The Gambia, a least developed low-income food-deficit country, is one of the world’s poorest, ranking 155th of 177 countries in the United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index. Per capita gross national income is US$290.1 Agriculture employs 75 percent of the population.
Food insecurity mainly affects deprived rural areas; access to infrastructure and social services is poor. Poverty in the Gambia is closely related to malnutrition and hunger; the areas with the highest malnutrition rates and levels of extreme poverty are in Lower, Central and Upper River divisions.
Over the past decade, with the support of WFP and other partners, the Gambia has steadily improved enrolment, especially in primary schools. Overall gross enrolment was 91 percent in 2005, including children enrolled in madrassas. The percentage of girls enrolled in primary education has progressively increased from 44 percent to 50 percent, but retention, completion and performance, especially for girls, are still a major challenge: the national completion rate is only 65 percent, and retention problems are very high in rural areas.
The proposed project is food for education covering the whole country except for towns in Western Division that are identified as food-secure.
The project is based on the Government’s national priorities as defined in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and the 2004–2015 education policy; it addresses Millennium Development Goal 2 and is in line with the 2007–2011 United Nations Development Assistance Framework. Under Strategic Objective 4, interventions will contribute to priority area 2 of WFP’s Enabling Development policy and Enhanced Commitments to Women II, V and VI.
WFP will support the Gambia under the Sahel Alliance for Basic Education, which provides a partnership platform for achieving universal quality basic education. In preparation for the Government’s eventual phase-in of food for education, the project will focus on capacity-building for government counterparts in the education sector.
