An Evaluation of the Social Protection Project of the European Union Technical Aid in the Gambia (2020-2023)

Abstract

This paper examined the social protection project and the European Union technical aid in The Gambia (2020-2023). In 2018, the 6th round of Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) for The Gambia was carried out by the Gambia Bureau of Statistics with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as part of the global MICS program. The report confirmed that The Gambia still has a high poverty rate of (48.6%) out of about the total population figure of 2.09 million as at 2015, with 10.1% of the population living below the international poverty line, and inequality ratio of 35.9% (GBoS, 2019). This underscored the Barrow government’s decision in 2017 to redefine the national planning strategy that it inherited from the previous regime. This led to the re-drafting of a national agenda document for poverty reduction and national inclusion, The National Development Plan (2018-2021), that was implemented for social protection. This research focused on the actions and/or steps taken to correct the anomalies inherent in the enforcement process and those ones taken to ensure the set objectives of the program policy are realized and actualized through the EU-assisted project implementation from 2020. The research methodology was strictly qualitative, using the purposive/selective sampling method of data collection. The data collected from primary and secondary sources were descriptive and analytical in nature. The primary sources were the interview questions asked from the selected sample population, while the secondary sources were relevant literature on the social protection project in The Gambia and beyond its shores. The findings confirmed that the program was hampered by the Gambian government’s poor policy implementation framework, which the Barrow government re-structured to align the national implementation model in partnership with international donor agencies like the European Union and the World Bank. This informed the 2020-2023 project implementation by the EU through technical aid and the EU-Gambia cooperation. The paper recommended for the full implementation policy in line with the advice given by the experts and other stakeholders for program implementation realization agenda in the spirit of national considerations for unity, cohesion, development and sustainability to eradicate poverty and penury in the country.