The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in partnership with the World Health Organization, Gambia Office, Friday launched the first National Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (NM&EP) for 2015-2020 and the National Health Sector Indicator Booklet (NHSIB). The launching took place at Action Aid International The Gambia (AAITG) conference room and was attended by the Health Ministry's partners. "In the World today, M & E are key national health indicators to measure the performance whether the ministry is imperative for any effective decision making process," Dawda Ceesay, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare said in his launching statement on behalf of the Health minister. Mr. Ceesay said the overarching goal of developing a National Monitoring Plan has a robust, harmonized and updated system that focuses on key performance indicators including health sector preparedness and response. "After successful validation of the National Health Sector Strategic Plan 2014-2020, the National M & E Plan 2015-20202 and the National Health Sector Indicator Booklet within an aligned Action Plan are another important milestone to launch these two important documents," he said. He called on partners and donors to always use the documents as reference, saying some of the key priority areas of the M & E Plan are strengthening surveillance, monitoring and evaluation at all levels for key indicators to be routinely monitored and used for decision making. Mr. Ceesay said with confidence that the M& E Unit of his ministry will coordinate all monitoring activities, conduct technical counter verification of routine data to enhance accountability, transparency and also report accurate and reliable data to the national level for evidence based decision making. He thanked the WHO Country Office for the technical and financial support to print and distribute the M&E Plan and the NHSIB. He also thanked the MoHSW for embracing the genuine efforts of all their partners for giving support to the ME&E unit to track progress of their NHSIB. The health promotion officer at WHO, Momodou Lamin Gassama said since 2007, WHO has been providing accelerated support to the MoHSW to put in place a robust strategic planning, policy implementation, monitoring and coordination process for the health sector. Mr. Gassama reiterated his organisation's commitment to support the health ministry and by extension, government of The Gambia and her people in promoting health and wellbeing of the people as articulated in SDG 3. As a leading partner in health, he said WHO is keenly awaiting the signing of the country compact that will facilitate and strengthen health sector coordination of stakeholders for the implementation of one strategic plan, a common mechanism and one monitoring and evaluation system in Gambia's health sector. According to Gassama, the health indicator booklet was developed in a consultative process in 2016, using the new WHO Global Reference list of 100 Core indicators (2015). "The health indicator booklet contains 70 core indicators carefully chosen by the sector, led by a team of M&E experts and the measurement variables for the indicators that from henceforth will be used by the MoHSW and its partners to track the performance of the health system in all the critical programs and support systems and services."