A five-day training of stakeholders from various civil society organizations in the country on GAMINFO Database and accessories commenced on Monday at Tango Conference Hall in Kanifing.
The training, organised by TANGO in collaboration with the Gambia Bureau of Statistic (GBoS), was meant to equip civil society organizations for easy accessibility of national data on key development indicators such as agriculture, heath, and education for effective and efficient planning process.
Speaking on the occasion, Ousman Yabo, executive director of TANGO, said he was delighted to have such a significant training of its members.
“We all know the role GBoS plays in national development,” he said, adding that having link with civil society organizations is an important milestone.
Mr Yabo also commended GBoS and all other facilitators for enabling non-state actors to ensure the civil society has access to data. He revealed that their mandate is to support civil society in development programmes and implementation.
He was optimistic that the linkage between GBoS and the civil society would continue to go from strength to strength.
He further underscored the need for civil society to have accurate data, adding: “We will be implementing these programmes in helping to strengthen the civil society organizations.”
Alieu Ndow, statistical general at GBoS, noted: “The purpose of the training is to enhance skills development as well as to cement the productive relationship between GBoS and TANGO as umbrella body of civil organizations.”
He said that the national database (Gaminfo) is not only for data access by its users but also for users to come up with inputs.
Mr Ndow also highlighted the need for participation and collaboration in making information available to be developed as database.
“The data sectors that regenerate should reflect the data requirement at any level,” he added.
He also called on participants to coordinate with GBoS and other statistical centres. “We all have a lot of initiatives and contributions undertaken by the civil society from different sectors of the economy,” he said.
According Mr Ndow, Gaminfo is a national database built to gather national indicators that are used to measure progress of “our set or target goals”.
