By Mammy Saidykhan
The executive board and staff of Gambia Press Union (GPU) on Saturday, 25 April, ended a three-day training on monitoring and evaluation of donor-funded projects in line with its strategic plan of strengthening the institutional capacity of the union.
The 15-participant training at TANGO Conference Hall observed social distancing in the sitting arrangement, and in addition, face masks and sanitisers were provided.
The event was organised and funded as part of the Civil Society Fund of Denmark-funded project that the Union is co-implementing together with its Danish counterparts, Gambia Media Support (GAMES).
Lamin Jahateh, program manager for the Union, said monitoring and evaluation function bring up lessons learnt and success stories that can draw up important pointers for the next level project planning cycle.
Henceforth, he said, the GPU would be able to monitor and evaluates its project performance to help identify how challenges should be addressed and successes replicated.
Sheriff Bojang Jr, president of the GPU, said after the training, the GPU board, particularly the Programs Committee of the Board, would be able to systematically measure and assesse programme activities and results.
“We will now be able to purposely check on the progress of implementation and outputs systematically to determine when a project is going to according to plan and when changes may be needed,” he said.
One of the three key pillars of the Union’s 2019-2021 strategic plan is strengthening the institutional capacity of the secretariat to make it more responsive and accountable to its members.
It was line with this strategic plan that the GPU built the capacities of the board and staff on areas of monitoring and evaluation.
