By Rohey Samba
In development, sustainability is often where good intentions go to fail.
Projects deliver results, then fade. Funding ends. Momentum disappears.
But in The Gambia, a different model is quietly taking shape — one that does not discard the past, but builds on it.
At the center of this approach is the Gambia Songhai Initiative (GSI) — a UNDP-supported programme launched in 2015 in partnership with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, designed to transform agriculture from subsistence work into a modern, profitable enterprise for young people.
Today, that investment is paying forward in ways few development models manage to achieve.
From Training ground to national engine
The GSI is not a typical training programme.
Built on the model of Benin’s Songhai Centre, it runs a year long intensive training system that combines:
• Climate-smart agriculture
• Agribusiness and entrepreneurship
• Value chain development (production → processing → marketing)
Its goal is simple but ambitious:
To reposition agriculture as a business — and youth as entrepreneurs within it.
Over the years, the initiative has graduated multiple cohorts of young Gambians, transforming more than 54 hectares into a functioning agri-industrial ecosystem, while equipping participants with the skills — and mindset — to build their own enterprises.
But its real success is only now becoming fully visible.
When former beneficiaries become the system
When UNDP launched the JSB 2024 Project to train 800 women and youth in climate-smart vegetable gardening across the Lower River and West Coast Regions, it faced a critical question:
How do you scale impact without starting from zero?
The answer lay in the very people GSI had once trained.
Instead of bringing in external consultants, the project turned to GSI graduates.
In the Lower River Region, youth agripreneurs such as Alieu Bah, Alpha Dem, and Ebrima Fatty opened their farms as training sites — despite still navigating the same financial and infrastructure challenges as many small-scale farmers.
In the West Coast Region, the same model took root.
Ousman Fanneh, Mai Sey, and Tousaint Sarjo, also GSI graduates, stepped forward — not just as farmers, but as trainers, hosts, and mentors.
Their farms became classrooms. Their struggles became lessons. Their journeys became proof.
“We are teaching what we are still building”
For Ousman Fanneh, the experience was as much about giving back as it was about growing forward:
“These gardens are not perfect — we are still developing them. But that is exactly why they are powerful training grounds. People see what is possible, even when resources are limited.”
Mai Sey, one of the few women agripreneurs leading training spaces, sees it as a shift in identity:
“Before Songhai, agriculture was survival. Now it is business. Opening my farm for training shows other women that this is something we can own and grow.”
Tousaint Sarjo echoes a deeper reality:
“We were trained by UNDP. Today we are training others. That means the system is working.”
This is the brilliance of the model.
It does not just deliver training — it creates trainers.
Partnership as a system, not a support function
The success of this approach lies in how partnerships are structured — not as parallel efforts, but as an integrated system:
UNDP provides strategic direction, financing, and programme design,
Gambia Songhai Initiative delivers technical expertise and a pipeline of trained agripreneurs,
National Youth Council (NYC) ensures fair, transparent mobilisation across communities,
Together, they enabled the inclusive participation of 400 women and 400 youth, ensuring that opportunity is not concentrated — but distributed.
This matters.
In fragile contexts, inclusion is not just a principle — it is a stabilising force.
Smart agriculture in a real world
The training itself focused on climate-smart and zero-waste agriculture — from composting and organic fertilisation to drip irrigation and market-oriented production.
Participants learned not just how to grow — but how to think like entrepreneurs:
• Produce based on demand
• Reduce input costs
• Improve yields sustainably
• Minimise post-harvest losses
Yet the real story lies in the conditions under which this is happening.
Even the trainers — the GSI graduates — are still facing:
• Limited access to finance
• Weak infrastructure
• Market constraints
And still, they train others.
This is not ideal conditions.
This is real resilience.
From farms to peacebuilding
At its core, this initiative is not just about agriculture.
It is about addressing one of the root causes of instability: economic exclusion.
Across both regions, the programme is building a clear pathway:
Skills → Enterprise → Income → Stability → Peace
Participants are gaining more than technical skills. They are gaining:
• Confidence
• Agency
• Alternatives
In a context where migration, unemployment, and marginalisation remain pressing concerns, this shift matters deeply.
Livelihoods are not just economic — they are preventative peacebuilding tools.
Why this model matters globally
What is happening in The Gambia offers a powerful lesson for development systems worldwide:
Sustainability is not achieved by doing more. It is achieved by building smarter.
This model works because it:
• Reuses existing investments (GSI graduates)
• Strengthens local systems instead of replacing them
• Turns beneficiaries into implementers
• Anchors delivery in real-life contexts
• Links economic empowerment to peace outcomes
• It is efficient.
• It is scalable.
• And most importantly — it is owned by the people it serves.
The quiet power of continuity
In some parts of the Lower River and West Coast Regions, farms that once symbolised struggle are becoming spaces of transformation.
Young people who once needed support are now providing it. Women who once hesitated are now leading. Communities that once depended are now building systems of their own.
This is not just a success story.
It is a shift in how development works.
Because sometimes, the most powerful innovation is not creating something new—It is continuing what works, and letting it grow.
