The Gambia Social Safety Nets Diagnostic
Almost half the population remain poor, but the proportion has increased in rural areas and decreased in urban areas. Poverty stands at 48.6 percent nationally and almost 70 percent in rural areas; 21.3 percent are extreme poor, rising to 32.2 perc...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/655791528776477628/The-Gambia-Social-safety-nets-diagnostic http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30008 |
| Summary: | Almost half the population remain poor,
but the proportion has increased in rural areas and
decreased in urban areas. Poverty stands at 48.6 percent
nationally and almost 70 percent in rural areas; 21.3
percent are extreme poor, rising to 32.2 percent in rural
areas5. The poverty rate hasn’t changed much in five years.
The poor rely heavily on subsistence agriculture for income
generation, while informal jobs are predominant in urban
areas. The population is growing quickly, moving from rural
to urban areas, and an increasing share of young people are
suffering from unemployment or underemployment. Emigration
rates are also exceptionally high, providing remittances but
draining the country's future economic potential. The
Government has recognized the importance of coupling growth
with social protection to reduce poverty. The Government’s
National Development Plan (NDP) recognizes that economic
stabilization and growth must be accompanied by an
investment in the Gambian people in order to reach its
development goals: to build the requisite human capital,
improve living standards and power the economy. Social
protection can support the poorest to participate in
inclusive growth and economic development. A strong set of
social protection guiding documents have been prepared. A
National Social Protection Policy (NSPP) (2015-25) was
developed by the Government of the Gambia with the support
of development partners through a participatory process. It
defines the Government’s SP vision and agenda, and proposes
a set of priority actions to guide the gradual establishment
of an integrated and inclusive social protection system in
The Gambia. The NSPP is supported by a Social Protection
Implementation Plan (SPIP) (2015-20), which defines a set of
activities to implement the policy over the medium-term.
However, the Implementation Plan is not accompanied by a
financing plan to show how various activities will be funded
nor does it articulate who is responsible for implementing
the various activities. A minimum SP intervention package6
was defined in 2015, identifying several social protection
focus areas, aligned with the life-cycle approach. These
cover the life stages with the most at-risk vulnerabilities:
cash transfers for pregnant women and infants; school meals;
youth empowerment; and social pension for the elderly. |
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