Goats in a West African village

On 19 January 2012, the PROGEBE-Gambia team received an award for the best performing National Coordinating Unit for the year 2011 among the four implementing countries. The other implementing countries are Guinea, Mali and Senegal.

The event was featured in an article in The Point newspaper (13 February 2012) by Abdoulie Nyockeh.

The regional Project for Sustainable Management of Endemic Ruminant Livestock in West Africa (PROGEBE) is being implemented in The Gambia, Guinea, Mali and Senegal.

The sub-regional project, which is being funded by the African Development Bank, the Global Environment Facility and the governments of the participating countries, aims at preserving and enhancing the productivity of the endemic ruminant livestock in these countries.

The PROGEBE-Gambia National Coordinating Unit has been identified as the best performing National Coordinating Unit for the year 2011 among the four implementing countries.

This accolade was bestowed on PROGEBE-Gambia through the award of a certificate and a befitting plaque at the regional steering committee meeting held in Dakar, Senegal, on 19 January 2012.

It is against this development that the PROGEBE-Gambia National Coordinating Unit together with the Ministry of Agriculture last Friday organised a one-day forum for the celebration of this great achievement.

This was achieved as a result of hard work, commitment and teamwork by the management of PROGEBE-Gambia in the implementation of the project in The Gambia.

The celebration, attended by various project coordinators, veterinary officials, senior agriculture officials, and other stakeholders, was held at PROGEBE-Gambia’s office in Abuko.

In his welcome remarks, the National Coordinator of PROGEBE-Gambia, Dr Famara Sanyang, expressed delight at being able to celebrate “this very important joyous occasion” in the history of the project.

“This success came as a result of the combined efforts of the project staff and all their implementing partners,” he said. “This award was as a result of physical implementation of the project activities in the regions, which has been carried out as expected.”

Dr Sanyang added that the event was a joyous occasion, which came through hard work and dedication leading to his project gaining such a great compliment and winning an award of plaque and certificate, out of the four countries benefitting from the project.

Dr Sanyang also said his staff would continue the good work to always raise the flag of The Gambia high.

He also thanked the donor partners and assured them that the project management “will continue to be carried as expected”.

For his part, Lamin Camara from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs thanked the management of PROGEBE-Gambia for their hard work in ensuring the country achieves success.

He described the management of PROGEBE-Gambia as “very committed and hardworking”, adding: “This project is one of the best projects in giving accurate report as far as the Ministry of Finance is concerned.”

Mr Camara then challenged the management of PROGEBE-Gambia to continue their hard work for the good of the country.

In his speech on the occasion, the deputy permanent secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Sherifo Bojang, expressed satisfaction with the performance of PROGEBE-Gambia for their effort in ensuring The Gambia came out the best performing national coordinating unit.