European Union (EU) has approved and given a new programme of budgetary support amounting to 55 million Euros to the government of The Gambia to help country’s sustainable and inclusive growth and good governance process. The state and resilience building contract will support the democratic transition period.
The financing is expected to contribute in improving governance, public financial management and service delivery. The new programme will provide two years budget support and three years technical assistance.
With the transition to a democratic regime, the EU opened a new chapter in its relationship with The Gambia, following the change of government. Since then, there is a broad and intensive political dialogue between the two sides.
The Union’s immediate priority in The Gambia is to contribute to stabilising the political, security and financial situation to guarantee that democracy takes its roots and to show to the most vulnerable groups of the population the democratic dividends of the transition.
The new programme intends to provide predictability of funding, at the time the government needs fiscal space to finance basic public services delivery and the costs of the transition related to the most urgent reforms needed to consolidate democracy, rule of law and public governance in a still constrained fiscal environment.
European Union policy dialogue associated to the budget support operations is considered a valuable input to monitor the overall ownership of the government towards the state building objectives and more globally to its transition and reform agenda that it intends to support. “With this programme of budget support, the EU should simultaneously and swiftly contribute to the short-term stabilisation of the public finances and support the announced political reforms’’ Attila Lajos, the Union’s Ambassador and head of delegation in The Gambia said.
The Point Newspaper, Monday, November 19, 2018
Author: Fatou Dem
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