Background

The Regional Project for Sustainable Management of Endemic Ruminant Livestock in West Africa (PROGEBE) was conceived through the willingness of the participating states of The Gambia, Guinea, Mali and Senegal, the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and the African Development Bank (ADB) acting as funding agencies, to promote the development of trypanotolerant livestock breeding on a sustainable basis.

The genetic characteristics of trypanotolerant livestock are continuously being eroded through uncontrolled crossbreeding and at the same time the  natural habitats are being invaded by exotic livestock due to several factors such as high demographic pressure, climate change coupled with the impact of human activities notably deforestation, agricultural practices and occurance of bush fires.

The aim of the project is therefore to preserve and strengthen the genetic characteristics of endemic ruminant livestock on a sustainable basis, increase their productivity and improve marketing in a favourable institutional environment.

Project areas & beneficiaries
In The Gambia, as in all four participating countries, the project will intervene in 5 administrative districts, referred to as intervention sites, namely: Kiang West, Niamina East, and Nianija as primary sites and Kombo East and Sami as secondary sites.  These sites have been selected based on several criteria, and in particular; purity of the breed; presence of diversified production system involving all livestock breeds; the status of natural resources; the acuteness of the problem posed by the tsetse fly and geographical location. Initially the project activities will commence in the primary sites with the hope that the results and experiences gained could be replicated in the secondary sites.

Project objectives
It is expected that the project will contribute to the strengthening of food security and poverty reduction by achieving the following by 2013;

. 38% increase in meat production and 30% of milk production;
. At least 100% and 60% of income for overall "cattle & small ruminants mixed farms" and "specialised small ruminant farms" respectively;
. Crossbreeding between endemic and exotic breeds be reduced by 20%;
. Area (hectare) of endemic livestock habitat converted each year to other purposes (i.e.farmland,human settlement etc) be reduced by 20%.

Project organisation / structure
Being a regional project, it has a Regional Coordination Unit (RCU) hosted in the premises of the International Trypanotolerance Centre (ITC) at Kerr Serigne.  In each of the four participating countries, a National Coordination Unit (NCU) is established which in The Gambia, is located within the Department of Animal Health and Production, Abuko.  The NCU has a Coordinator, four experts (Animal Production, Natural Resources Management, Monitoring & Evaluation, and Finance and Administration), a secretary and other support staff.  At site level, each site has a coordinator, two technicians (Animal Production and Natural Resources Management), and three animators and other support staff.

For implementation of project activities, the NCU will work in partnership with local (national) and international partners based on their areas of expertise following memorandum of agreements signed between them. Taking into account its national dimension, PROGEBE-Gambia is supervised by a National Steering Committee and Local Steering Committees.

Sensitisation
As all is set for the full implementation of the project, the management team on April 16, 2009 organised an inception workshop at the Tendaba Camp, Lower River Region, to launch the activities of the project with the aim of improving visibility (sensitisation and marketing), strengthening and efficient mobilisation of all stakeholders around the project to ensure success.

The seminar was also a great moment for communication, and sharing of ideas with all national stakeholders on the objectives, strategies and program activities as per the respective project documents to promote the necessary synergy/ partnership. Specific objectives of the seminar among other things included Informing stakeholders as widely as possible of the project goal, create the environment for all stakeholders (project staff, beneficiaries, partners, authorities) to get to know one another and exchange ideas for the successful implementation of project activities and to ensure each stakeholder understands its roles and visa-vie that of the project.

The program for the seminar included a presentation on general livestock production in The Gambia and a film/ video show on the breeding program on trypanotolerant livestock of ITC. This was followed by special thematic presentation on animal production and genetic improvement and natural resources management as foreseen in the project plan.