The Daily Observer (Banjul)
Hatab Fadera
30 October 2009
Banjul — The vice president and minister of Women?s Affairs, Her Excellency Aja Dr Isatou Njie-Saidy, yesterday morning received in audience senior officials of the Commonwealth Secretariat at her office at State House, Banjul.
The officials were at State House to brief Dr Njie-Saidy about their latest activities in the country, and to seek her guidance and blessings for the future work that they intend to do in the country.
Speaking to reporters shortly after their audience with the vice president, Munawwar Alam, adviser, governance and institutional development division at the Commonwealth Secretariat said that they have been working with the government of The Gambia through the ministry of Local Government and Lands in support of decentralisation policies, which he said is appreciated by the vice president.
The vice president, he told reporters, suggested that they should work something on information technology with a view to promoting it at the grass root level in the local authorities. This suggestion, he said will be put into consideration, noting that they will take it from there to see how they could come up with initiative such as technical assistance to promote information technology at the local government level, as well as at the level of area councils.
The Commonwealth secretariat, he said, has a very big portfolio that work in an area of development such as decentralisation, public sector development, tourism, judiciary, gender mainstreaming, amongst others. ?Since 2007, we have been working with the ministry of local government especially after the 2007 local government elections and we have been doing training for the local councillors,? he revealed.
He further told reporters that they are currently embarking on capacity building for councillors to enhance their skills on project planning and project implementation, as well as identify their exact needs since they are always at the community level. The Commonwealth senior officer told journalists that the country is going fine in promoting decentralisation, noting that they have seen a lot of encouragement in the country in this regard.
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