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| 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.
