OVERVIEW OF PRSP FORMULATION AND IMPLEMENTATION IN THE GAMBIA

1. OVERVIEW OF PRSPFORMULATION AND IMPLEMENTATION IN THE GAMBIA Sering Falu Njie Director: Strategy For Poverty Alleviation Co-ordination Office (SPACO) Gambia PRSP review

2. Involving stakeholders and building ownership for PRSP/SPA II implementation • Implementation process started with the formation of the institutions responsible for overseeing implementation. • A High-Level Economic Committee, under the chairmanship of the Vice President, provides overall guidance for the implementation of the strategy • An inter-Departmental Steering Committee (IDSC) for overall co-ordination • Four thematic groups; Co-ordination of implementation, Aid Co-ordination, planning and budgeting, Participation and participatory processes, and Monitoring and evaluation. Gambia PRSP review

3. Involving stakeholders and building ownership for PRSP/SPA II implementation- contd. • Extensive consultations with partners to further famililiarise them with the PRSP • Development of simplified versions of PRSP for dissemination ‘PRSP demystification process Gambia PRSP review

4. Opening Space for Dialogue and Collaboration strategies put in place to strengthen ownership within the sectors: • Establishing Sector Working Groups, PRSP teams, • Expanding and resourcing SPACO, • Building the Budget and Economic Planning Units of the DOSFEA and Line Ministries through a participatory budget process Gambia PRSP review

5. Opening Space for Dialogue and Collaboration Much more needs to be done in terms of opening up the space for dialogue. • No binding rules and or regulations for participation of the citizenry in development of sector budgets thus people are the mercy of sectors. • Results of tracking proportion of community plans in national budget show that it is in significant Gambia PRSP review

6. Reinforcing Domestic Accountability/Sustaining Participation • Dialogue on the PRSP has been quite extensive and has continued after finalization • The main missing link in forging stronger ownership is dialogue with the line ministries and the realization by the latter that they are, in fact, the implementing agencies of the priority actions • Experience shows a DOSFEA being far more familiar with the PRSP process than line ministries; this could be the result of having “contracted out” the preparation of the PRSP Gambia PRSP review

7. Reinforcing Domestic Accountability/Sustaining Participation • Full engagement of the Sectors in the PRSP process is weak, leading to a delayed integration of priority public actions in sector planning • However, the establishment of Pro-PAG, a pro-poor advocacy NGO is an opportunity to divest the national dialogue process to a Civil Society Organisation, which can readily improve dialogue with non-state actors Gambia PRSP review

8. Capacity Building One of the biggest challenges for PRSP implementation is capacity. • High turn over in the civil service; as at now, the entire PRSP team, that was charged with the responsibility of putting it together, is no more • Inclusion of a component on civil service reform in PRSP but its implementation is yet to be realised • Need to build or improve sector capacity on monitoring and evaluation in particular participatory M & E Gambia PRSP review

9. Influencing Programs • Community priorities formed the basis of the PRSP priority programmes; of coursed checked with the sector priorities • Changes in practice and quality of data include the development of national socio-economic data base on poverty linking sector data to an overall poverty database. • Also attempts have been made to localize the MDGs to be complemented by poverty mapping Gambia PRSP review