ActionAid International The Gambia on Friday 12th October 2012 staged a partnership reception aimed at building partnership with potential donors and relevant stakeholders, at the Sunwing Beach Resort.
According to officials, ActionAid International The Gambia is one of the oldest ActionAid country programmes in Africa, established in 1979 as a member of ActionAid International.
An NGO with a mission to eradicate poverty and fight injustice worldwide, after 18 years of operation in the country, AAITG expanded to cover Senegal and Guinea.
Presenting ActionAid International The Gambia’s Strategic Direction People’s Action to end Poverty, Dr. Kujejatou Manneh –Jallow, AAITG Executive Director highlighted the mission, vision and values of AAITG, among others, which include equity and justice, honesty and transparency, solidarity with the poor, courage of conviction, independence and humility.
According to her, their fourth country strategy ends in 2012 and their work in 2013 will be guided by a new strategy which has three strategic objectives: promoting sustainable agriculture and control over natural resources, improving quality public education and promoting youth mobilization and ensuring women control their bodies and access economic alternatives.
Two other objectives relating to governance and human security have been incorporated into all the main objectives, she added.
Dr. Babagana Ahmadu FAO representative to The Gambia, said FAO has for many years now been a partner of ActionAid both at the global and local levels.
According to him, the partnership is based on shared values, mutual trust, understanding, commitment and hard work.
He said ActionAid and FAO have worked together in the campaign for women’s ownership and control over land and other productive resources.
“This was done in a form of a cross-country caravan organized in collaboration with partners such as the Ministry of Agriculture, National Alliance for Food Security, among others, to advocate for women’s ownership and control over land,” he added.
“The programme enhanced awareness on women and land, with local authorities and land owners making pledges to allocate land to women, and I’m happy to note that the agriculture budget was increased in 2011 to 10.44%, slightly exceeding the Maputo commitment which demonstrates ownership and sustainability of public investment in the sector. In some areas, women have been allocated land, and are already farming on their plots.”
However, he added that they continue to face complex challenges which include poor infrastructure, high cost of inputs, unreliable markets and poor organizational management.
ActionAid is quick to respond to immediate needs when disasters happen; as last year, when there was poor and erratic rainfall, as a result of which the crops failed resulting in food shortage for most farmers.
He stated that despite all these achievements, the agency also faces some key challenges, and chief among them is the lack of adequate funds to build on its successes and the gains already realized.
ActionAid wants to raise funds to expand its programmes, especially in resilience building, natural resource management, governance and education.
The agency wants to enhance the capacity of its partners for more relevance and organizational effectiveness, and more effective delivery of programmes, to intensify the campaign for women’s ownership of land to encourage more investment on the improvement of land for increased production.
Lamin Touray International Fundraising Coordinator, Kalifa Bojang Fund-raising Manager both presented a paper on how funds are raised at the international level, and how to partner with AAITG respectively.
The welcome remarks was delivered by Mrs. Janet Sallah-Njie AAITG Board Chair, and the closing remarks by Dr. Sana Ceesay AAITG Assembly member, and chaired by PS Baboucar Bouy.
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