By Yunus S Saliu
The City Link Ostend-Banjul, a partnership for sustainable city development known as Future Proof Banjul Wednesday, 2nd September, ended its three-day organized training workshop for councilors.
The 3-day training program on good governance which took place at the Cathedral Hall in the capital city was funded by the EU under the 2018 EuropeAid call Local Authorities: Partnerships for Sustainable cities, and it was attended by all the Banjul councilors and administrative staff of BCC.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the training, the Lord Mayor of Banjul, Honorable Rohey Malick Lowe expressed gratitude to the EU for funding the training and “above all for your support to Ostend-Banjul Link Project.”
Lord Mayor Malick-Lowe dilated on the relevance and importance of good governance as it cannot be downplayed by any institution that is to serve its community diligently.
She noted that an institution like Banjul City Council needs good governance to preserve and strengthening the stakeholders’ confidence.
The Lord Mayor as well applauded the participants and reminded them to make good use of the knowledge they acquired during the course of the training.
“With the knowledge you have gained during the course of the training you are ready to provide the foundation quite high performing institutions in the Banjul City Council, while I also believe that the councilors are now ready to use the tool of good governance to provide the framework of planning implementation and monitoring of performance to achieve greater goals,” she assured.
She noted further that good governance should support management and staff to be the best they can be and to ensure that BCC is well placed to response to a changing external environment, “businesses today operate in an environment of competent change.”
Advising the councilors she said “greatness can be achieved when good governance principle and practices are apply throughout the whole institutions and that’s why good governance is important.”
His Excellency Atila Lajos, EU Ambassador to The Gambia highlighted that the City Link Ostend-Banjul: partnership for sustainable city development is funded by the EU under the 2018 EurupeAid call Local Authorities: Partnerships for Sustainable cities with the name Future Proof Banjul.
He explained that the project budget is EUR 3 million started in February 2019 and it will end by November 2022 with specific objective of strengthen the urban governance capacity of Banjul City Council by developing and efficient public service and a future proof program for the city of Banjul.
He expressed satisfaction on different level of activities within the Future Proof Banjul project noting “from greening he city to mproving access to specialized health care and the creation of a sustainable development Centre at Crab Island.”
However, he noted that it is of utmost importance for the European Union to empower local authorities “the Future Proof Banjul project gives a unique opportunity to strengthen governance and to act as a multiplier.”
He went further that this EU funded twinning is the first in its kind in The Gambia as the BCC is the pioneers with bigger responsibility to bring the project to successful completion.
The Project Coordinator for Future Proof Banjul project also made remarks while the Deputy Mayor of Banjul City Council gave vote of thanks.
