Despite the Gambia was not originally one of the PARM selected countries, the strong interest expressed by the Minister of Agriculture during a meeting held in IFAD HQ in December 2014 lead PARM Secretariat to include the country for the 2015 setting-up phase.
PARM jointly with NEPAD organised its first visit to Gambia to formalize the country official commitment and launch PARM setting-up process. The mission also aimed at mainstreaming PARM process with on-going activities and identifying potential synergies with national stakeholders.
The main achievement of the mission was the informal commitment expressed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Finance to include PARM in the national agenda. In order to formalize the engagement of the Government of The Gambia an official correspondence including a detailed work and financial plan to cover part of PARM process (road map) and the nomination of a national focal point was agreed and is expected by the end of June 2015.
Meetings with national and international stakeholders also allowed the mission to collect useful information related to agriculture sector and develop a network for future collaboration (PARM studies and trainings).