Establishment of the National Soil Partnership of the Gambia
Date of establishment: 26/08/2019
During the 7th session of the GSP Plenary Assembly, the GSP Secretariat highlighted the success of the Regional Soil Partnerships and of several existing National Soil Partnerships. The latter bring together a range of national soil stakeholders and ensure a consolidated approach to actions of the GSP and other major initiatives related to the sustainable management of soil resources at the national level. As a result, on the 26th of August 2019, Gambia formally established its National Soil Partnership.
During the first day of the meeting the National Focal Point for the Global Soil Partnership, who is also the Director of Soil and Water Management Services (SWMS), Mr Abdou Rahman Jobe, presented the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) and its work.
The Deputy Director General of the Department of Agriculture, Mr Sariang Jobarteh opened the meeting for the establishment of the National Soil Partnership of the Gambia. He stated that the main goal of the Global Soil Partnership is to improve livelihood through the sustainable management of soil resources. This is done through various actions and activities that fall under pillars of actions. These include: sustainable management of the soil resources; awareness raising on soil related issues; promoting targeted soil research; soil data collection and information production and management; and harmonization and dissemination of approaches and methods.
Different stakeholders participated in the meeting, and Dr. Karim Touray, a veteran soil scientist, was one of them. He made a presentation on soil and land management in the Gambia. In his presentation, he displayed real life pictorial evidence of the poor land management of provincial Gambia and notably his own home village of Balangharr. His presentation highlighted many threats to soil resources, including the clearing of land with no soil cover to advert any incidence of wind or water erosion. In his presentation, Mr Touray mentioned that many efforts have been made but that not all have been successful. He also stated that simple approaches to dealing with these important threats is through the adoption of sustainable agriculture and sustainable soil management.
During this meeting, one of the important outputs is the establishment of committees. The meeting proceeded on the establishment of the structure of the National Soil Partnership, which included the selection of the secretariat, steering committee, pillar chairs and their working groups.
The strong motivation of the committees and the working groups set the tone for the future of this partnership, and the different stakeholders present at the meeting hope that this close and fruitful collaboration will continue in the upcoming years.