QUESTION OF THE DAY
DOES FAO HAVE A LESSON TO TEACH THE GAMBIA GOVERNMENT AS CAPTIONED IN
THE 27TH JANUARY 2016 EDITION OF FOROYAA?
Dr. Perpetua Katepa-Kalala, the FAO Representative in the Gambia,
considers the caption unfortunate because the FAO and The GambiaGovernment are partners and not competitors or rivals. According to
her “the MDG1c Project like any other project implemented or being
implemented by FAO in this country is an initiative of the Gambia
government. FAO is only here to complement government in the
formulation and implementation of policies and programmes. FAO is
implementing the crop production component of the project in close
partnership with the Department of Agriculture (DoA). All the project
beneficiaries were identified by government through the DoA whose
staff are fully engaged in the implementation of the project –
providing technical support and extension services to the 140
communities being supported by the project across the country.”
Foroyaa respects the opinion of the FAO country representative and
would like to give assurance that the reporter had no aim to drive a
wedge between the two institutions but to highlight standards of best
practice requiring replication on a self reliant basis without any
foreign assistance.
Foroyaa takes note of the following concluding remarks of the
representative: “We remain available for any information related to
our mandate and activities in this country.”
