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.

Nema project training on 80 start-up businesses of women and youth on entrepreneurship

Participants at the training

The National Agricultural Land and Water Management Development Project (Nema) the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) financed project gathered 80 start-up businesses of women and youth from the 24^th to 27^th February, 2014 at Rural Farmers’ Agricultural Training Centre at Jenoi in Lower River Region.

The 80 start-up businesses participants are selected after the project embarked on country-wide trekking identifying potential business[s] based on demand from the beneficiaries themselves by filing Nema request forms. With the volume of participants, the training has been split into two groups 40 participants for each training session to be conducted by Concern Universal (CU).

Speaking at the official opening ceremony, Mr. Momodou Gassama Nema project director said that the Gambia government has seen IFAD’s intervention and support in the country as ‘timely’ noting that Nema project seeks to build on the achievements of IFAD’s previous projects-LADEP and PIWAMP with an added important component: Agricultural Commercialization; which seeks to graduate subsistence farming to commercialization-producing more that what we eat, to sell for profit.

Gambia: CPA from the perspective of project staff

Written by Jorge Esteban Moreno and Alessia Bartolucci

Group Pic: Gambian Delegates (Credit: @IFAD}

Following the success of the joint Headquarters -country CPA meeting, on 7 November 2013, The Gambia team hosted a learning event on the Country Programme Approach (CPA) at IFAD headquarters taking advantage of the presence in Rome of a Gambia delegation attending the 2nd Financial Management Forum. The Gambia delegation was led by Mod K. Ceesay, Permanent Secretary II from Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs. With a room full of participants, Lamin AD Sanyang (Chairperson of the CPA and Project Director of LHDP), gave a detailed presentation on the overall, progress, achievements and lessons learned made by the team. 

The CPA comprises the four IFAD-financed on-going projects namely: RFP, PIWAMP, Nema and LHDP under the Ministry of Agriculture. The approach enables the creation of synergies between all projects and consolidates IFAD’s operations in the Gambia. Single project performance is no longer considered sufficient and the CPA ensures maximum impact of project implementation.

Negotiation on Nema project, "successful"

Gambian Negotiators, Rome

The deputy permanent secretary Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Mod K. Ceesay recently led a nine man delegation to Rome, Italy to negotiate for the National Agricultural Land and Water Management Development (Nema) on behalf of the government and people of The Gambia.

The negotiation, according to the team leader, went "quite well" noting that the background work was done during and after the design phase which lasted over eight months. These consultations were participatory and highly productive.

Gambian Farmers’ Laud PIWAMP’s Activities

Farmers across the length and breadth of The Gambia have hailed the activities of the Participatory Integrated Watershed Management Project (PIWAMP) in their regions.

PIWAMP in the recent years has improved our livelihood, especially we, (the women) of Jarumeh Koto village, remarked Mrs. Lisa Ceesay, who was speaking to Global Youth Innovation Network- GYIN-Gambia National Co-ordinator, Journalist Mamadou Edrisa Njie at the recent PIWAMP 2011 annual consultative meeting in Jenoi, Lower River Region.

PIWAMP Holds Successful Annual Consultative Meeting

The Project Management Unit of the Participatory Integrated Watershed Management Project called PIWAMP, from 16 to 17 March, 2012 held its 2011 annual consultative meeting at the Rural Agricultural Farmers Training Centre at Jenoi in Lower River Region. 

The meeting brought together the management and staff of PIWAMP, Coordinators of Project Units, representatives from the Ministry of  Agriculture, Global Youth  Innovation Network- GYIN-Gambia, Upland and Lowland Field Coordinators, among others.

The 2011 annual consultative meeting- an important learning exercise- brought together project staff, service providers and project beneficiaries to discuss  and agree on causes of  action for project  activities that have been implemented, said Alagie Jatta representing Deputy Governor of LRR at the official opening ceremony.