THE
GAMBIA VNR REPORT_ 2020 KEY MESSAGES
Delivering
good governance, accountability and a revitalized economy for sustainable
development in The Gambia
Introduction
The
Gambia has demonstrated its commitment to the implementation of Agenda 2030 by
mainstreaming the SDGs into the National Development Plan (NDP 2018 – 2021);
providing an opportunity to implement the SDGs. The Government continues to
engage the private sector, civil society, and development partners in the
implementation of the Agenda 2030. While there is need to increase awareness
around the SDGs, the participation of stakeholders has increased ownership of
the Agenda 2030.
Partnerships
& Institutional Arrangements - The Government has
aligned the SDGs and NDP institutional arrangements to enhance coordination.
These include Ministerial Steering Committee, technical Sector Working Groups. The
multistakeholder VNR Coordinating Committee will be maintained and transformed
for overall SDG coordination.
Peace
- On governance, a new
draft constitution has been completed which espouses respect for fundamental
human rights and freedoms, and rule of law. It strongly advocates gender
balance and fair representation of women, youth and persons with disability in
parliament, other statutory bodies and State Owned Enterprises. In the
judiciary, a balance in gender representation was achieved and there is a
Gambian female judge at the Supreme Court; and the President of the Court of
Appeal is also a female. At the political level, a female was elected as the Mayoress
of the capital city. The Truth Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC)
established to conduct research and investigations into human rights violations
of the previous regime with a view to facilitate community and national
reconciliation has submitted its interim report to Government.
Prosperity
- GDP grew steadily but erratically in the past 3 years; 6.5% in 2018, 4.8% in
2017 and 1.9% in 2016 mainly driven by tourism, rain-dependent agriculture and
remittances, and is vulnerable to external shocks. The collapse of Thomas Cook
in late 2019 and the COVID-19 outbreak dealt a heavy blow to tourism leading to
loss of revenue and jobs with initial estimates indicating GDP growth slowing
from projected 6% to 3.2%. On the fiscal front, the COVID-19 pandemic will
widen the fiscal deficit from projected 1.5% to 2.1% of GDP in 2020.
Overall,
48.6% of the population are poor with variation between urban (32.6%) and rural
(69.5 %) areas.
On
agriculture and food security, about 75% of the population depends on crops and
livestock for livelihood. The sector witnessed a slight revival in 2018 and
grew by 0.9% compared to the sharp contraction of 4.4% in 2017. However,
erratic rainfall in the 2019/2020 cropping season reduced agricultural
production by about 23%. The country is therefore not on target to achieving
food and nutritional security, which is being further exacerbated by the
COVID-19 pandemic. Rural dwellers who are mainly subsistence farmers will
require support for the next cropping season mainly in forms of farming inputs
and implements.
People- In the social sector significant
progress has been recorded with respect to access to education, water, and
nutrition. Gains were registered with respect to:
school enrollment and retention, proportion of the population with access to
safe drinking water, prevalence of underweight and wasting among children under
5, prevalence of stunting among children; pregnant women with anemia; and
prevalence of underweight non-pregnant women.
Planet - With
respect to environmental resilience and climate change, The
Gambia is rated among the world's two most ambitious developing countries; it's
Nationally Determined Contribution has ambitious conditional and unconditional
targets that meet the 1.5°C Paris
Agreement Commitment.
The
key long-term development challenges facing The Gambia are related to its
undiversified economy, small private sector and internal market, limited access
to resources, high public debt, high population growth rate, and inadequate
skills necessary to create jobs for the youthful population. Data for Development remains a
challenge and government has developed a National Strategy for the Development
of Statistics and is exploring its innovative financing. The country’s current
vision 2020 is being evaluated to guide the formulation of subsequent long-term
vision.
To accelerate the implementation of the
SDGs and the NDP, the Government has initiated the Programme for Accelerated
Community Development (PACD) which factors the synergies between the SDGs and
aims to reduce the gap between the urban and rural areas.