The Gambia

Annual Programme Review Meeting April 2008

UNDP Annual Programme Review Meeting was held 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.

Honorable Sallah on behalf of Secretary General in her statement 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. 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’’.

Mr. Vitalie Muntean Resident Representative a.i. 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 sensitization campaign and capacity assessment.

During the meeting presentations were made on 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.

UNDP presented the 2007 UNDP programme Results, the programme targets and priorities for 2008, and the 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.