The hard truth: growth is not translating. 81% of workers remain trapped in the informal sector. 41.3% of youth aged 15–34 are not in employment, education, or training. And women, despite outperforming boys in primary and lower-secondary school, are being shut out of the economy. Women’s labor participation sits at 41.9% vs 54.9% for men. Most work informally, earn 31.5 GMD/hour compared to men’s 42.4, and face heavier care burdens, limited land rights, and poor access to finance.
As the report title puts it: Learning Without Earning. That is not development. That is waste; Fiscal resilience must come first. The PFR is blunt: since 2017 we’ve averaged 5% GDP growth, but tax revenue has averaged just 10.3% of GDP — far below the 15% benchmark needed for basic state functions. Deficits average 4.5% of GDP. Public debt is still 76.4% of GDP, leaving us at high risk of debt distress. You cannot build roads, fund schools, or create jobs on borrowed money and subsidies.
The path is clear and achievable: broaden the tax base, digitize revenue collection, close loopholes across tax instruments to unlock 3–4% of GDP. Replace wasteful broad subsidies with targeted transfers for the vulnerable. Enforce the 2023 State-Owned Enterprises Act to cut fiscal leaks. Reform the wage bill to save 2.6% of GDP by 2029. Fiscal space is not magic. It is discipline.
Also, women’s economic participation is our highest-return investment. Girls are beating boys in classrooms but losing in labor markets. That gap is economic sabotage. Every woman kept out of formal work is lost productivity, lost taxes, lost innovation. The barriers are known: care burdens, land and property restrictions, lack of finance, social norms. The solutions are too: school-to-work pathways, secure land rights, childcare, and finance that reaches women entrepreneurs.
Closing the education-to-employment gap for women is not “women’s empowerment” as a slogan. It is GDP growth, poverty reduction, and demographic dividend captured. Franklin Mutahakana of the World Bank is right: a more inclusive economy where women and youth fully contribute is the structural opportunity we must seize now.
Jobs must be the metric of success. 5.9% growth means little if 4 in 10 youth are idle. Agriculture, industry, and services are performing — but are they hiring? Tourism is up — but are the jobs formal, decent, and accessible to women? Government, private sector, and development partners must align every reform to ensure success.
The reform agenda is coherent and within reach: stronger public investment management, clearing domestic arrears, bringing off-budget donor projects into national systems, and building private sector confidence.
The Gambia has proven it can reform and grow at the same time. Now it must prove it can convert that growth into dignity: jobs for youth, wages for women, and services for all. “Learning Without Earning” must become a chapter we close, not a future we accept. The reports have charted the path.