The SWEDD project in The Gambia has a value of US$25 million, which will be implemented in a five-year period. The Women Enterprise Fund is the implementing partner for the sub-component.
Officials said the six-million-dollar component, which is the smaller grant, will be disbursed to adolescent girls and young women aged between 15 and 24 in the country.
Alpha Humma, project manager, Gambia Women Enterprise Fund, disclosed that the sub-component has a value of US$6 million, which “the project intends to give as a grant” to adolescent girls and young women aged 15 to 24 years.
“The five-year project, which is funded by the world Bank, is targeting ten-thousand girls (10,000) within the five years and each year they are supposed to disburse to two thousand girls and women from all regions in The Gambia that are from vulnerable households,” the project manager said.
Also speaking on the occasion, Fatou E. Touray, chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Women's Enterprise Fund under the Ministry of Gender, said the SWEDD project is out to support the Ministry of Gender, mainstream adolescent girls to economically empower them to participate in the enterprise development to pull themselves out of poverty and other vulnerabilities.
The operational manual, she added, would go a long way in terms of facilitating the implementation of the grant, particularly regarding the criteria to provide the grants to young girls and women.
Roheyatou Kah, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Gender and Social Welfare, pointed out that the SWEDD+ Project was conceived to positively impact the quality of life and socioeconomic empowerment of adolescent girls and young women with focus on their sexual and reproductive health, education, and economic empowerment.
She said the validated small grant manual was developed as an outcome of the SWEDD+ sub-component on expansion of economic opportunities and financial inclusion targeting adolescent girls and young women aged 15 to 24 years.
These target beneficiaries, she added, include both school-going and out-of-school females with the objective of building their capacities for better employment and income generation.
“It is important to bear in mind that the purpose of this document is to focus on prioritizing adolescent girls and young women with disabilities and those from vulnerable households,” she stated. “Attention should also be made on identifying the right skills, the right training programmes, setting out a clear eligibility and evaluation criteria, institutional strengthening mechanisms, and most importantly good sustainability plan.”
She added that they had no doubt in the quality of the document prepared by the technical working group, as it would be critically reviewed.
She urged the participants to come up with a masterpiece that would stand the test of time, as “it is only through that we can take ownership of the document and proudly associate ourselves with the success of the project’s sub-component”.
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