The Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs of the Government of The Gambia and the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) have co-organized a national round-table workshop for The Gambia Country Programme Evaluation (CPE), as a final step in the evaluation process, which took place in Banjul on 3 December 2015. The workshop was attended by around 70 persons, including the Vice President of the Gambia and Minister of Women's Affairs, the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, the FAO Representative, the UN Resident Coordinator, representatives of multilateral and bilateral development organizations, project management staff of IFAD-funded projects and programmes covered by the CPE, academics and research institutions, private sector and foundations, non-governmental organizations, and selected resource persons.

The objectives of The Gambia CPE national round-table workshop were to:

• Discuss the main findings, conclusions and recommendations from the CPE;
• Provide inputs for the preparation of the evaluation’s Agreement at Completion Point (ACP); and
• Discuss the opportunities and challenges of the IFAD-Government of The Gambia partnership in the future, taking into account The Gambia's country context, as well as IFAD’s policies and priorities.

In her inaugural remarks, Her Excellency Aja dr. Isatou Njie-Saidy, Vice President of the Gambia and Minister of Women's Affairs said that "the importance of the CPE cannot be over-emphasized, and that based on the evaluation findings, we need to put in place corrective measures and take the challenges identified and turn them into opportunities."  Among other issues, she underlined the importance of empowerment of women and youth, as key actors in the development of the Gambian agriculture sector.

Similarly, H. E. Abdou Kolley, Minister of Finance, underlined the "CPE is an opportunity we have to grab. We should all take time and analyse the CPE report critically, to take corrective actions and put in place programmes that will generate better impact, and we should not be defensive. The Ministry of Finance is committed to this process."

Ashwani Muthoo, IOE Deputy Director, noted in his remarks that "high staff turnover in the Ministry of Agriculture and IFAD-supported projects is constraining operational effectiveness and sustainability". This will be a determining factor in ensuring better overall performance of the Gambia-IFAD partnership moving forward.

The workshop focused on three broad themes emerging from The Gambia CPE, as follows:

• Theme 1: The role and priorities of IFAD (e.g., in terms of targeting and geographic coverage) in The Gambia.
• Theme 2: Policies and Partnerships to create a pro-poor approach for agricultural production (including food security), processing and access to markets.
• Theme 3: IFAD’s focus on women and youth in agri-business development, in co-operation with other development partners.

On 4-5 December the IFAD delegation from Rome and Government representatives have undertaken a field visit to see activities supported by the IFAD-funded Participatory Integrated-Watershed Management Project (PIWAMP) in the Basse and Sinchu Gudo project sites.

The visit offered the IFAD delegation an opportunity to directly hold discussions with beneficiaries and their groups, project staff, state government officials and others, as well as to see project activities on the ground.