 
Contact Address:
IFAD
IFAD Gambia, Banjul Head Office
Kofi Annan Street
Cape Point, Bakau
The Gambia, West Africa
Tel no: 4497805 / 4497897
Fax: 4497896 / 4497896
Email: l.sarr@ifad.org
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Information:
IFAD has funded 10 projects and programmes in The Gambia
between 1982 to 2012, financing a total of US$73 million
(jointly funded US$196.7 million), and directly benefiting
over 149,000 rural households. The bulk of beneficiaries
being women. Five of the projects were commenced by
IFAD, two by the International Development Association
(IDA) of the World Bank Group
and two by the African Development Bank. Seven of the
programmes have been jointly financed by the AFDB and
the World Bank.
Through new loans and grants, the organisation helps
strengthen effective, mutually beneficial activities
such as lowlands rice development, community-initiated
self-help, horticulture, animal husbandry, rural financing
schemes etc.
Because The Gambia is categorised as one of the world's
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) it is eligible
for grant financing under IFAD's Debt Sustainability
Framework (DSF). The framework is a component of a concerted
attempt by the world's largest multilateral financial
institutions to make sure that necessary financial aid
does not cause unnecessary privation for the countries
that are most in need of assistance.
IFAD's involvement in The Gambia centres around rural
development and agriculture,
while facilitating and encouraging pathways to microfinance.
All the projects have aimed at the general objective
of reducing rural poverty by enhancing household income
and food sufficiency, particularly of smallholding farms,
youth and women, in line with the national government's
priorities.
Through the development of farming in the fertile soil
of the lowlands and neighbouring uplands, IFAD's projects
in The Gambia tackles poverty that is connected to water
and land as productive resources. Through diversification
of rural income, it aims to alleviate poverty that is
connected to faltering markets.
One of IFAD's other priorities is to include women in
training and decision-making in all its projects in
the country. These schemes target women directly, for
example, in lowland rural development to increase agricultural
production, in access to financial services, in garden
vegetable production and small livestock rearing such
as sheep and goats. IFAD also focuses on young men and
women for off- and on-farm job prospects, bearing in
mind the country's steep rates of unemployment and labour
under-utilisation and its growing rate of rural-urban
drift.
From the middle of the 1980s, IFAD has been heavily
engaged in supporting rural microfinance projects in
The Gambia as a consequence of its promotion of agricultural
development. The growth of the village-based Savings
and Credit Association structure, abbreviated as
VISACA, has resulted in a more professional microfinance
sector. This is the result of the creation of a robust
nationwide institution that coordinates VISACA services,
as well as the establishment of a microfinance unit
within the Central Bank and the creation of a centre
to enhance capacity for all microfinance related institutions.
IFAD has also pushed for the approval and execution
of a national microfinance strategic policy, and is
emphasising the need for more professionalisation of
the microfinance sector through an overseas technical
assistance program.
Simultaneously, IFAD interventions tries to empower
community and farmers' based organisations, thereby
enabling deprived rural people to get out of poverty.
IFAD partners with local Kafos, for example, to steadily
address the social and economic exclusion of susceptible
people in rural communities. These jointly run village
groups are an effective avenue for intervention, since
they are organised and able to bring together target
groups of people within local communities.
As laid down in the Country Strategic Opportunities
Paper (COSOP) for The Gambia, IFAD's work here, in recent
years, has become more demand-led, with an emphasis
on enhancing poor rural people's capacities and their
engagement in the planning and carrying out of development
initiatives. IFAD supported projects in The Gambia focus
on novel trial operations with a scope for scaling up
into sustainable, efficient and effective activities.
After being trialled and modified, these activities
have become successful models for implementation in
current activities by IFAD and its partners to benefit
the poor rural populace in The Gambia, in particular
young people and women.
The focus on building upon effective programs is especially
apparent in the example of the now completed Rural Finance
and Community Initiatives Project (RFCIP), which has
been expanded into two schemes: the Livestock and Horticulture
Development Project (LHDP) and the Rural Finance Project
(RFP). Also, the established Lowlands Agricultural Development
Programme (LADEP) has been expanded in the shape of
the Participatory Integrated-Watershed Management Project
(PIWAMP), which has reclaimed considerable cultivable
land areas through soil preservation measures in the
uplands and water management structures in the lowlands.
By supporting projects in The Gambia, IFAD gives leadership,
draws in co-financing and creates strategic partnerships
with donors, NGOs,
the government, civil society and the private sector
to benefit the rural poor at the local grass roots level. |
