The Gambia today
The Gambia, located in West Africa, is a small sub-tropical country bordered by Senegal and featuring an 80 km Atlantic coastline. Covering 11,300 km², with significant agricultural and forested land, it experiences a tropical Savannah climate with a dry season from November to May and a rainy season from June to October. Average temperatures range from 18°C to 33°C, with climate change projections indicating rising temperatures and decreased rainfall, particularly impacting vulnerable coastal areas. Economically, The Gambia's growth reached 5.3% in 2023, driven by agriculture and public investment, despite high inflation and increased poverty rates due to rising food prices. Governance has improved since 2017, but challenges remain in areas such as constitutional reform and transitional justice. The government is committed to enhancing human capital and addressing social inclusion, particularly for marginalized groups. Additionally, The Gambia faces environmental issues that hinder agricultural productivity while recognizing the need for improved energy, infrastructure, and ICT connectivity to foster economic growth and social cohesion.
Working with LIFE-AR
Work on LIFE-AR Gambia started in April 2022 with the recruitment of the Focal Point and the coordinator as part of the process of instituting the National LIFE-AR Team. The Gambia as part of the Least Developed countries (LDC) deserves the right to participate in all LDC – planned and owned initiatives that can uplift its status and hopefully graduate it out of poverty and vulnerability. It is part of this process that the country participated in the LIFE-AR Partnership Compact meeting held in Spain in 2019. The Partnership Compact reflects a commitment to ensure that LDCs receive the support they need to develop and test mechanisms that reach the local level, enabling climate informed investment in enterprise, in landscapes and in the poorest households. Also, The Gambia did undertake the development of a series of the National Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) that outline plans and budgets to address climate change related problems in the Gambia. First, sectoral coverage has been extended to include all greenhouse (GHG) emissions in The Gambia. They cover the entire Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector, in line with the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) guidelines. This fitted well with LIFE-AR which is seeking to improve the conditions of vulnerable communities affected by climate change.
Achievements to date
LIFE-AR in The Gambia is in the Establishment Phase that is expected to end by December, 2024. The team’s initial work was to form the Task Team that comprises 15 members from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). These MDAs are actively engaged in environment and climate change work. The purpose of the TT is to direct and guide the work of LIFE-AR in the Gambia as well as to facilitate the decision-making process in relation to the institution and operationalization of the initiative. It is responsible and accountable to the National Steering Committee (NSC) that is the highest body of LIFE-AR Gambia mandated to approve suggestions from the TT and final decision - making.
The National Team also brought in the Core-Group to support the coordinator in the execution of day-to day operational functions of LIFE-AR. It comprises Climate Change Officers of the National Climate Change Secretariat under the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources (MECCNAR).
The National Team firstly, commissioned studies – Situational Analysis and the Finance Mechanism with a view to identifying the Delivery Mechanism (DM) and the Fund Manager respectively. By the end of the consultancy, the Department of Community Development (DCD) was identified as the DM whilst The Gambia Social Development Fund (SDF) became the Fund Manager for LIFE-AR. The selection of DCD was partly based on its experience with LoCAL, a global development approach focusing on community empowerment through the use of the participatory planning and development process.
As part of its preparatory work, the DM outsourced a consultancy exercise to align the LoCAL and LIFE-AR approaches to ensure that the LoCAL will embed issues of the LIFE-AR principles and offers. The DM also worked on identifying Regions and Wards to serve as the target area for LIFE-AR investments in the Test and Evolve Phase. There are moves to further identify communities for the same purpose. A consultancy on Baseline Study and Vulnerability Assessment through which communities will be identified is being planned. The investment process is expected to emanate from the community planning process and the Design Note Development that are now begun.
Moving forward
A consultancy on Baseline Study and Vulnerability Assessment through which communities will be identified is being planned and fastly underway.
The investment process is expected to emanate from the community planning process and the Design Note Development has started. The community Planning Process will be a participatory process to be facilitated by the multi-disciplinary facilitator teams (MDFTs) of DCD. The whole process will be planned and supervised by the academia – hopefully the University of The Gambia.
Another consultancy exercise in the process is the development of a Quality Assurance Plan. Already a consultant has been identified and will soon execute the exercise. The specific focus of the assignment is to develop a quality assurance system (manual) which will guide in the implementation of LIFE-AR in The Gambia as well as internal and external assessment of the performance of the delivery mechanism.
All this preparatory work will lead to the successful transition to the Test and Evolve phase in 2025, which will see target communities select and implement their own adaptation investments.