Budget Support

closed

The objectives of the Public Sector Reform and Growth Grant Project in Gambia are to strengthen the government's capacity to use public resources and improve the management o f the groundnut sector. The International Development Association (IDA) grant supports the implementation of a subset of reforms in the government's policy matrix in 2008 and 2009. These reform measures are also the prior actions for the disbursement of IDA's single tranche. There are several reasons for the coordination arrangement. Despite being a single tranche, it allows the Bank to support critical poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP) reforms which can only be implemented over the medium term and extends the Bank's engagement in the policy dialogue beyond the first year of implementation. It also improves donor coordination, reduces the government's transaction costs and allows IDA to leverage its limited resources across a range of critical policy reforms. The arrangement is consistent with and endorsed in the Bank's FY08-11 Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) prepared jointly with the African Development Bank (AfDB). It is in line with the aid effectiveness agenda of the development community.