The chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC), Alieu Ngum, has stated that The Gambia government has made giant strides in the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.

The country, Ngum went on, has already surpassed the targets for gender parity in schools, notably primary and secondary schools, and the government, he added, "is working very hard to reach the parity targets for tertiary education." This development, according to the NPC boss, came as a result of the government's relentless commitment to the attainment of the MDGs by 2015, which is the universal deadline for countries across the globe to reach the targets.

Ngum made these revelations yesterday, during a day long forum on sensitisation and dissemination of the Millennium Development Goals report, 2007.  The meeting, organised by the National Planning Commission in conjunction with the Office of the President, was held at the Paradise Suites Hotel in Kololi. According to Ngum, significant progress has also been registered in the area of reducing malnutrition among children under five, and the targets are likely to be achieved before the universal deadline of 2015.

The Gambia, he said, is committed to the attainment of the MDGs, noting that this can be attested to by the fact that it has put in place a monitoring mechanism to measure progress.  "To date, three progress reports have been prepared and submitted - the 2003, 2005 and the 2007 reports - the 2007 reports being the third on the implementation status of the MDGs in the country. The reports, therefore, present assessment of The Gambia's progress towards achieving the MDs," noted the NPC chairman. He added that his institution, in collaboration with the Policy Analysis Unit of the Office of the President and the UNDP, co-ordinates the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation status of the MDGs.  

The Gambia is said to have made enormous strides within the past one-and-a-half decade to improve the well-being of its people. The country, according to Ngum, conceived and developed its first strategy to alleviate poverty, way back in 1994, at a time when poverty reduction had not assumed a very high profile in the international development agenda. He said that since then, The Gambia has made poverty reduction the primary focus of its national development agenda. "Currently, we are implementing an MDGs-based Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper II, the third in a series of medium term strategies aimed at promoting economic growth and subsequently enhancing the livelihoods of the people and reducing poverty," Ngum noted.

While significant progress has been registered in other areas, mainly the non-income related poverty indicators in the social sectors, Ngum indicated, progress has also slowed down with respect to the income related poverty indicators. He however went on to say that despite these achievements, The Gambia faces numerous fundamental development challenges particularly in terms of data, financial and human resource capacity, amongst others. This, he said, is impeding efforts towards achieving the MDGs and eradicating poverty.

Ngum believes that with a significant increase in support from the country's development partners, The Gambia will make further progress in achieving most of the MDGs targets by the target year. For Alhaji Nyangado, principal economist at the Policy Analysis Unit of the Office of the President, who buttressed most of the points made by Ngum, the forum served as another benchmark of The Gambia government's efforts towards sustainable socio-economic development, effective planning and policy-making process having been the central role of the government and its vibrant institutions. Nyangado stressed that the road map towards the attainment of the MDGs in The Gambia should involve key stakeholders by using the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper framework involve the local population.

In The Gambia, according to Nyangado, development interventions are geared towards economic growth and poverty reduction and improvement of basic social indicators like health and education, as well as sustainable exploitation of the natural resource base as a means of livelihood. He went on to say that the Government of The Gambia remains steadfast in its resolve to bring development to the doorstep of every Gambian household before the 2015 deadline. He therefore stressed that the role of the United Nations, other multilateral and well meaning bilateral friends of The Gambia in that regard cannot be over-emphasized.

Ngangado used the platform to commend the UN system for their support to The Gambia's strides to attain the MDGs targets. Dr Almamy Camara, who represented the UNDP country representative, expressed their resolve to work with government and the National Planning Commission on the way forward.

The international community adopted the Millennium Development Goals at the historic Millennium Declaration Summit, held in September 2000, in New York. At that summit, world leaders from several nations across the globe, including The Gambia, convened and adopted the UN Millennium Declaration, which bound them to an ambitious global project aimed at decisively reducing extreme poverty in all its dimensions. The declaration sets an agenda to fight against abject poverty and inequalities which continue to afflict so many people across the world.