updated: 12.05.08
pattern
Participatory Integrated-Watershed Management Project

The goal of the project is to empower poor communities in rural areas to undertake and maintain integrated watershed management activities, with the aim of increasing their incomes and protecting their natural resources. The project’s objectives include:

  • strengthening the capacity of rural communities and their service providers to manage the watershed in a sustainable manner
  • providing the resources local communities need to implement watershed management 

The project targets poor smallholders who depend mainly on upland crops and lowland rice cultivation for their livelihoods. In the lowlands the primary target will be women, for upland conservation farming it will be men, women and youth. Twenty years of experience in lowland development confirm that 85 per cent of those who benefit will be women and marginalized groups.

The aim is to provide a model for funding and implementation of community-driven land and water management activities, such as water retention, upland conservation and swamp access works, so that the model can be scaled up in future projects. The project uses a demand-driven approach, with rural poor people’s participation in planning and implementation. Activities will be initiated in the lowlands and will progressively include the uplands, to cover the whole watershed.

The project will build the capacity of the communities to set up village development committees and watershed farmers’ committees and to develop watershed management plans. It mainstreams gender and youth issues and fosters collaboration among partners. In collaboration with the IFAD-funded Rural Finance and Community Initiatives Project, it promotes use of rural credit.

Source: IFAD

In this section
Contact information

Mr Ebrima W.K.J. Camara
Deputy Permanent Secretary
Department of State for Agriculture
ebrima@gamtel.gm

Facts and figures

Total cost: US$17.5 million

IFAD loan: US$7.1 million

Duration: 8 years

Geographical area: lowland areas nationwide

Directly benefiting: 12,000 households

Cofinancing: African Development Bank (US$7.1 million)

Status: not effective

Partners

African Development Bank (AfDB), Department of State for Agriculture National Farmer Platform