provide a stable economic environment that is conducive to fostering strong, sustainable, and private sector-led economic growth for job and wealth creation for an improved standard of living.
Human Capital Development
Human Capital Development is a key priority for any government, given the growing importance of the knowledge economy worldwide. Enhancing human capital can help end extreme poverty and create more inclusive societies. When human capital increases in areas such as science, education, and management, it leads to an increase in innovation, social well-being, equality, productivity, and participation, all of which contribute to economic growth. Although The Gambia has made some progress with respect to developing its human capital, overall, the stock of human capital remains unsatisfactory.
Under this pillar, the government seeks to achieve equitable access to quality and relevant education; quality, accessible, and affordable health care services; improved nutritional status of children under five years and women of childbearing age; increase access to safe drinking water, proper sanitation, and hygiene; harness demographic dividend; enhance socioeconomic benefits of migration to national development and mitigate adverse consequences; and enhance affordable and quality housing, and improve urban planning.
Agriculture, Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change
The Gambia has immense opportunities for increased production and productivity of the Agriculture and Natural Resource (ANR) sector and improved contribution to economic growth. However, environmental problems such as land degradation, deforestation, salinity in the lowlands, coastal erosion, and traditional, unsustainable production systems in the forestry, agriculture, and fisheries industries pose a considerable threat to the production and productivity of the sector. Over the past ten years, the sector’s contribution to GDP decreased or has not increased sufficiently to cater to the needs of a growing population.
Despite the sector policies and strategies developed, the implementation rate is low and mostly uncoordinated. The uncoordinated interventions have led to duplication and conflicting development interventions. Formulation of legal frameworks, action plans and tools are required to ensure coordinated approaches of the Ministries of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water Resources, Forestry and Lands and Local Governance to ensure a productive and well-balanced natural resource base.
The government is committed to fostering modern, productive, and sustainable agriculture for food and nutrition security, economic growth, and poverty reduction; promoting vibrant fisheries and aquaculture sector contributing to economic growth and employment creation; and enhancing sustainable environmental and natural resources management, disaster risk reduction, and minimise adverse impacts of climate change.
Empowerment, Social Inclusion and Leaving No One Behind
The Government of The Gambia has a strong commitment to addressing issues of empowerment, social exclusion, discrimination, and stigmatization for women, girls, children, persons with disabilities, and older persons. It recognizes that removing such barriers is key to unleashing the potential of large segments of society and establishing a just and equitable society.
Under this Pillar, the Government will redouble efforts to address issues and challenges faced by Gambian women, children, youth, persons with disabilities, and older persons (elderly) to achieve economically, socially, and politically empowered Gambian women; ensure children are nurtured and enjoy their full rights and potentials in life; enhance economic opportunities and all-round social and cultural development for youth empowerment; ensure inclusiveness and care for persons with disabilities and older persons; and strengthen resilience of households and individuals, and put in place safety to address vulnerability through social protection.
Energy, Infrastructure, and An Inclusive Digital Nation
Energy, Infrastructure, and ICT connectivity are critical economic and social cohesion enablers for any society. African countries’ infrastructure lags other countries in terms of “access and quality”.
Following the April 2018 launch of the AfCFTA in Kigali, Rwanda, which established the African common market with a combined GDP of USD1.3 trillion, and a population of 1.3 billion people – the need to re-position, and enhance, African economies, operating under the FTA was apparent, given the economic and financial benefits of regional and global value chains (RVCs/GVCs) – investments, looking toward Africa, as the new frontier for competitive trade investment. Hence, the need for The Gambia to prioritise and develop its strategic regional trade infrastructure, such as the Basse Freight Logistics Platform (Basse Dry Port), and the Trans[1]Gambia Corridor Special Economic Zone (TG-SEZ) Project, a joint initiative of AU-NEPAD, AfDB, and the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration, launched in 2019 in Banjul.
The Government will therefore continue during the next five years to consolidate efforts and implement strategic infrastructure projects in the areas of energy, transport, and ICT to catalyse growth and tap into the many opportunities offered by the AfCFTA and other developments. In this regard, the Government, over the Plan period, will seek to achieve the following outcomes: provide accessible and affordable energy for all and effective policies, legal and regulatory frameworks in place for sustainable development of petroleum and mining resources; expand and strengthen land, river, sea and air transport for affordability, accessibility, and competitivity; and enhance a digital/ICT and broadband Nation.
Priority Pillars
To support the attainment of the above goal, seven (7) pillars are outlined as national priorities,
- Building Community Resilience to Shocks and Crises
- Governance Reforms
- Macroeconomic Stability and Growth
- Human Capital Development
- Agriculture, Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change
- Empowerment, Social Inclusion and Leaving No One Behind
- Energy, Infrastructure and Information and Communication Technology ICT/Digital Connectivity