The Gambia, UNDP and FAO have joined forces to mitigate Climate Change impacts on agriculture and national development
6th March, Banjul - About 4 in 5 people in The Gambia are dependent on agriculture and the natural resources sector for their livelihoods. The agriculture sector alone contributes about 30 percent to GDP. Tourism and Fisheries are also key sectors of The Gambian economy. All these sectors face unprecedented risks and challenges induced by climate change. The Agricultural sector is one of the most vulnerable to climate change impacts due mainly to its high dependency on rainfall. A significant number of workers within the sector live below the poverty line.
The Gambia’s vulnerability to climate change impacts is being compounded by limited knowledge and capacity at both institutional and individual levels, scarcity of technical information on current and emerging risks, and weak coordination and planning for effective response mechanisms.
On 6th March 2018, The Gambian Government in close partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the United Nations Development Programme launched a project aimed at mitigating the risks and challenges posed by climate change to the peace, security and sustainable development of the Gambia. The one-year intervention is entitled “Integrating Agricultural Sectors into National Adaptation Plans (NAP-Ag)”, a global programme that aims to integrate climate change concerns related to agriculture-based livelihoods within existing national planning and budgeting processes. The programme is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), through its International Climate Initiative (IKI). It targets eleven countries and calls for country-driven and country-specific approaches.
The intervention will help strengthen technical and institutional capacity and improve advocacy and knowledge-sharing on national adaptation planning. It will also support the formulation of roadmaps and improve evidence-based results for adaptation planning.
In his opening statement, Omar A Jallow, Minister for Agriculture highlighted the relevance of the NAP-Ag programme to The Gambia. He stressed the need for growth in food production and productivity needs to meet the food demands of the growing population, within the framework of the need to also reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the agriculture sector. He lamented the devastating impacts of climate change on agriculture (including fisheries, aquaculture and forestry) and rural development especially in the least developed countries.
“A common obstacle for integrated frameworks is the sharing of data and other resources amongst ministries and agencies. At the same time, effective integration of climate change adaptation planning requires a coordinated, cross-sector approach among multiple ministries”, he noted.
Minister Jallow lauded what he described as the “consistent technical and indeed financial support from United Nations agencies FAO and UNDP” noting that the government is cognizant of the magnitude of support provided in “our quest for all-inclusive Nation building”.
Lamin Dibba, Minister for The Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources in a statement noted that adaptation is a necessity if we are to combat poverty, malnutrition, loss of lives and property projected to increase from climate hazards. “This call for mainstreaming climate change into the economic development process is a felt need for us as a nation”, he stressed in a statement read on his behalf. He underlined the urgency to adopt new coping strategies with a well-thought out adaptation planning and financing mechanisms to help safeguard efforts aimed at making agriculture a business particularly for our youth and women.
Ade Mamonyane Lekoetje, United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Representative also spoke on the relevance of the intervention. She explained that in the past 30 years alone, The Gambia’s rainfall has decreased by 30%, producing impacts on the Agricultural sector that are impossible to ignore. She stressed the need for climate-smart innovation within the sector to increase resilience, strengthen sustainable livelihoods and drive inclusive economic development. She however noted that this can only be done with the integration of agriculture into national adaptation planning. Ms Lekoetje reiterated UNDP and FAO`s commitment to the successful implementation of the project. She said that the implementation of the intervention will contribute to eradicating poverty under a stable environment, as a key development priority of the Gambian government.
Perpetua Katepa-Kalala, FAO Country Representative in a statement said that Agriculture holds the key to successfully achieving the objectives and aspirations articulated in both the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change. Agricultural production is becoming increasingly unsustainable because of recurrent floods and droughts. Given this, she hopes that the programme will be accorded the needed attention by all stakeholders especially those in the Agricultural sector and reaffirms FAO’s technical commitment to partner with the government throughout the implementation of this very important project.