In his statement during the national launch of the Recovery-Focused National Development Plan (RF-NDP) 2023-2027, on Friday February 9th at State House, His Excellency President Adama Barrow revealed that the new development plan dubbed, ‘YIRIWAA’ is accompanied by a financing strategy that presents an optimistic funding scenario of US$3.5 billion and a conservative scenario of US$2.8 billion.
The optimistic scenario, he explained, 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 in the Plan. “To address the funding requirements, my government will explore a three-pronged financing strategy: domestic resource mobilisation, innovative financing and concessionary financing. All of them are geared towards promoting green investments and sustainable development”.
The President assured that his 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.
The “YIRIWAA” Plan succeeds the last Development Plan, 2018-2021, and the President said it marks a transformative journey towards sustainable and resilient development. “Its successful implementation will not only fulfil our medium-term development aspirations, but also contribute significantly towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Agenda 2063”.
The goal of the YIRIWAA Plan is to consolidate gains in democratic governance, accelerate green economic and social transformation, and build resilience to shocks and crises. It has seven pillars.
“Through these pillars, my government aims to lay the foundations for resilient communities, while addressing the most pressing economic and social challenges that confront us,” the President said.
He went on: “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 to foster sustainable and resilient development”.
President Barrow affirmed that with the required collaboration and support, his government will successfully raise the needed resources to effectively implement all the priorities in the Plan.
He went on to highlight other expected benefits including a more holistic development financing strategy. This, he said is based on an integrated view of the entire development financing landscape to promote more strategic decision-making processes on greater mobilisation and use of different financing resources.
The President concluded by acknowledging the efforts of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs and all stakeholders and friends of The Gambia for the collective and inclusive approach used to “formulate this comprehensive Plan”, as bilateral and multilateral partners, whose unwavering support, he said has been instrumental in shaping our nation’s resilience and progress.
Speaking earlier, Seedy Keita, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, said the formulation of the new development plan and its launch signify government’s commitment to implementing programmes and projects that contribute to the transformation of the country, ensuring an all-inclusive society.
“The formulation of ‘YIRIWAA’ comes at a time when countries around the global are still struggling from the impact of Covid 19 and the effect of Russia-Ukraine war. “As a medium term [plan], it will help address the development challenges around our country and to achieve development aspirations of our people”.
Minister Keita assured that the formulation process of the Plan was participatory with a series of consultations both nationally and internationally.
He noted that the President is convinced that the traditional approach of resource mobilisation is the way forward for a sustainable transformative development; hence government is committed to a vigorous resource mobilisation campaign for the Plan.
Friday’s launch was attended by cabinet ministers, representatives of multilateral agencies and development partners in the country, members of the diplomatic and consular corps, and other dignitaries.
