Twenty-six senior officers of the Gambia Police Force (GPF) Friday completed a one-week training on Leadership and Information Communication Technology (ICT) at the Management Development Institute (MDI). The training was organised by the GPF and sponsored by the Personal Management Office (PMO).

Speaking at the training, Dr Jainaba Kah, director general of MDI explained that her institution is the main training school in public sector management and administration and has been a major player in President Jammeh's public sector reform agenda.

She said: "The execution of our mandate to build human capacity and enhance professional development for not only the public but the private and the NGO sectors has been going on for over 28 years now and many public servants have benefited from various training programmes at MDI. In partnership with stakeholders, government and policymakers, MDI will not only consolidate her plans for public service training relevant to the development agenda but also widening its horizon in professional training by partnering with sub-regional, international institutions and universities."

According to Dr Kah, the MDI integration and renewal programme is designed to give the institution a rebook by upgrading its mandate and fundamentally restricting and re-engineering it to exist within the School of Business and Public Administration under the integrated University of The Gambia (UTG) system.

She further told the gathering that MDI and UTG are receptive to collaborate with any organisation in any area of mutual benefit, especially in modernisation and reform security force, institutional capacity building and development. She stressed the need to patronise and ensure partnership with MDI for them to better be able to educate the calibre of people needed for the institutional development that Gambia desperately needs. Kah also thanked the leadership and the management of GPF for localising their training needs and partnering with MDI. She also thanked the PMO for funding the training.

On his part, Yankuba Sonko, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) said the importance of the training cannot be overemphasised, adding that it is the first of its kind in GPF. He noted that the move is inline with President Jammeh's vision to transform the security sector into a professional institution."Immediately after my appointment as IGP and in the bid to transform the GPF into a professional and modernised force, I and the senior team embarked on a vision aimed at making our police force second to none in the sub-region," he remarked.

IGP Sonko further stated that they came up with policy document of a five-year strategic development plan, which began in 2010, to reflect on their aims and aspirations.

He continued: "In achieving these aims, we identified areas that are hampering our progress and started to put them in place to improve them. Therefore, this initiative is aimed at meeting policing standards in order to achieve these reforms that will help to modernise the force coupled with improved capacity building of members at all levels. The lack of personnel with the required skills and knowledge is the key factor affecting service delivery and needed immediate attention if we are to achieve our goals and objectives and to better serve the public."

The IGP assured both trainers and participants that his command will continue to collaborate with local and international partners in ensuring that capacity of his personnel at all levels are improved. He finally thanked the management of MDI for their foresight in the development of the course for senior staff of GPF.

Dawda Fadera, permanent secretary, PMO opined that The Gambia can be transformed into an economic superpower through capacity building. He observed that MDI has expanded, and is coming up with quite a number of programmes geared towards sharpening the skills of the people. He further noted that capacity building is part of government's programmes, while urging the trainees to implement the knowledge gained at the training.The occasion was chaired by Sillah Konateh.