By Makutu Manneh
President Adama Barrow has launched a development plan dubbed the Recovery Focused National Development Plan (RF-NDP) on 9 February 2024, as a replacement to the previous National Development Plan (NDP).
President Barrow launched the new plan at the State House, Banjul.
The NDP was for the period 2018 to 2021 while the RF-NDP is for the period 2023-2027, with the new plan given the name “YIRIWAA” meaning ‘development’ in one of the national languages.
“This Plan succeeds the last National Development Plan (NDP) 2018-2021, and it is the second plan during my Presidency,” the President said.
He said ‘YIRIWAA’ marks a transformative journey towards sustainable and resilient development, adding that its successful implementation would not only fulfil their medium term development aspirations, but it would also contribute significantly towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2063.
“While implementing the previous plan, my government employed numerous measures to stabilise the economy, restore public confidence and strengthen democratic institutions. Despite this, we recognise the urgency to do more especially in terms of resilience building. Thus, the formulation of the Recovery-Focused National Development Plan (RF-NDP), to foster sustainable and resilient development,” he said.
He stated that the goal of the ‘YIRWAA’ Plan is to consolidate the gains in democratic governance and the acceleration of the green economy and social transformation, and the building of resilience to shocks and crises. He said the RF-NDP would be centred around seven pillars each of which represents a critical facet of ‘our’ national development, with green recovery integrated into every aspect of the framework, adding that through these pillars, his government aims to lay the foundations for resilient communities while addressing the most pressing economic and social challenges that confront the country.
“With its robust accountability framework, the Plan is designed to respond to Government’s commitment to focus on tangible results, implement strong monitoring and evaluation processes, and strengthening engagement with the Gambian citizens in the country and in the Diaspora,” the president said.
He added that his government recognises the persistent global and regional economic challenges, and that they are mindful of their adverse impact on the country. The YIRIWAA Plan is accompanied by a financing strategy that presents an optimistic funding scenario of 3.5 billion US Dollars, and a conservative scenario of 2.8 billion US Dollars.
“The optimistic scenario assumes that resources will be available to implement all the priority areas in the Plan. On the contrary, the other scenario assumes that resources would be available to implement only the top priorities of the Plan,” he said.
On how his government intends to fund the RF-NDP, President Barrow said his government would explore a three-pronged financing strategy which includes domestic resource mobilisation, innovative financing and concessionary financing.
“All of these are geared towards promoting green investment and sustainable development,” he said, adding that Government will enhance domestic resource mobilisation to harness the strength of ‘our’ internal financial capacity and ensure that ‘our’ developmental journey is anchored on self-reliance.
He said with the required collaboration and support, he is optimistic that the country would successfully raise the needed resources to implement all the priorities in the plan effectively. He said they are designing an Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) under the leadership of the Ministry of Finance, with the objective of optimising management of development financing and in the short to medium term, meet the financing gap of the RF-NDP. He remarked that this is calculated to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), both of which are closely aligned. He said other expected benefits include a more holistic development financing strategy, and adds that it is based on an integrated view of the entire development financing landscape to promote more strategic decision-making processes on greater mobilisation, and the use of different financing resources.
“We will use the INFF to explore innovative sources of finance such as new instruments for climate finance. This strategy is to allow us to leverage public and private financing to build a wider constituency for reform,” the president said.
He explained that the governance and coordination framework for the implementation and financing of the YIRAWAA RF-NDP through the INFF, will have a unified structure of reaching the Cabinet level for overall guidance and supervision. The pyresident called on all Gambians to recognise and embrace the Plan as theirs.
If readers could recall, President Adama Barrow launched the National Development Plan (NDP 2018-2021) on 6th January 2018 at State House, and during his launching statement, the President said he inherited a government that failed to create opportunities for young people, which forced them to venture on the perilous journey to Europe, by using the high seas in search of a better future. The defunct NDP had eight priority areas.
