The project activities are designed to be easily replicated by other communities and interest groups.
The provision of capital assets in the form of land and small ruminants to the target groups, the sustainability of the project is greatly enhanced.The beneficiary communities als had their skills enhanced on Early warning systems and ways of coping with Climate Change in their farming activities.
Policy Influence
This project will support The Gambia's gender policy on empowering women and targets the most vulnerable women in the society - i.e. widowed women who are denied inheritance of their spouse's wealth particularly land.
Planning non gef grant
With the availability of the required resources, the project can be easily scaled up through non-GEF grants. The Gambia Red Cross Society with funding from The Spanish Red Cross Society, plans to scale up this project o other communities.
Project Results
- Due to bank issues, the 1st payment was received late by 2 months. With receipt of the 1st payment, the project activities were revisited and re-prioritized to make maximum use of available time.
- In the 5 beneficiary communities selected by the project namely: Kuli Kunda, Jali, Jula Kunnda and Jattaba and Jiffarong sites were selected as community gardens where vegetable gardening would be carried out by the widows and their girl children as a means of improving their economic and social status.
- Boreholes were successfully drilled in all 5 beneficiary communities. Installations of the solar reticulation systems in all 5 gardens were also successfully done.
- Widows and young girls were selected for literacy classes to enable them read and write as a form of empowering them. The literacy classes are run by social workers who are supporting the building of the capacity of the women beneficiaries in writing and numeracy skills. 45 women were selected for the literacy classes but other women also participated on their own accord to improve their skills a well.
- Small ruminants (Sheep and goats) were our purchased by the project and distributed among the project beneficiaries to improve their income earning capacity.For each of the groups from the 5 beneficiary communities, 6 small ruminants consisting of 4 goats and 2 sheep were provided to each group as a start up business on sheep and goat fattening programme.
- Contract for the fencing of 2 gardens in Jula Kunda and Kuli kunda signed and works commenced. The work is expected to be completed in 60 days.
- A 3 day refresher training on Gender was conducted in the village of Jiffarong from 21st - 23rd August 2019. % participants from each of the beneficiary communities took part in the traing aimed at raising awareness on gender and mainstreaming gender in their work.The training was conducted in partnership with the Regional Women's Bureau.
- A stock of essential drugs for the small ruminants were purchased for administering by staff of the Veterinary Services on the sheep and goats that were purchased by the project and distributed among the women beneficiaries in the project villages.The sheep and goats programme was designed to empower the widows so that they can become self sustaining economically.
- Literacy classes were conducted in the villages of Jali, Jiffarong, Jula kunda and Kuli kunda to build the capacity of the beneficiaries on reading and writng skills using their local language. Th skill would empower the women to keep records of their businesses and economic ventures and facilitate communications with others including development partners.
- Fencing completed for the 2 gardens in the villages of Jula kunda and Kuli Kunda and garden area divided into individual beds and vegetable production started. It is envisaged the vegetable production during the dry season, will provide a source of income for the women.
- To empower women on ownership of productive resources specifically land, 5 cooperatives in Kiang West District were constituted. The communities affected wete Jula kunda, Kuli kunda, jali, Jiffarong and Jataba. In each community, 15 members were selected by te communities themselves to represent them and the project facilitated their registration with the Ministry of justice leading finlly to the transfer of ownership of lands to the individuals in each community.
- training sessions were successfully conducted for members of the cooperatives on farming methods, business development, food processing, gender, ecotourism development, early warning systems for community actions and risk reduction strategies. A total of 75 women were trained on ecological agricultural practices.
- A training programme was conducted for the Husbands of the beneficiaries to sensitize the men on gender equality and equity to foster partnership between men and women in development.
- Social mobilization sessions were also conducted on gender equality and equity targeting the wider community in the project areas, also aimed at promoting equity in the development process.
