Country Summary:
Over 20 years’ supporting sustainable development in The Gambia and Senegal
Senegal, Gambia & Guinea Bissau
Senegal – Gambia – Guinea Bissau Annual report 2016-17
United Purpose United Purpose is an international development charity with an innovative community led approach to delivering the Sustainable Development Goals and eradicating global poverty and inequality. We lift people up out of poverty by providing solutions to poverty that last. Our unique approach combines high quality intelligent development, disruptive innovation and enabling independence making us a powerful agent of change. Working with partner organisations, our projects improve livelihoods, reduce vulnerability and promote greater equality. To achieve this, we also influence policy, pioneer business partnerships and engage public support for our approach. Our Vision: A world where justice, dignity and respect prevail for all Our purpose: to tackle poverty and inequality, by enabling people to improve their lives for the longer term. Our way: challenging the dependency culture, providing practical local implementation of the sustainable development goals and placing communities in the leadership of innovative solutions. United Purpose The Gambia & Senegal P.O. Box 2164 Serrekunda The Gambia BP 25448, Dakar - Fann. Senegal Contact: Tel: +220 439 6071 / +221 770998898 email: tony.jansen@united-purpose.org Website: www.united-purpose.org Country Reports: https://issuu.com/concernuniversal
Funding Partners USAID DFID Gates Foundation AGRA Scaling Seeds & Technology Partnership (SSTP) European Union START Fund UMCOR Village Aid UK Big Lottery Fund Electric Aid Be One Percent Foundation Catholic Relief Services
United Purpose Senegal-Gambia-Guinea Bissau is a leading international development and humanitarian aid organization, specialising in Livelihoods, Resilience and strengthening local organisations to respond to their own needs. We work with local communities and Gambian, Senegalese and Guinea Bissau organisations to understand and respond to needs with sustainable solutions that mobilise resources, innovation and enable independence.
Implementing Partners Senegal: ASAPID, CADP, USOFORAL, COPI, ADY, AMUKULEN, AZOHS, ESPOIR CASA, Justice et Developpement, KABONKETOOR , AGADA, RESOPP, URIS, ADG, UCSC, Practical Action, SBC4D, Jokalante; Gambia: WASDA, FFHC, AVISU, TARUD, NATC, Fangsoto, Fankaso, Nematulie, Hewal, SJFF, KART, PYDA, BeeCause, WIG
United Purpose, 4th Floor, 14 Cathederal Rd, CARDIFF, WALES, CF11 9LJ, UK. Tel +44 (0)2920 220066. Registered as a Charity No: 272465
In 2016, we worked with 17 local partners, the Government, civil society and the private sector; Channelling around $1.4 million USD of
development aid to help almost 136,000 people improve their lives.
Country Summary:
We are guided by our experience of 23 years’ practical development in partnership with Gambian and Senegalese people and organisations to focus on these areas. They represent where we understand that we can help the most people in the most important ways.
SENEGAMBIA
Welcome In late 2016 we launched a new name - Concern Universal became United Purpose or ’UP - out of poverty’. We are half way implementing our 2014-2019 strategic plan. Key strategies are being rolled out in various diverse ways in our projects : A Value based approach •Effective Partnerships •Innovation •Community participation •Collaboration & Networking •Capacity building •A Market systems approach. Migration has been a big topic this year highlighting the importance of supporting pro poor economic development and growth in job opportunities for young people. This has taken a higher profile in our project development as we have solutions to these challenges ready to be taken to scale. The region continues to be vulnerable to small and recurring disasters: we responded to a flood emergency and the IDP crisis in Gambia. In the coming year we plan to strengthen our involvement in disaster risk reduction including testing Early Warning Systems linkages in Senegal and better connecting our local partners to disaster response networks in The Gambia. A democratic transition supported by an ECOWAS military intervention in the Gambia was challenging to navigate. But we now find a greatly changed environment in the Gambia - an end to 22 years of authoritarian rule. There are enormous opportunities and challenges with a more democratic and open government. Responsibility and opportunities lie ahead for civil society to help shape the ’New Gambia’ as it has become known. We and our partners hope to be key players in that process. Our sub-regional expansion has progressed this year. We continue with our cross border Gambia-Senegal peace building work and in the coming year we are taking on project management for UPs conflict resolution project with herders and farmers in Cameroon. We completed an independent impact study on farmer managed rice irrigation in Upper River Region of the Gambia – work that we have supported and pioneered with our partner WASDA. The study confirmed the economic, social and environmental viability of the approach and the potential to take it to scale which is now a priority. We look forward to the year ahead!
Improved agricultural productivity and farm incomes In the United Purpose (UP) Senegambia Country Programme, intelligent development shapes what we do and how to do it. This approach shaped the work with our partners to enhance the livelihoods of the people that fall within our target beneficiaries. In the country programme area over 70 % of the people livelihoods depends on agriculture and its related activities. They eat most of the food crops that they grow and sell the surplus. The drivers of our strategic action is anchored in people leading the identification and the implementation of collective innovative solutions to challenging the issues that constrained the advancement of peoples livelihoods. These include but not limited to: horticultural production, livestock, improved input management for cereal rain fed crops, agro-forestry practices; have access to potable water; access to new markets; to promote marketing cooperatives; dry season rice irrigation, sea food culturing and harvesting; harvesting and sustainable management and marketing of non timber forest products; job creation for women and youth along various agricultural value chains and f to support individuals and women groups to take up farming as business rather than taking up farming to feed their families only. We have been developing and testing innovative ICT Channels to deliver and receive information to farmers via the social enterprise Jokalante. During the year we have trained 36331 farmers on best practice crop production techniques, 93413 farmers crop yields have increased, 138 people have established or strengthened their businesses, or who have received access to business inputs/services, 1494 people (+70% women) were helped to access micro-finance loans in the conflict region of Casamance, 128,049 people got increased understanding of environmental issues like soil fertility enhancement, environmental protection, reforestation among others and as result 310,000 trees were planted in the respective forests of Casamance, 913 attained decreased in ‘hungry months’ from five to nine months, 500 animals for farming were provided to the poorest household(chickens, pigs, goats, etc) and 128,049 people attained increase in cash income.
Resilience As part of the humanitarian and resilience program United Purpose had a busy 2016 and was involved in series of responses from natural to man-made emergencies. In 2016 we continued from a pilot project where we supported 1,300 families (particularly mothers and children) of rural farmers in communities to be more food secure and have better nutritional health and able to cope with impacts of climate change and other shocks. This was done through kitchen garden and nutrition education support, seed diversity fairs and soil fertility trials. United Purpose led a consortium of international non-governmental organizations in the Gambia to conduct a cash transfer response to the 2016 flooding and windstorm disaster affected victims. The response was funded by the Start Network and targeted 1,500 households (13,500 people). The Gambia experienced a political instability during the 2016 presidential elections and United Purpose joined the humanitarian actors in the Gambia to support the Government of the Gambia in ensuring that the displaced population’s protection and humanitarian assistance needs were met in a timely manner and in accordance with international humanitarian standards. The crisis defused and the New Gambia was born. As an example of impact of this work: findings from the post distribution monitoring revealed that the cash transfer increased peoples’ capacities to recover from the flood disaster. A case study of Fatou showed her livelihood has now been restored and in her own words she said: “I went to the distribution point thinking about where to get the next cup of rice. I have been buying rice in cups but now I am able to buy my rice in bags and now my dignity is being restored thanks to the cash transfer”. Fatou also used some of the cash to buy building materials: “Now we can sleep all night without any trouble with rain”.
Tony Jansen Country Director Gambia, Senegal & Guinea Bissau
Building Capacity We believe that strengthening civil society is vital to building sustainable & equitable societies. Building the capacity of local civil society organisations enhances and strengthens the ability of those organisations to fulfil their mandate by providing much needed development support to their people and advocating on their behalf to government. During 2016-17, capacity building support included: supporting 6 partners linked to the Foni Peace Building Sustainable Peace through Livelihood Development project to conduct Organisational Self Assessment (OSA) and developed (ODPs) and received mentoring in implementing the plans. Another 6 partners received training to develop their strategic plans as their first ever working planning document to give them a sense of direction and focus. 34 staff from 17 organizations linked to the Casamance Peace Building Project received training on project cycle management (PCM) including M&E to help improve their project planning and management skills. A Project Review and Reflection Meeting (PRRM) was conducted that brought all stakeholders including the government Prefects, Sue Prefects and Mayors to review and make recommendations to improve project delivery process. A consortium of 3 International NGOs in Gambia was formed and MOU signed. Enabling them to work together in fund raising, sharing technical expertise, advocacy and achieve wider impact. An example of how this work helps communities: CADP in implementing their ODP played key role in defusing tension between the MFDC combatants and the government and facilitated UP staff to meet them and discuss development issues within the area they control particularly around forest governance and enhancing community control over forest resources.
Peace Building and conflict resolution Results Resilient lives
impact
128,000 people
Better Health
impact
5,910 people
Upholding Rights
impact
2,145 people
In total 136,000 people in Gambia and Senegal were directly assisted to improve their lives, with improved food security, better health, greater respect for rights, and less vulnerability.
Lasting and sustainable peace is a focus areas of the country program. We worked in the Casamance, southern Senegal and the cross border region of the Fogni into Gambia. This zone is affected by the longest running conflict in West Africa characterized by a ‘no war no peace’ situation in recent years. This year UP provided grants to 13 local organisations to carry out ‘people-to-people (P2P) peace building’ using a livelihoods approach. Following training and capacity building, a diverse range of strategies have been implemented. These include: supporting microenterprise development for women & youth in areas long impacted by isolation and poor connection to markets due to the conflict; bee keeping as a livelihoods and a forest protection tool; organic farming; access to seeds and inputs for cereal crops; development of a new regional market day in Sindian. Community management of forests has been a key focus of a number of partners. The illegal trade in timber and forest products charcoal has become a major driver of conflict and part of the war economy of this zone, which we seek to tackle at the community level, which has proven to be the most effective way to protect forested areas and an important P2P tool. This integrates community management with non timber forest product development. We took over management of UP’s existing programme in Cameroon - focussed on alternative conflict management (ACM) tools to deal with long-standing farmer-grazer conflicts in the North-West Region of Cameroon. Tools include the use of Dialogue Platforms to mediate conflicts at the community level, Water Management Committees to improve relations between farmers and grazers as well as the introduction of Alliance Farming to encourage collaboration between individuals in conflict. Independent research shows that UP and MBOSCUDA’s ACM tools in Cameroon have been able to reduce conflict between farmers and grazers by 10% over three years.