EU CooperationThe Gambia-

JANUARY EDITION, 2013

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: THE NATIONAL AUTHORISING OFFICER SUPPORT UNIT (NAOSU)Tel: (+220) 439 9626/5 or Email: info@gambia-ec.gm

DELEGATION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION TO THE GAMBIA 74, Atlantic Road Fajara, P.O. Box 512, Banjul, The Gambia. Tel: +220 4495 146 / 4497 846. Website: www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/gambia/index_en.htm

A MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF THE GAMBIA - EU COOPERATION.

of understanding will formalise this cooperation in respect of geographical indications.

ARIPO is based in Harare, Zimbabwe, and brings together 18 member countries (Botswana, the Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and 12 observers.

The following names have been proposed as candidate for GI protection in joint work carried out by the EU and the African Union: • Zanzibarcloves(clousdegirofles)fromTanzania*• RiftValleyCoffeefromTanzania*• Sidamo coffee from Ethiopia• Rooibos from South Africa• Karoo lamb from South Africa• Beurre de karité du plateau Massif from Burkina Faso• Miel blanc d’Oku from Cameroon• Poivre blanc de Penja from Cameroon• ShamasheabutterfromGhana*• GhanaFineFlavourCocoa*• Café Diama from Guinea• RwandaMountainCoffee*• MountKenyaRosesfromKenya*• NgoroNgoroMountaincoffeefromKenya*• Rodrigues Limes from Mauritius• KarakoelpeltfromNamibia*• Senegal Yett• WestNiledistrictcottonfromUganda*• WestNileHoneyfromUganda*(* = ARIPO member country)

The administrative memorandum of understanding can be accessed at http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/developing-countries/gi/memorandum-aripo/text_en.pdf.

More information on the Commission’s quality policy is available at http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/quality/index_en.htm and on ARIPO at http://www.aripo.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=1&Itemid=18

For further information:Roger Waite: 02 296 1404

The European Commission signed in Zanzibar (Tanzania) a cooperation agreement with the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) to improve the protection of traditional agricultural products (geographical indications or “GIs”) in Africa. This will involve, among other matters, promoting the GI legal framework, informing producers and other stakeholders and enhancing the public’s awareness of GIs and their potential for African producers.

Dacian Cioloş, Commissioner for Agriculture andRural Development, said: “This cooperation will result in better protection for farmers’ traditional and indigenous products across Africa. This is an important initiative, which will help secure the interests ofAfricanfarmers.”Headded,“Iurgeofficialsonbothsides to work together and with stakeholders to make the geographical indications programme a reality in 2013. This will make a strong contribution to the FAO’s International Year of Family Farming in 2014.”

Speaking at the opening plenary of the 36th session of ARIPO’s Administrative Council, where the agreement was signed, Dr Gift Sibanda, ARIPO’s Director General, declared “I am delighted with this agreement. We took a strategic decision last year to develop geographical indication protection. Through this cooperation with the Commission, we hope to build a system of effective GI protection, suited to African farmers’ needs.”

BackgroundThe (non-legally binding) agreement is an administrative memorandum of understanding in which the Commission’s agricultural department and ARIPO undertake to work together in development of GIs. The EU has developed over time a comprehensive scheme of protection of geographical indications, which encourages diverse agricultural production, protects product names from misuse and imitation and helps consumers with information on specificcharacteristics of products.

In December 2011 the ARIPO Council adopted a decision to develop a system for protection of geographical indications. The Commission has worked with ARIPO through regional seminars to promote the use of intellectual property rights in inter-regional and international trade. The present memorandum

Commission supports protection of food and agricultural products’ names in Africa

The EU has approved the MDG Initiative Project on improving food security through crop production intensification and school feeding programme in theGambia to the tune of Euro 7.6 million.

The goal of the project is to improve food security and reduce hunger in the intervention areas thereby contributing to the Gambia’s achievement of MDG 1c.Ithastwocomponents,thefirstbeingproductionenhancement under the responsibility of the FAO and focusing on rice and 8 major horticultural crops in the targeted areas. The second component is a school feeding programme and marketing, under the responsibility of

the World Food Programme (WFP), which purpose is to supply nutritious food to school children and serve as a catalystandan incentivetofarmers, targetedbythefirstcomponent, to produce large quantities to be sold directly to the school feeding programme. The project has two sets of target groups. The targeted beneficiariesforthefirstcomponentoftheprojectcomprisesmallholder farmers in selected districts in the Gambia. The project will enhance the ability of participating households to increase the productivity of their farm with the potentials of producing in excess of their consumption requirements.

Beneficiaries for second component include schoolchildren, farmers, producer groups and entrepreneurs engaged in processing andmarketing. Beneficiaries willreceive training in production, processing, value addition technologies and marketing support with the aim of developing viable and sustained markets for farm produce.

School going children will receive food supplementation for dietary enrichment on a daily basis. Key actors in the school feeding programme will receive training on proper management and nutritional education. Criteria such as potential capacity of production or level of malnutrition are used to select the targeted districts and schools.

The European Union approves €7.6 Million Project for MDGs Initiative in The Gambia

On Tuesday 18th December 2012, the President of the Commission Jose Barroso announced that the prize money of the Nobel Peace prize will fund four projects

under the EU Children of Peace initiative. Together with the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, Barroso pointed out that the prize money aims at supporting children as the most vulnerable victimsofwarsandconflicts.Intotal, thedonationwillaccountfor2millionEurosandbenefit24,000childrenin selected projects focusing on education in conflictregions. The money will be distributed to renowned and trustworthy humanitarian organisations which implement projects in Iraq (Syrian refugees), Ecuador (Colombian refugees), Congo, Ethiopia and Pakistan.

Nobel Peace Prize money dedicated to 23,000 children affected by wars and conflicts

EU CooperationThe Gambia-

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A new EU Platform which will provide recommendations and guidance on the use of blending in the external cooperation of the European Union, to unlock additional public and private resources and thereby increase the impact of EU external cooperation and development policy. The establishment of the Platform is an important step towards further increasing the effectiveness of aid delivered by the European Union through blending mechanisms. Blending has a positive effect on growth, jobs and people’s daily lives and helps partner countries to attract much needed investment.

Since 2007, the European Commission, together with Member States, has set up eight regional blending facilities, covering the entire region of EU external cooperation. €1.5 billion grants from the EU budget, the European Development Fund (EDF) and Member Stateshavefinancedmorethan320operationsofEUblending mechanisms. The EU grant contributions to individual projects have leveraged more than €20 billion of loans by eligible finance institutions,unlockingprojectfinancingofatleast€45billion,inline with EU policy objectives.

The work plan agreed for 2013 includes a review of the existing blending mechanisms and the development of a common results based framework to measure impact. Technical groups including the European Commission, the European Investment Bank (EIB), other European bilateral and multilateral finance institutions and those finance institutionswhich participate in the EU blending mechanisms, will work together on these issues sharing expertise

and developing innovative new ideas for the future.This arrangement is applicable to the Gambia, especially under the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund which was launched in 2007. This Trust Fund encourages the financing of infrastructure programmes that facilitateinterconnectivity and regional integration on the African continent.TheGambia canpotentially benefit from theTrust Fund, particularly with regards to energy. Access to adequate, affordable and reliable energy supply is crucial to support the socioeconomic development of any country. Under pillar 2 of PAGE, the government places strong emphasis on the energy sector for the acceleration of growth and employment.

The country’s current electricity transmission and distribution network is very limited. Currently only 35% of the population primarily in the Greater Banjul Area has access to electricity. Through opportunities like this new EU platform, the Gambia can access much needed funds to develop its electricity generation capacity along with transmission infrastructure.

The country also has some potentials to tap renewable energy sources that are in widespread use in countries around the world such as wind, solar, hydro, biogas, biomass, and geothermal. However, these potentials are not fully exploited. With access to such funding sources, the exploitation of these potentials will greatly enhance our energy sector for development.

For more informationWebsite of EuropeAid Development and Cooperation DG: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/index_en.htm

The application form for the Call for Proposals(Key Action 1) of the Jean Monnet Programme is published at the following site:

http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/llp/funding/2013/call_jean_monnet_action_ka1_2013_en.php

The deadline for the submission of applications is 15 February 2013.

DG EAC and EACEA draw your attention to the following aspects:

Since 2012, applications can only be sent online. Any other form of application will not be taken into account; for this reason, we advise you not to wait until the very last minute to submit your application – technical problems are always possible;

Make sure that you are within the right programme and have completed the correct form, see at http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/eforms/index_en.php;

All applicants fulfilling the requiredconditionsare invitedto submit their applications. Previously unsuccessful applicants should by no means be discouraged by this fact – the Commission has a limited amount of funds per year and is therefore compelled, on budgetary grounds, not to financemore than approximately 20% of applications; itdoes not necessarily follow that these applicants will not be successful within a new application.

The Commission thanks you for spreading this information as widely as possible among all interested parties in order to ensure that the programme remains of a high quality and is well represented worldwide.

Jean Monnet Program - Key Activity 1Call for proposals 2013

With respect to component 1, the project provided based nutritious daily meals up to 72,759 school children (45% above the original target of 50,000 children) into 73 schools (55% above original target of 47 schools). 605 MT of peas, 2299 MT of rice, 307 MT of oil and 53 MT of iodinated salt have been delivered during the project with the assistance of the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education. The quality of the meals given to the children was unanimously recognized as excellent by all – children, school administration, parents, teachers, etc. For sustainability of the project, a major achievements was the successful implementation of trainings on management, gardening, nutrition etc, of school and food management committees, community members, garden masters, head masters and deputies, cooks, school children, as well as mothers’ club members and other stakeholders.

The stated objectives of the EU funded school feeding programme are: (i) increasing enrollment in target schools; (ii) maintaining regular attendance in target school; (iii) reducing dropout rates; (iv) promoting EUD in selected pre-schools; and (v) increasing enrollment, regular attendance and exam pass rates, particularly the girl child.

The evaluation concluded that the right policy environment was in place in The Gambia, and the project had developed the systems and tools required to assure sustainability, but there was a huge challenge with respect to availability of resources.

This EU funded project of € 2.64 million was implemented from September 2010 to July 2012 by the World Food Programme (WFP). The overall objective of the project was to respond to the food insecurity of the Gambian population most affected by increasing poverty and the high food price shocks of 2008. The project had two components (i) Targeted Urban Food for Education Support: this school feeding component provided daily meals to school children in the urban areas of the country and was implemented with the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education; and (ii) Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping, including the set up of a Food Security monitoring system, aimed at informing and guiding prioritization of government and donor interventions (for instance during the 2012 crop failure crisis).

Theprojectwasrecentlyevaluated.Thefindingshaveindicated that the project was judged to be a highly relevantinterventionandreflectedthepolicyprioritiesand concerns of Government and the European Union. The evaluation considered that the project design was sound and its formulation was participatory, rigorous and fully transparent. The evaluation highlighted the goodefficiencyandeffectivenessoftheproject,thushighlighting WFP’s good work, as nearly all the results and key areas under the project have been achieved by July 2012 and information provided by the VAM was considered as crucial for decision-making.

EU funded vulnerability identification and targeted urban food for education project registers

impressive results

HappybeneficiariesoftheEUfundedWFPSchool feeding programme

EU funded food items to WFP School feeding programme

EU launches new Platform for blending funds in external cooperation