The Implementation Of The Gambian Rangeland And Water Development Project: Lessons For Southern Africa

This article examines the conception, design, implementation and monitoring of The Gambian rangeland and water development project based in Niamina Dankunku and Niamina West districts of the country. It attempts to make a management evaluation of the project, gaining an insight into the nature of the development problem and the approach adopted by the project for its solution. It then seeks to examine the lessons that southern African countries could learn from this experience in the light of similarities in socio-economic circumstances. The conception of the project was sound in so far as it attempted to tackle the problem of environmental degradation by a system of controlled management of scarce range resources. However, the question of increasing cattle off-take which could have also reduced grazing pressure on range resources was not addressed. The project's initial focus on the relatively well off category of cattle owners was corrected by incorporating a food-aid component to address project's concern for the poorer segment of the society. While it was a good idea, the use of food-aid took away the expected financial contribution of the local community to project management and financed a significant part of project activities. The paper welcomes the conception of the income generation components but finds their introduction rather arbitrary. The project's flexibility and its approach of participatory management are recognised as its main strength, which could assure sustainability of project achievements. In addition, the project is a good example of strong co-operative involvement of a number of development agencies in jointly solving the development problem and co-ordinating development assistance.