FAO Representation

Special programmes in Gambia

The Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) began operations in 1994 following the Director-General's review of FAO priorities, programmes and strategies. This review concluded that there was an urgent need to focus on the following:

• Improving food security
• Increasing food production
• Improving stability of supplies
• Generating rural employment  

The main objective of the SPFS is to help Low Income Food Deficit Countries (LIFDCs) improve national and household food security in an economically and environmentally sustainable way. It advocates a participatory approach through demonstrating better ways of increasing production and identifying and resolving the range of constraints which are technical and institutional.

 It draws on Agenda 21, which was unanimously adopted at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro. This states that the major thrust of food security "is to bring about a significant increase in agricultural production in a sustainable way and to achieve a substantial improvement in people's entitlement to adequate food and culturally appropriate food supplies."

 The SPFS was introduced to the Gambia in 1997, with projects in horticulture, fisheries, livestock production and water management. South-South cooperation is an integral part of the SPFS mandate and technical experts from Bangladesh and Indonesia have worked alongside Gambian counterparts to support development in rice production, aquaculture, water control and management and horticulture and livestock production.

The SPFS is the FAO flagship programme to boost food production in order to decrease rates of hunger and malnutrition in an economically and environmentally sustainable way. It advocates a participatory approach through demonstrating better ways of increasing production and identifying and resolving the range of constraints which are technical and institutional. 

National Programme for Food Security

Due to these positive attributes of the programme, the GOTG through the support of FAO intends to elaborate a National Comprehensive Programme for Food Security with the objective of upscaling the SPFS pilot phase into a National Programme for Food Security (NPFS).  The NPFS will encompass all aspects of food security (including food availability, accessibility, utilization and stability of supplies.