Contact Address Details: FAO Gambia Banjul capital HQ 3-4 ECOWAS Avenue P.M.B. 10 Banjul The Gambia West Africa Tel no: +220 4228 477                      4498 034 (51 Garba Jahumpa Road, Bakau)                      4498 035 Fax:              4228 634                      4498036 Email: registry.gm@undp.org

The Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) was launched by the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1994. Focusing on low-income food-deficit countries, the SPFS was endorsed in Rome in November 1996. The programme aims at supporting The Gambia and other countries in their efforts to: • Improve their nation's national food security through rapid increases in productivity and food production on an economically and environmentally sustainable basis; • Reduce year-to-year variability in agricultural production; • Improve Gambian people’s access to food; The SPFS is a multidisciplinary programme with a strong emphasis on meeting people’s needs directly by raising farmer's net income, generating rural employment, increasing social equity and promoting gender sensitivity. Implementation of SPFS takes place in two stages, referred to as the Pilot phase and the Expansion phase. The Government of The Gambia has responded positively to the FAO initiative of SPFS and tripartite agreement has been signed between the Government of The Gambia, The Government of Bangladesh and FAO. The programme is expected to be funded by the Islamic Development Bank, possibly with the cofinancing from the African Development Bank and the Common Wealth Secretariat. Nine experts and technicians from Bangladesh have arrived to the Gambia to implement the first phase of the Programme together with the Gambian Government and rural communities. The first phase consist of four components: • Small-scale water harvesting, irrigation and drainage systems using rainfall, water runoff, small streams, ground water etc.; and agricultural land development to secure production against the vagaries of the climate. • Intensification of sustainable plant production systems with the transfer of adequate technologies accessible to all and the effective use of high-yielding varieties, integrated plant nutrition systems, integrated pest management and appropriate post-harvest methods. • Diversification of production including aquaculture and small animal (poultry, sheep, goats etc.) production. • Analysis of constraints to food security; special attention will be given to the analysis of socio-economic constraints, by gender and by specific groups, to the expansion of the first phase in particular access to technology, land, input, storage, marketing, processing and credit facilities. It was reported on the 4th September 2003 Bangladesh will send over 30 field technicians and experts to the Gambia to work with local experts, as part of a quadripartite agreement signed between the two countries, funded by the Islamic Development Bank and supported by FAO.