The United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the government of The Gambia has signed providing $480,000 United States dollars (approximately 24,000,000 million dalasi) of Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) fund to map the country’s human resources capacity gap and strengthening capacity of the agriculture ministry.
On Monday, agriculture minister, Amie Fabureh and FAO representative country Moshibudi Rampedi signed the project titled: Mapping of the Human Resources Capacity Gap and Strengthening Capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture, targets to strengthening institutional and human capacities for enhanced production and availability of timely data for effective planning, implementation and monitoring of ANR subsector programmes that support attainment of the National Development Plan (NDP) targets/ (pillar 3 related activities).
The project also aims to develop a functional ICT System for provision of Agricultural Statistical Data and Information for all stakeholders.
Gambia Government has now placed the spotlight on the ANR sector to improve its performance and contribute meaningfully to the achievements of targets of the NDP and other priority policy frameworks.
The agriculture ministry considers human resource gap as one of its biggest challenges while the ministry of finance and development partners have raised issues with the agriculture ministry’s capacities to provide services and produce products for such upstream work (Planning and programming, crop and livestock production and productivity) in the sector.
“2020 marks the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations; we are launching a Decade of Action. To end hunger, we welcome the political will to act, implementing the Maputo Declaration for Africa and promoting campaigns such as the Zero Hunger Challenge; recognizing that guaranteeing food security is not charity, but the indispensable means for realizing the right to food and nutrition security,” Rampedi said.
She said the two year TCP will strengthen the capacities in the planning service unit of the ministry of agriculture, pave the way to access resources from government and funds in trust with development agencies. “The project will, by its achievements lay a foundation for enhanced systems, development of skills and knowledge in various specialized disciplines as well as Agreements with other Departments in the Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) Sector.”
Rampedi said FAO is committed to, and will continue supporting member states by providing data and information, analysis and knowledge based on its technical expertise and long experience.
“We will support The Gambia by providing technical expertise on Food and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to inform decisions and policy making to achieve the National Development Targets and the Sustainable Development Goals,” she said.