Gambia, The - Social Safety Net Project (English)

Ratings for the Social Safety Net Project for Gambia, The were as follows: outcomes were highly satisfactory, the Bank performance was satisfactory, and the monitoring and evaluation quality was high. Some lessons learned included: the goals of the program were clearly communicated at every step of implementation, leading to high beneficiary satisfaction. Communication efforts around the role of women in the Nafa program led to over 95 percent of households selecting a female beneficiary, far surpassing the target. Community validation of the beneficiary lists obtained from the GamSR through the PMT led to buy-in from non-beneficiaries and allowed for smooth implementation. A key feature of GSSN was its emphasis on creating the building blocks of a national social protection system (coordinating institution, social registry, national M&E framework, MIS, social safety nets program), ensuring their inter-operability and embedding them into the country's institutions. A full component was dedicated to the creation of some of these building blocks, with clearly outlined steps to ensure coordination of the various stakeholders. These building blocks are currently being institutionalized through policies, bills and regulations, which alongside strong government ownership will help ensure sustainability.