By Edrissa Jallow
The Gambia River Basin Development Organization (OMVG) under Blue Peace Financing Initiative, held a three-day regional consultation workshop on Phase 3 for the improvement of its Integrated Development Master Plan (PDDI). The event was held from Tuesday 19th to 21st of July 2022 at Coco Ocean Hotel in Bijilo and aimed to finalize and define possible development strategies for the OMVG area.
The Initiative was supported by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Diplomats from member states including the OMVG High Commission were in attendance to share ideas to refine recommendations for the regional workshop.
UNCDF Regional Coordinator, Christel Alvergne spoke on financing the organization remains a major challenge, however, at this initial stage the “OMVG draws its financial resources for its projects mainly from the contributions of its four member states”.
OMVG is established with only 4 member states and these are; The Gambia, Guinea, Senegal and Guinea Bissau. The presentation slide shown above indicates that each of the four-member states contributed 25% to the Financing the OMVG Project. In addition to this, the World Bank also supported the OMVG Project by financing the Phase 1 Study of the OMVG surrounding substations.
Coordinator, Christel Alvergne added that “there is no financial instrument capable of channelling funding directly to the supranational entity that is the OMVG. This is the innovation of the Blue Peace Financing initiative, which aims to develop a sustainable financing mechanism that will allow non-sovereign entities or basin organizations such as OMVG to access financial markets directly”.
The Secretary General of the OMVG High Commission, Mr Ababacar Ndao urged delegates to put up key points that will promote the fruitful implementation of the PDDI growth process.
“This master plan will be the strategic planning framework for the sustainable development of all the basins, of a coherent development program for an integrated and concerted management of water resources and ecosystems. Therefore, the participation of all the stakeholders of the basins in the definition of the scenarios is essential. It is at the heart of the PDDI elaboration process,” said Mr Ndao.
According to the Secretary-General, the OMVG was initiated by two Heads of State in the late Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara of The Gambia and the late Leopold Sedat Senghore of Senegal. The two countries signed the agreement in 1976 so as to share common resources from the energy sector through the River Gambia he said, they (the two leaders) later enhanced the organisation to include Guinea Conakry and Guinea Bissau.
The Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources of The Gambia, Mrs Rohey John Manjang expresses sincere gratitude to supporters and participants for showing commitment to finalising the OMVG master plan.
The Minister concluded to say that the “implementation of this Master Plan initiated by the OMVG High Commission will have a positive impact on the improvement of the living conditions of the populations of the basin areas through its programs and projects which will allow, among others, the realization of various infrastructures and development actions”.
According to research, the Blue Peace financing initiative is a co-creation by UNCDF and SDC as the major implementing agency. The Blue Peace initiative will provide long-term capacity development to non-sovereign entities, allowing them to have access to new forms of capital by issuing a Blue Peace Bond. The capital raised will be used to implement the projects of a joint investment plan, including infrastructure projects. This allows non-sovereign entities to upgrade their livelihood assets and hence their own creditworthiness and in turn to scale up their capital mobilization activities.