Page 7 - Economic transformation

need to be considered when looking at economic transformation within the context of the

2030 SDG agenda. The next sections analyse and unpack some of the factors affecting

economic transformation in The Gambia.

Sufficing to point out is the fact that while acknowledging that these factors are

many, this analysis is not exhaustive. Rather it attempts to explain the factors that are

both important and can also be measured for objective analysis. Admittedly, this

inevitably entertains a ‘degree of ambiguity’ as some important factors may not be

analysed due to the absence of sufficient data to allow for meaningful analysis. At the end

of the day, this emphasizes the need for the UN system together with other development

partners and in concert with the government to invest in developing standardized

methods of monitoring progress towards each SDG.

The ‘quality’ of economic growth matters

The ‘quality’ of economic growth is influenced by several factors. Ideally, ‘high

quality’ economic growth would is economic growth that results in or drives economic

transformation. This includes, an increase in employment, reduced gender and spatial

inequalities and increased purchasing power of citizens, among other things. One of the

broad measures of the quality of economic growth (and therefore its potential to drive

transformation) is to measure national GDP based on how it compares with purchasing

power of other economies. This concept, known as purchasing power parity, expresses a

nation's GDP at as the sum value of all goods and services produced in the country valued

4
at prices prevailing in the United States .

However, economic growth is not a sufficient condition as its occurrence doesn’t guarantee economic
transformation.
4 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/208rank.html, accessed 20 October
2020.
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