Abdoulie Sallah, the secretary general and head of the Civil Service, has commended the review and validation reports on the National Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP II).

He said that the move came at a crucial time considering the numerous programmes and projects put in place by the government of The Gambia under the leadership of President Jammeh, towards poverty reduction in The Gambia.

SG Sallah made this remark at the opening ceremony of a two-day review meeting on PRSP II Mid-term Report held at the conference hall of Kairaba Beach Hotel. The meeting brought together participants from government, private sector, civil society organisations, the UN system and the media.

The PRSP which covers a five-year period - from 2007 to 2011- is The GambiaÂ's single most inclusive planning framework of national strategies and mechanism designed to foster growth and realise poverty reduction objectives. According to him, the formulation of the National Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper in 2006 and its effective implementation that commenced in 2007 has been championed by the government of The Gambia under the visionary leadership of President Jammeh. "Not only is the strategy holistic in its coverage of the Millennium Development Goals but also constitutes the building block for the full and effective implementation and accelerated realisation of the objectives of Vision 2020.

The emphasis of the PRSP around various social sectors of health, agriculture and education are important. The PRSP also attached importance to infrastructural development, environment and mainstreaming of cross-cutting issues such as gender and governance is also evident of its strategic all inclusive nature," he said. According to him, the need for the Mid-Term Review cannot be over emphasised saying "this year 2009, marks the mid point of implementation period of PRSP II".

He added that as part of efforts meant to achieve successful implementation of the PRSP programmes, the government of The Gambia, through the National Planning Commission thought it prudent to initiate a review process that would help identify together the early lessons to be learned and the corrective measures to be taken.

"This meeting therefore, is a self assessment that should lead us to answer the questions of where are we, where we want to go, how we get there and how we know we are getting or have gotten there. The Mid-Term Review is also important in the sense that it is taking place at a time when the international community is engaged in assessing national, regional and global level of responses as well as progress towards the MDGs and poverty reduction goals and targets," he said.

For SG Sallah, the assessment becomes all the more relevant in the light of the global economic and financial crisis characterised by unprecedented climate, food and fuel challenges. He then stated that the outcome of the PRSP review will form an integral part of The Gambia's contribution to Africa's MDGs Status Report that would be tabled before the heads of state and governments' summit in July 2010. The endorsement, he added will not only constitute the continent's status report to be included in the report of the UN system mid term evaluation, but would become the central theme in the UN high level meeting taking place at the UN headquarters in New York in September 2010.

For his part, Alieu Ngum, the chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC) expressed hope that the recommendation will be implemented. He spoke at length on the essence of the meeting, its impact and the way forward for proper planning in all aspects of live in the country. Chinwe Dike, the UN system coordination in The Gambia assured the gathering of her institution's readiness to work with the government of The Gambia at all times, especially on the implementation of the PRSP, which represents the government's commitment towards poverty reduction in the country.

Serign Cham, the permanent secretary, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, equally assured of his officeÂ's commitment towards poverty reduction in the country. Ousman Yaboe, the director of TANGO, assured of the NGOs' efforts towards poverty reduction.