By: Haruna Kuyateh
National Environment Agency (NEA) in collaboration with relevant stakeholders recently held a validation of the Women and Youth-Led Agribusiness Firms (WYLAFs) sub-projects report, the validation forum took place in Farafenni, North Bank Region and was attended by the environment impact assessment working group among other stakeholders.
The project was funded by the Gambia Inclusive and Resilient Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (GIRAV) with the overall objective – to conduct an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) report.
Addressing the stakeholders at the forum, Fafanding Fatajo, Social Development Specialist at GIRAV Project underscored the importance of stakeholder participation in the validation of the document, noting that it provides an opportunity for institutions and farmers to have ownership of the document.
He thanked the World Bank (WB) for its financial and technical support of the implementation of the value chain development that helped to move from subsistence to a more market-oriented agriculture.
He said WB has increased the funding envelope for the Gambia and the project is now extended to a period of 7 years. The Project Development Objective (PDO) is to support the development of inclusive and competitive agriculture value chains, focusing on smallholder farmers and agri-entrepreneurs in project-targeted areas.
“WB attaches great importance to the protection of the environment and the people and safeguard instruments were developed and aligned with all project activities. “This will help to preserve the fundamental human rights and environment,” Fatajo explained.
He explained more of the GIRAV activities saying it provided 40 gardens across the country including 20 gardens for women and 20 gardens for youths, and all the schemes are supported with all necessary equipment, tools, seed, and capacity enhancement on best farm practices.
He noted that all the land documents were transferred to the named beneficiary groups. Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) structures were established at Regional and Community levels to help find alternative conflict resolution mechanisms to address gender-based violence, waste management, and sound environmental management.
Bori Mansa Demba, Program Manager for Environmental Quality NEA said the validation is key, noting that the intervention of GIRAV in all pillars that support livelihood, horticulture, road network, and capacity enhancement would promote women and youth-led Agri-farm and create employment.
According to him, the GIRAV WYLAFs sub-project developed has been identified to have great social and economic benefits in the identified project beneficiary communities and regions. The targeted beneficiaries acknowledge that the project will help create employment, increase income, and improve agricultural production.