RD/COMTD/AFT/22* 
21 November 2023  
 Page: 1/5 
Committee on Trade and Development  
(Aid for Trade)  Original:  English/anglais/inglés  
 
  
UNOFFICIAL ROOM DOCUMENT1 
COMMITTEE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT – 59TH SESSION ON AID FOR TRADE  
STATEMENT BY THE GAMBIA  
14 November 2023  
 
 
Comité du commerce et du développement (Aide pour le commerce)  
 
DOCUMENT DE S ÉANCE NON OFFICIEL1 
COMMITTEE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT – 59TH SESSION ON AID FOR TRADE  
STATEMENT BY THE GAMBIA  
14 November 2023  
 
 
Comité de Comercio y Desarrollo (Ayuda para el Comercio)  
 
DOCUMENTO DE SALA NO OF ICIAL1 
 
COMMITTEE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT – 59TH SESSION ON AID FOR TRADE  
STATEMENT BY THE GAMBIA  
14 November 2023  
_______________  
  
 
* In Original language only/En langue originale seulement/En el idioma original solamente.  
1 Documents issued in the RD series are not official WTO documents. They usually appear in their 
language of submission and will not be translated systematically into the working languages of the WTO. They 
are intended for use in WTO meeting rooms and are a ttributed an unofficial symbol for archiving purposes only.  
Les documents de la série RD ne sont pas des documents officiels de l 'OMC. Ils ne paraissent 
généralement que dans la langue dans laquelle ils ont été communiqués et ne seront pas systématiquemen t 
traduits dans les langues de travail de l'OMC. Ils sont destinés aux salles de réunion de l'OMC et une cote non 
officielle leur est attribuée à des fins d'archivage.  
Los documentos de la serie RD no son documentos oficiales de la OMC. Por lo general se d istribuyen en 
el idioma en que han sido presentados y no se traduce n sistemáticamente a los idiomas de trabajo de la 
Organización. Se distribuyen para su uso en las salas de reunión de la OMC y se les asigna una signatura no 
oficial a efectos de archivo ún icamente.  RD/COMTD/AFT/22  
 
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  Remarks by PS Dampha at the Committee on Trade and Development  
Aid for Trade, 14 November 2023  
 
H.E. Chair of the Committee on Trade and Development.  
 
H.E Ambassador Mohammadou O Kah, Embassy of the Republic of The 
Gambia to the Swiss Confederation and Permanent Mission to the WTO  
Distinguish Delegates  
Ladies and Gentlemen   
It is a honour and privilege for me to join you this afternoon from Addis, Capital of Ethiopia to share 
with you some of the key highlights of our New Green Recovery Focus National Development Plan 
(2023 -2027). In addition, I will also share with you key intervention areas of Enhanced Integrated 
Framework (EIF), and the EIF contr ibutions to the formulation of the National Development Plan as 
well as the value of having future EIF support to support demand driven trade mainstreaming 
priorities for the Gambia.  
Chairperson  
The development landscape of The Gambia is a complex and inte rtwined web of challenges and 
opportunities spanning many areas. A thorough review and analysis of this landscape is critical to 
developing a sound and robust development plan. The review and analysis of the national 
development context organised and prese nted along six clusters: (i) Governance and democratic 
reforms; (ii) Macroeconomic stability, growth and private sector development; (iii) Human capital 
development; (iv) Agriculture, natural resources, environment and climate change; (v) Social 
developmen t; and (vi) Energy, infrastructure and digital connectivity for sustainable and inclusive 
development.  
In view of the recent shocks and crises driven by global and regional factors, issues relating to 
fragility and vulnerability are analysed with the aim o f improving understanding of how the country 
can build and/or strengthen resilience and better prepare the nation for future shocks. A 
comprehensive analysis of the national development context is available as an accompanying 
document to the RF -NDP. 
The Go vernment of The Gambia’s new Recovery Focused National Development Plan (RF -NDP 2023 
- 2027) charts the recovery of The Gambia from COVID -19, climate change and other shocks. The 
plan is a successor to the elapsed NDP 2018 -2022 developed under the leadersh ip of the Ministry of 
Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA). The preparation of the new plan adopts a “whole of society” 
approach to provide a blueprint that articulates the medium -term transformational aspirations of the 
country.  
 
Chairperson  
 
The plan has been formulated and will be implemented in a challenging global and regional economic 
context, and continuous uncertainties are expected to have adverse impacts on developing 
countries, including The Gambia. This context is characterized by a contraction in economic activities 
in the main advanced economies and China, which are worsening the current and trade account 
balances of The Gambia through lower external demand for Gambian exported goods and services. 
The global inflationary pressures b eing experienced are putting pressures on domestic prices through 
imported food and energy prices, and the tightening of monetary policy in the major advanced 
economies are increasing the cost of debt servicing in developing countries like The Gambia. 
Furthermore, the tight global financial conditions pose challenges in accessing adequate financing 
for our development. Finally, there are heightened fears of erosions in the advances made in health, 
education, environmental protection and livelihoods with the  possibility of reversing gains in poverty 
reduction and increasing household fragilities and vulnerabilities, and potentially undermining gains 
in democratic governance.  RD/COMTD/AFT/22  
 
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  The Government will therefore endeavour to build the resilience of our institutions and people in 
responding to these and other shocks, given the likelihood they will reoccur and the need to factor 
them in our development planning. An overriding consideration of Government is to ensure that the 
transformational aspirations of Gambian citi zens are addressed.  
 
The new strategic framework presents clearly the priorities of Government over the next five years 
taken into consideration the challenging external environment triggered by the global economic, 
climatic and other shocks.  
 
The overall  goal of the RF -NDP 2023 -2027, the associated strategic objectives, anchored in 7 pillars 
expressed into 30 outcomes and 189 indicators. These outcomes, covering all dimensions of national 
development. The RF -NDP 2023 -2027 builds upon the gains made in the  previous plan (NDP 2018 -
2021) and seeks to assure continuity within a new context.  
 
The overall goal of RF -NDP is to consolidate gains in democratic governance, accelerate green 
economic and social transformation and build resilience to shocks and crisis . The Plan has 
three strategic objectives of the RF -NDP are:  
 
1. Build household and community resilience to address shocks and crises arising from climate 
change, economic volatility and to counter the effects of disease pandemics (COVID -19); 
2. Consolidate gai ns and address critical development gaps in governance and in economic and 
social transformation; and  
3. Strengthen accountability, build partnerships and set up robust and sustainable resource 
mobilisation strategies for enhanced delivery and development out comes.  
 
The RF -NDP predicated on seven (7) pillars are as follows:  
 
1. Resilience to Shocks and Crises;  
2. Governance Reforms;  
3. Macroeconomic Stability and Growth;  
4. Human Capital Development;  
5. Agriculture, Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change;  
6. Empowerment, Social Inclusion and Leaving No One Behind; and  
7. Energy, Infrastructure and ICT/digital Connectivity.  
 
 
Accountability for Delivery of Development Results  
 
Government is committed to ensuring that the Plan is fully implemented, monitored and re gularly 
reported on in order to ensure transparency, accountability and impact. The plan has a 
comprehensive monitoring framework to achieve each of the 30 outcomes and 189 indicators. In 
addition, it has a robust and inclusive institutional framework to e nsure effective coordination of the 
implementation of the Plan which will provide the necessary oversight.  
 
Chairperson  
 
It is my pleasure on behalf of the Government of The Gambia to share some of the results and 
impact of EIF programmes at the National l evel, particularly in the area of environmental 
sustainability, and provide some lesson learnt. The EIF Programme aims to enhance the capacity of 
The Gambia to engage and maximise trade for national development. This requires the building of 
the institutio nal and human capacities of the key drivers of trade in the country as a means of 
mainstreaming trade in the national development process.  
 
The EIF  has being supporting the Gambia since 2007 to address its supply side constraints.  Since 
then, the Gambia has benefitted from almost 10 EIF funded projects reaching an amount slightly 
above USD 7 Million. The supports provided have been in areas includin g Diagnostic Trade 
Integration Study Update (DTISU), institutional capacity building, trade facilitation and 
mainstreaming, trade and digital economy assessment, SheTrades and COVID 19 Recovery in 
partnership with ITC, sustainability support and productive  capacity development in agriculture and 
fisheries subsectors.  Some achievements include – 2013 DTISU, the cargo complex at the Banjul RD/COMTD/AFT/22  
 
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  international Airport, the etrade assessment, mainstreaming trade into new Green Recovery NDP 
and the Jokalente platform  among others. Some of these projects have closed while others are on 
the verge of being closed but their results and impacts remain at the national level.   
 
The support of EIF towards the mainstreaming of trade in The Gambia National Development Plan 
is at three stages. Firstly, is the identification of trade priorities through the various DTIS framework, 
secondly, is the support to the trade multi -sectoral technical working group during the formulation 
process and finally, is the support to the implement ation of the trade priorities as identified in the 
National Development Plan.  
 
Mr. Chairman  
 
The Gambia through EIF, conducted its first Diagnostic Trade Integration study in 2007 and updated 
the study in 2013. Through these studies and other related sup ports, we are able to identify the 
country’s trade prioritise as well as mainstream them in the national development Plan and  in certain 
priority productive sector policies such as agriculture and fisheries sectors. The result of these 
studies, further gu ide Government in its export diversification efforts for broader trade development.  
 
Mr. Chairman  
 
The second stage of EIF  support to the Gambia development planning process is the support to the 
Trade multi -sectoral technical working group meetings. Considering that trade cut across different 
sector, these meetings provide a platform were different trade cross cutting issues  are diagnose, 
analyse, discuss and agreed upon prior to their mainstreaming in the national development plan. 
The platform also ensure that our approached to the identification of trade priorities at the national 
level is well coordinated to avoid silo tr ade development. The EIF through its projects support the 
technical meetings of the group through the My Ministry as chair of the committee.  
 
Mr. Chairman  
 
The third stage of EIF support to the Gambia development -planning process is the support to the 
implementation of the trade priorities as identified in the National Development Plan. As we prepare 
to launch the new Green Recovery Focus NDP (2023 -2027) which has already secured cabinet 
approval, the EIF has already started supporting the Gambia to imple ment outcome 3.2, which 
focuses on the development of green value chains, SEZs and Agropols. The EIF support is on project 
proposal development that seeks to address these issues by accessing trade related climate 
financing. The proposal is at its final st age and the Government of the Gambia will organise a 
resource mobilisation event in December 2023.  
 
The aim of the project proposal is to establish Climate Resilient Sustainable Special Economic Zone 
(SEZ) along the Senegambia trade corridor as well as th ree Agropols at three strategic administrative 
agricultural growth centres in the country. The objective is to enhance the country industrial 
transformation, agricultural productivity and food security and expanding national, regional and 
cross-border trad e, to take advantage of the ECOWAS trade liberalisation Scheme and AfCFTA to 
support the Gambian economy.  
 
This project is fully aligned with Government’s private sector and agricultural development 
programmes in the new national development plan and is a lso part of the activities to implement 
the AfCFTA National implementation Strategy by repositioning the Gambia to fully integrate into the 
regional and continental markets through agricultural and industrial transformation. It has the 
following main compo nents among others:  
 RD/COMTD/AFT/22  
 
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  1. A functional and operational special economic zone in the Trans Gambia Corridor  
 
2. Enhanced infrastructure and utilities for light manufacturing and processing.  
 
3. Marketing infrastructure and food quality control systems are improved and more climate 
change resilient.  
 
4. Productive and resilient food and nature -based products value chains are established and 
sustainably operational.  
 
5. Developed digital and climate resilient technologies in agro -food and nature -based products 
value chains.  
 
6. Enhanced value chain innovation and human capital development  
 
7. Productive private sector investments along the value chains are facilitated and promoted.  
 
8. Improve Access to Financing facilities  
 
9. Established and operational Public -Private Partnerships (PPPs)  
 
Mr. Chairman  
 
With these crucial EIF interventions in supporting The Gambia to address its supply side constraints 
through institutional capacity building, value chain enhancement and trade m ainstreaming and as 
we approached the end of EIF phase two, Government of The Gambia would like to reiterate the 
need to  extend EIF beyond the current phase to continue to support LDCs like the Gambia to support 
their demand driven trade mainstreaming pri orities.   
 
 
Thank you for your attention    
 
 
__________