This July, as part of the Building Public Finance Capabilities for Nutrition (BPFCN) programme, Aashna Jamal, coach of Team The Gambia was in Banjul to engage with the team and take stock of the progress they have achieved thus far. The visit was an opportunity to see how the team has applied the Problem Driven Iterative Adaption (PDIA) approach, which is central to CABRI’s flagship BPFC programme, to solve their problem: ‘Inadequate and irregular coverage and funding of the school feeding programme negatively impacts the nutritional status of school children.’

Made up of officials from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs as well as the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare, the Gambian team have made significant progress on the authorisation front, securing key stakeholder support. The team met permanent secretaries from the ministries of education and finance and made a parliamentary breakthrough when presenting their budget proposal.

Leading up to the progress review workshop this September in South Africa, the team plans to strategically target stakeholders with institutional influence, pursuing both expanded school coverage and increased per-child costs to enhance programme effectiveness.

Three (3) country-teams are participating in the BPFCN programme: The Gambia, Ghana and Liberia. All three teams consist of representatives from ministries of finance, gender, education, agriculture and health and seek to address challenges at the intersection of public financial management and nutrition.

The BPFCN programme is funded by the EU and BMZ and implemented by GIZ.