The government of The Gambia on Wednesday 9th December 2009, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the African Development Bank (ADB), the European Union and the World Bank for General Budget Support Programme (GBSP) delivery mechanism in The Gambia.
These signatory parties are all signatories to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the achievement of Millennium Development Goals through alignment and harmonisation agenda.
This MOU sets a partnership framework for a common approach to budget support, with the main objective of harmonising development partners' budget support programmes within existing administrative and statutory provisions as stipulated in bilateral financing arrangements with participating development partners.
The rationale of the budget support programme is to support the government’s own growth and poverty reduction objectives as stated in its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) II, maximising the reliance on country system and procedures.
The development partners welcome the corrective actions undertaken by The Gambia in the areas of institutional, structural and macro-economic reforms, aimed at improving its systems, procedures and processes towards improving aid effectiveness in the country.
The MOU partnership framework will also create a common approach to development programming, implementation and evaluation between the government of The Gambia and development partners. The programme will also provide direct and non-targeted general budget support for the attainment of PRSP II’s objectives, with a particular focus on the social sectors (health and education). The disbursement will be partially linked to the achievements of the targeted levels for selected performance indicators.
The programme will also contribute to the Public Financial Management (PFM) reform, Civil Service Reform, the revitalisation of the groundnut sub-sector, and improving road maintenance.
The authorities of the Finance Ministry, on behalf of the President, the government and people of The Gambia thanked the participating partners and assured them of its readiness to continue to cooperate with them for the benefits of Gambian people.
