Banjul — The Secretary of State for Forestry and the Environment, Hon. Edward Singhateh, last Thursday August 17th, officially launched the National Capacity Self-Assessment Strategy and Action Plan (NCSA) document at the Corinthia Atlantic Hotel in Banjul.

The NCSA, an ongoing global initiative funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), aims at giving individual countries in the developing world and those with economies in transition the opportunity to assess their capacity needs in the areas of biodiversity, conservation, climate change and desertification.

In his opening remarks at the launch ceremony of the document, Hon. Singhateh revealed that the document was developed under a three-year period in partnership with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). He said: " The rational of this process was based on the fact that many developing countries such as ours lack the capacity to implement the global environment treaties to which they are party. In this regard a global project was conceptualized to assess the capacities of these countries with a view o strengthening the national institutions and processes to enable these countries meet their international obligations as required under treaties and conventions."

Mr. Singhateh continued that The Gambia was fortunate to be among those few countries where the project is being implemented because, among other things, of the positive results and experience gained in the GEAP implementation. GEAP is the Global Environment Action Plan.

" Be that as it may, the NCSA process provided us in The Gambia with an opportunity to review our global environmental responsibilities, and how to reconcile these responsibilities with other national sustainable development priorities within the context of Vision 2020 and our Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper."

While describing the launch of the NSCA document as an important milestone in their efforts to further build their capacity and skills in environmental management, Hon. Singhateh expressed government's appreciation with all those who in one way or another contributed to the overall implementation of the NSCA project.

"The Government of The Gambia expresses its gratitude to the GEF for its financial support, and the United Nations Environment Program for providing the technical support and facilitating the process," he posited.

Hon. Singhateh also used the occasion to pat the National Environment Agency(NEA) on the back for executing the project on behalf of the government so efficiently. Other speakers at the occasion included Ndey Sireng Bakurin, director of Intersectional Network, and Momodou Cham of the NEA