By Olimatou Coker
The National Nutrition Agency and partners implementing Nafa programme under the World Bank funded Gambia Resilience, Inclusion, Skills and Equity (RISE) have just concluded another transfer of cash to beneficiaries.
The project aims to increase foundational learning of early-grade students; access to job-relevant training for youths and income-generating opportunities, including for the poor and vulnerable, in The Gambia.
The Nafa program under The Gambia RISE Project is a combination of cash transfer and social and behavioural change communication implemented in 20 rural districts.
The latest transfer covered Foni, Wuli, Fulladu.
Speaking to the press in Foni Kalagi, Malang N Fofana, Acting Executive Director of NaNA, expressed delight over the restart of the project.
“When we were designing the project, our idea was every household that is enrolled in the project will be in the project for 36 months, meaning they will have 18 rounds of cash transfer. In the SSNP, some got up to 12 and 8 rounds of cash transfers for the pilot and expansion respectively and now are reconnected with the 9th and 10th pay cycle for the expanded communities, and 13th and 14th for the pilot districts,” he said.
Fofana explained that the target for this project is the extreme poor.
“We all know how the poor live more so an extreme poor and this project is coming to develop and help the extreme poor to lift them out of poverty, build their resilience by empowering them, and give them cash to meet their basic needs, such as diversify diets, accessing to health services, educational services, inputs and so forth. It will also improve their knowledge on how to manage their families. We have collected human interest stories in the households, and we have seen a lot of households have now improved”.
Samba Mballow, Permanent Secretary Office of the Vice President, said NaNA is one of the institutions that is under OVP and this program is a takeover from the previous program called the SSNP now the current project is called the Gambia/ Resilience, Inclusion, Skills and Equity (RISE Project).
