Africa-Press – Gambia. The Center for Budget and Macroeconomic Transparency (CBMT), with support from the European Union (EU), on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, launched a two-day workshop engaging 20 representatives from civil society organizations (CSOs) to review and scrutinize The Gambia’s 2026 national budget.
The workshop aims to strengthen CSO participation in the national budget process, particularly during the stages of budget consideration and approval. It also seeks to enhance citizen representation and foster a culture of participatory budgeting.
At the opening session, Lamin Dibba, Executive Director of CBMT, emphasized that the initiative is designed to deepen public engagement and ensure that citizens have a meaningful voice in shaping national fiscal policies. He highlighted the importance of inclusive budgeting for equitable development, cautioning that without broad public participation, development risks being uneven, leaving many citizens behind.“What we want is to have an inclusive budget that speaks to and represents all Gambians, and I hope by the end of this event we will have had tangible recommendations and identified significant issues regarding the budget,” Dibba said.
Tarik Kabach, Representative of the European Union (EU), acknowledged the progress The Gambia has made in recent years toward improving fiscal governance but noted that further improvements remain necessary. He stressed that access to disaggregated budget execution data is crucial, emphasizing that citizens and CSOs require detailed and timely financial information to monitor public spending effectively and hold the government accountable.
“What the citizens are most interested in is what kind of services are delivered in the areas of agriculture, education, and trade. The more this information is available, the more powerful the accountability advocacy processes can be,” Kabach added.
At the conclusion of the workshop, CSO observations and recommendations will be compiled into a formal report to be submitted to Parliament for consideration and possible inclusion in the national budget prior to its approval.
The Center for Budget and Macroeconomic Transparency (CBMT) is a Gambian non-profit organization dedicated to promoting budget transparency and improving public understanding of the national economy.
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