Last update March, 2005

GAM/00/002 – Fight Against Social and Economic Exclusion

THE FIGHT AGAINST SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EXCLUSION (FASE)

FASE is a three-year programme funded by the UNDP and executed by the ILO. FASE supports UNDP's development objective to improve the socio-economic status of vulnerable groups particularly women and youth in the urban, rural and periurban areas, while ensuring participatory planning and improved management of development activities. Recognising the need to focus on enhancing the human capital of the poor, the mandate of the programme is to:

• Strengthen community responses to poverty;

• Promote the participation of the poor in their own development; and

• Foster national policies favourable to the poor.

The FASE programme operates in four divisions: Upper River Division (URD), Central River Division North (CRD-North), Western Division (WD) and the Greater Banjul Area (GBA). The national counterpart for the programme is the Department of State for Finance and Economic Affairs (DOSFEA), and the Strategy for Poverty Alleviation Coordinating Office (SPACO) is responsible for overall Coordination.

The programme has three strategic objectives:

• Empower women, youth and micro-entrepreneurs to develop capacities, sustainable income generating activities and viable micro enterprises;

• Strengthen capacity of public, private and civil society organisations by providing effective technical assistance, support savings and capital formation, as well as financial services to target beneficiaries; and

• Support national capacity to formulate policies and strategies to reduce poverty and reinforce synergy amongst poverty related development programmes to respond to the specific needs of target groups.

The expected outcome for FASE is that poor women, youth and micro/small entrepreneurs – supported by capable service providers - will be better able to maintain sustainable livelihoods and develop collective responses to break social and economic barriers that keep them from moving out of poverty.

To achieve the above objectives, the FASE programme employs a management team approach at central and regional/field office levels, and uses a participatory/demand driven strategy to address the needs of its beneficiaries. In turn, groups and individuals that benefit from various capacity building activities of the FASE project are normally linked to other service providers for access to micro-credit, technical advice, extension support, infrastructural development and marketing opportunities.

The programme works with both groups and individuals using existing community structures as an entry point for its interventions. Field officers in the Greater Banjul Area, Upper River Division and Western Division are responsible for co-ordinating activities at the grassroots level, which enables the FASE programme to reach out to the community in a well co-ordinated and holistic manner.

In the year 2003, a mid-term evaluation of the FASE project was conducted. This provided significant findings and recommendations to continue the project into a second phase.

In addition the mid term review of UNDP/Government of the Gambia Country Cooperation Framework held in 2004, concluded that FASE is the best UNDP project. As a result of the excellent work that FASE is doing in the area of poverty alleviation both Government and UNDP recommended that the project continues for an additional two years.

Implementation Strategies

In FASE II therefore, The programme will consolidate its innovative and effective strategy of addressing critical interrelated issues at the micro (target group), meso (institutional) and macro (policy) levels. Lessons learned from support at the micro level will be fed back into the programme' s work at the institutional and policy levels, while the interventions at those levels will be undertaken in order to enhance the impact and longer-term sustainability of poverty eradication at the micro level. The activities will build on and strengthen what has been achieved over the past three years, with the joint aim of increasing outreach, i.e. reaching more of the poor, and more poor people who have been excluded from services that would enable them to break out of poverty; and of deepening pro-poor interventions, i.e. ensuring that they are more geared to the demands of the poor and therefore have greater sustainability.

The 2003 project evaluation has also identified partnerships as a major strength of FASE, the existing partnership with collaborating agencies will be strengthened and new ones built as and when necessary for effective project implementation.

Social Marketing/Business Development Services

The programme has undertaken important work in the area of income generating activities and micro enterprise development, in particular by development of a basic business training programme (the Micro-enterprise Development Training Manual), building the capacity to deliver it, and supporting provision of this training to the target groups. It has also delivered skills training and supported the development and strengthening of associations of micro entrepreneurs and the self-employed. This work has proven effective and will continue.

The sustainability of these services is, however, questionable, given that their delivery depends entirely on subsidies. This is an issue for the provision of Business Development Services (BDS) in the Gambia in general, as recognized by the National Policy on Micro and Small Enterprise Development. The dependence on subsidies and the related lack of a market orientation among providers, results not only in limited sustainability, but also in restricted outreach, since funding is one of the main factors constraining delivery. As subsidies orient providers to sponsors rather than the poor, services often lack relevance, and there are large areas of the potential market for BDS that are not being served at all. 

The MSE Policy proposes a number of measures to address these issues and gradually work towards a more vibrant supply of and demand for BDS, to serve larger numbers of the poor. The project will support these measures in a number of critical areas, each of which are directly related to enhancing impact at the micro level, and each of which will contribute to the achievement of the three Programme Support Objectives accepted at the May 2002 TPR. 

Given the project's record in participatory needs assessment and interventions, and the ILO's international experience in fostering BDS markets, it is well placed to make key contributions to the development of services and strengthening demand. In this regard, the project will continue consolidation of the capacity to provide basic business management training and association building services. The project will also address two already identified gaps in the supply of business training: the key need for improving productivity in MSEs, without which they will not be able to compete with imported products or in larger markets; and the need for business training for larger micro enterprises and small enterprises that have potential to grow and generate incomes and employment for the poor. To address these gaps, the project will introduce two products that have proven successful elsewhere in Africa and other parts of the world, and build a capacity to deliver them:

•  A basic training programme on “Improving business through better working conditions”, which aims at enabling the self-employed and micro entrepreneurs to increase their productivity by improving the work environment and other aspects of working conditions. This programme targets the same level of enterprise as FASE's basic business training programme, and will complement it.

•  Improve Your Business (IYB), which targets somewhat larger micro and small enterprises. This is a materials-based modular programme that enables enterprises to realize their plans for improvement and expansion. Originally developed in Africa , it is now used all over the world. It has proven effective in terms of both employment generation and increasing incomes. 

•  Strengthening linkages with and capacity building of the Micro finance Institutions will be key strategies to enhance the building of effective linkages between project beneficiaries and the MFIs.

In support of the Millennium Development Goals and of national objectives, the project will also address the need to mainstream HIV/AIDS awareness rising in business training and increase HIV/AIDS awareness among providers of microfinance and BDS. This will contribute to prevention as well as to reducing social exclusion, including exclusion from employment and services. 

In support to developing more demand – oriented, accessible and sustainable BDS, and in line with the MSE Policy, will assist providers to develop and implement marketing strategies that will make services more affordable and promote them more broadly. This will increase effective from and accessibility for the poor. It will include marketing to and promotion associations, developing flexible delivery and payment mechanisms, and cost reduction strategies.

Social Protection

A review of the objectives of the PRSP reveals that social protection is an integral part of the poverty reduction process particularly with regards to targeting the very poor and vulnerable. The project will spearhead the extension of Social Protection into the informal economy of the Gambia , whereby the poor will be provided with social protection for both health care and micro insurance for their enterprises. A situational analysis of social protection in the Gambia has revealed tremendous prospects for a micro health insurance programme as all the communities surveyed have expressed both interest and willingness to participate in and contribute to its operations. Communities will be empowered to manage their own health programmes, where essential health services will be provided at all times. Capacities will be built especially at the level of the minor health facilities for the provision of basic services needed by the communities.

New areas of partnership will be built with the Department of State for Health in the area of Micro Health Insurance Schemes (MHIS) to be piloted in the Bamako Initiative intervention sites. Similar partnerships will also be built with Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs), resulting in the integration of Micro Insurance Schemes (MIS) in the programmes of the MFIs .