REVCEL Training for 50 Youth Opens in LRR

REVCEL LRR Rural Youth session

A 12 days (Dec. 11-22, 2015) training on entrepreneurship dubbed the Rural Entrepreneurial Venture Creation and Experimental Learning (REVCEL) for 50 rural youth kicks-off at Pakalinding, Lower River Region (LRR) on Friday.

Organized by the Creating Opportunities for Rural Youth (CORY) Gambia project, it is being implemented by the Global Youth Innovation Network (GYIN) - Gambia chapter.
The training, which is meant to equip young men and women with entrepreneurship skills, focusing on project and enterprise development, is underway at the Trans-Gambia Lodge in Pakalinding.

It is jointly funded by CORY Project The Gambia and the National Agricultural Land and Water Management Development Project (Nema) and officially opened on December 14, 2015.

Evaluation of IFAD's programme in The Gambia points to good project design but pitfalls in targeting

Participants at IFAD Evaluation Workshop

Development projects carried out in The Gambia by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) – the UN agency specializing in rural development – have been well designed, but faced challenges during their implementation, an evaluation report produced by IFAD’s Independent Office of Evaluation (IOE) revealed today at a national workshop in Banjul.

The evaluation assessed five IFAD-financed projects carried out between 2004 and 2014. According to the report, the projects had an overall positive impact on the rural population. For example, they enabled families to purchase items that gradually covered the households’ needs and made them more self-sufficient. Village savings and credit associations encouraged families to invest more time in income-generating activities, such as producing groundnut paste, tie and dye fabrics, and soap,  resulting in an increase in basic household assets. Through the Participatory Integrated Watershed Management Project (PIWAMP), food-crop production grew from 4,503 to 50,481 metric tons (MT) from 2006 to 2012, a 41-fold increase.

African Youth Charter comes to place of birth as Gambia hosts Banjul+10

NYC Executive Director, Mr. Lamin Darboe

The year 2016 marks ten years of the adoption of the Africa Youth Charter (AYC). Launched in Banjul, in July 2006, by the Seventh Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government, the Charter eventually entered into force on August 8, 2009.

The AYC is the first legal framework of the AU in favour of the empowerment and development of the youth on the continent. Thirty-five Member States of the AU have so far ratified the instrument, committing their nations to the fulfillment of the rights and obligations of young people, as enshrined and guaranteed in the Charter.

Ten years on next year, it is essential to take stock of the progress made, share good practices, renew commitments and map out a concrete way forward for realising the ideals of the AYC for youth, while also contributing to the attainment of the goals of AU’s Agenda 2063 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.

CORY Gambia project completes 2nd badge of REVCEL in CRR

By Madi S. Njie

Group picture of the REVCEL participants, dignitaries and Facilitators at the opening

On 3^rd  December 2015, 27 participants drawn from various parts of the Central River Region North and South completed an entrepreneurship training organized under the Creating Opportunities for Rural Youth (CORY) Gambia project, coordinated by the Global Youth Innovation Network (GYIN) Gambia.

The twelve days training meant to equip young men and women with entrepreneurship skills, focusing on project and enterprise development was held at the Forestry Camp Bantaba hall in Janjanbureh, the administrative capital of CRR.