NATIONAL DROUGHT OPERATIONS PLAN

The GAMBIA

MARCH 2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION 1: GENERAL INFORMATION ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 5

SECTION 2: COUNTRY DROUGHT PROFILE ........................................................................................................................................................................... 6

SECTION 3: INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS .................................................................................................................................................................... 13

SECTION 4: RISK TRANSFER PARAMETERS ........................................................................................................................................................................ 17

SECTION 5: SCENARIO DEFINITION AND GEORGRAPHIC COVERAGE ............................................................................................................................. 17

SECTION 6: INTERVENTION DETAILS ................................................................................................................................................................................... 22

SECTION 7: M&E FRAMEWORK AND PLAN ........................................................................................................................................................................... 48

SECTION 8: PROGRAM RISKS AND ASSUMPTIONS............................................................................................................................................................. 50

SECTION 9: DEFINITION OF STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES ................................................................................................................................ 51

ANNEX 1: LIST OF LOCAL PARTNERS ................................................................................................................................................................................... 54

Acronyms

ARC: African Risk Capacity ARV: Africa RiskView DDMC: Regional Disaster Management Committee FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization FIP: Final Implementation Plan GCRS: Gambia Cross Red Society GAFNA: Gambia Food and Nutrition Association GPPA: Gambia Public Procurement Authority GRCS: Gambia Red Cross Society GIS: Geographic Information System IFMIS The Integrated Financial Management Information System LGA: Local Government Authority MCNHRP: Maternal and Child Nutrition and Health Result Project MDFT: Multi-Disciplinary Facilitation Teams MISP: Minimum Initial Service Package MoA: Ministry of Agriculture MoHSW: Ministry of Health and Social Welfare

MoICI: Ministry of Information and Communication Infrastructure MoWCI: Ministry of Works Construction and Infrastructure MRC: Medical Research Council NACU: National Association Credit Union NaNA: National Nutrition Agency NDMA: National Disaster Management Agency NEA: National Environment Agency NFO: Nutrition Field Officer NGO: Non-Governmental Organization TWG: Technical Working Group RDMC: Regional Disaster Management Committee UNICEF: United Nation International Children Emergency Fund VDC: Village Development Committee WFP: World Food Program WHO: World Health Organization

Source: Republic of the Gambia, NDMA

SECTION 1: GENERAL INFORMATION

Name of Country: The Gambia

Contact Person for Country Operations Plan Executive Director – National Disaster Management Agency

T.+220 439 9537 T. +220 439 9538 info@ndma.gm

Step1: Provide a brief overview of ARC, parametric weather insurance, risk of drought, and the purpose of the operation plan.

In The Gambia, the majority of the population relies on rain fed agriculture, with over 60% of the population dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods and 78% of the active working population employed in the sector. As such, the livelihoods of millions of Gambians are vulnerable to natural hazards, including droughts. In The Gambia, droughts are the key hazard affecting most vulnerable households. Although they do not occur as frequently as floods, the number of people affected by droughts far exceeds that of any other hazard as can be seen in the diagram below.

The African Risk Capacity (ARC) provides parametric weather insurance coverage to African governments for agricultural seasons in case of drought. This is done using

Africa RiskView, the ARC’s software application developed to define the country’s drought risk, manage the risk pool and trigger early disbursement of funds. In return

for premium payments into the mutual ARC Insurance Company Ltd, governments are eligible to receive a payout of up to USD 30 million. Droughts significantly threaten

the livelihoods of Gambia’s most vulnerable population, as there is only one rainy season, June – October, there is little chance for recovery if the rainy season is poor.

For example, following the 2011 harvest failure, the post-harvest assessment found that farmers’ food stocks from their own production could only cover 3-4 months

1968-2012 Natural Hazards in The Gambia

Source: National Disaster Management Agency

after the harvest compared with the usual 6-7months. In these circumstances, poor households and communities turn to negative coping strategies such as reducing

food intake, selling productive assets (such as livestock) at low prices, and using seeds for household consumption. To respond to this, the government is required to

mobilize funds, either internally or from its partners, this has in the past put a strain on government resources and when reliant on mobilization of international funds,

appeals have been largely underfunded. The ARC’s provision of guaranteed quick-disbursement of funds in the event of a severe drought would allow the government

to mobilize a response with its partners without delay.

The Government of the Gambia has prioritized the development of more effective disaster risk management policies, these are evident in the passing of the National

Disaster Management Bill and Policy in 2008 which led to the establishment of the National Disaster Governing Council and its secretariat the National Disaster

Management Agency that same year. The bill emphasizes the importance of developing effective strategies to address disaster risk management. The National Disaster

Management Strategic Action Plan further sets out the priorities for implementing the bill and policy. The ARC provides the government with an effective tool to reach

its objective of mobilizing more effective emergency and disaster services.

SECTION 2: COUNTRY DROUGHT PROFILE Step 2: Describe the general pattern of rainfall and seasonal calendar.

In The Gambia the topography is largely unvaried consisting of riverine flats and mangrove swamps intersected by tidal creeks and savannah woodland with shrub and grass. Twenty percent of the country is classified as wetlands. The Gambia is situated in the Sahelian zone of the West Coast of Africa and the climate is tropical with a distinct dry and rainfall season. The rainfall season runs between June and October.

In the uplands the soil is largely cultivated under the responsibility of men. In this area the major crops are groundnuts (about 45 percent of the cultivated area), early millet, maize, sorghum, late millet, cotton and upland rice in decreasing order of importance; horticultural crops are also grown. The lowlands are largely the responsibility of women. The main crop is rice, grown in the wet season using hand cultivation on approximately 20 000 ha, primarily along the middle and lower reaches of the River Gambia. In the dry season, vegetables are cultivated in the lowlands. In The Gambia the preferred staple food is rice which is usually cultivated as a subsistence crop.

The Gambia Technical Working Group of the ARC, composed of experts from Department of Water Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, National Environmental Agency and NDMA were responsible for customizing Africa RiskView (ARV).This group selected the ground nut as a reference crop for this analysis as it is the primary rain-fed crop that is cultivated in the country. The highest incidence of vulnerability to food insecurity is found among households whose primary livelihood sources are from the sale of cash crops, such as ground nut. The Gambia has a population of approximately 1.8 million (Gambia Census 2013). More than half of the population resides in areas that are predominantly urban and these areas have the highest rates of vulnerability to food insecurity. The highest population density is concentrated in the Local Government Area of Brikama and the

Kanifing Municipality. Typically the population that resides in Banjul and the surrounding area are farmers that spend part of the year in the rural areas where they are engaged in farming activities or they send part of the family to the rural areas where they engage in farming and they trade their produce in the urban area. Africa RiskView has currently included the vulnerabilities of these households in the urban and peri-urban areas. There are plans to undertake a more comprehensive analysis of the sources of livelihoods for these populations and to attribute them to specific geographic areas across the country in the coming year. The Gambia experiences a severe national drought approximately once every ten years, with smaller scale national drought events occurring once every 3-4 years. The drought situation tends to be part of a regional crisis characterized by late, unevenly distributed and erratic rainfall during the cropping season leading to crop failure and poor quality harvest. In the last twenty years, Gambia has experienced a national drought in 2003, with an estimated 142,000 people affected and more recently in 2011, with approximately 520,000 people affected.

Step 3 Insert pictorial version of your country’s seasonal calendar (e.g. FEWSNET or others). If possible, include major agricultural activities and timeframe and major regular

surveys and assessments and major meetings/gatherings/workshops related to agricultural activities and drought and timeframe. Make sure to cite your source. Table 1: Seasonal Calendar

Seasonal calendar source: http://www.hewsweb.org/hazcal/

Table 2: Agricultural Surveys and Assessments

The Gambia JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

Rainy Season

Drought Risk Sowing/Planting Maize Maize, rice, sorghum,

millet, groundnut

Harvesting groundnut maize Maize, rice, sorghum, millet

Groundnut

Lean Season

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

Pre-Harvest Assessment (MoA, DWR, CILLS, FAO, WFP)

Post-Harvest Assessment (MoA, DWR, CILLS, FAO, WFP)

National Agricultural Sample Survey (NASS) (MoA)

Ministry of Agriculture Annual Food Security Workshop (MoA, CILLS, FAO, WFP,NDMA NaNA and NGOs)

Weekly Market Price Survey (Ministry of Agriculture)

Step 4: Describe the general country drought conditions for the past 10 years (2004-2013). Please refer to the work performed by the ARV Customization TWG in generating a consensus list of past drought events. If possible, list key regions/provinces impacted by the drought and add references to any other supporting evidence, if available, to describe the food security condition around the drought event (e.g. a severity classification scheme used by your food security Early Warning processes such as from ARV or IPC). Note: the descriptions in red are an example of how one might characterize or classify the historical drought conditions.

Table 2: Historical Drought Conditions

Key Location Year

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

National (National Multi-Sectoral Needs Assessment Report, 2011)

No record No record No record No record No record No record No record National

crop

failure

affecting

twenty

five (of

thirty

nine)

districts.

520,000

people

affected

by food

insecurity

No record No record

Where possible, include Africa RiskView output and graphs along with any other information available and relevant to explaining the country historical drought profile.

The first chart above was compiled from multi-disciplinary post-harvest needs assessments and WFP Emergency Operation reports. It lists the number of people affected by drought since 1990. The second graph compares Africa RiskView (ARV) estimates of number of people affected with data compiled from Government and WFP Emergency Operation (EMOP) reports. Africa RiskView uses current population and vulnerability data to estimate the impact of past events if they were to occur today. A multi-sectoral team of experts from the Government of The Gambia undertook a process of testing and customising the software parameters, the outcome of this work resulted in a series of historically affected people as can be seen above. While the magnitude of the impact of the events may not reflect that of the historical data, taking into consideration changes in population, changes in vulnerability and other events that may have compounded the number of people affected, the multi-sectoral team agreed on selected parameters. The historical data shown above is based on emergency intervention reports, therefore, the years in which there was a deficit in rainfall and no emergency appeal was made are not accounted in the historical data, rainfall and agricultural reports were used to verify the magnitude of the problem in those years as part of the customization work. This work was validated by a multi-stakeholder group on 11 March 2015 in an event hosted by the National Disaster Management Agency. Step 5: Describe the impact of drought in your country in the past 10 years in terms of number of individuals/households requiring assistance. At a minimum complete row A, which shows the number of affected as defined by the ARV output. If there are other official sources of vulnerability numbers for historical years, please list in rows B

and C, making sure to include the source name. Include additional graphs, charts, and statistics where appropriate.

Source: Gambia ARC Technical Working Group compilation from government and

WFP reports

87500

142109

520000

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

1990/91 2002/03 2011/12

Drought Historical Data

Source: Africa RiskView software/WFP EMOP Reports

Table 3 Historical Impact of Drought

Impact of drought by data source

Year

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

A # of affected as estimated by ARV - - - 174,801 5,151 17,909 159,781 195,027 87,243 17,555 45,996

B # of affected determined by Post Harvest - Ministry of Agriculture and WFP

- - - - - - - 520,000 - - -

Step 6: Describe the historical response to drought in your country in the past 10 years in terms of number of individuals/households who received assistance. Where

possible, indicate the program activity (e.g. cash transfer, food assistance, etc.) and the source or implementing partner (e.g. WFP, Government). Row D provides the

format of how you should present the information (if possible). Rows E-G provides examples of possible sources. UNICEF, etc

2011-12 Drought

In 2011, late, erratic and unevenly distributed rainfall resulted in a significant decline in the agricultural production in The Gambia. A joint post-harvest assessment led by

the Ministry of Agriculture and WFP, conducted in 2011, estimated that 520,000 people were affected by the drought. Overall the crop production was estimated to have

dropped by 62% compared to 2010 and by 50% compared to the five year average. As a result of the poor harvest, the period that subsistence farmers could source food

from their own production was reduced from six or seven months to an average three or four months. In the areas worst affected, food availability was below two months.

Child malnourishment was up to 11.4% in rural areas, reaching the highest record since 2006. In March 2012, the Government issued a Crop Failure Emergency Declaration.

Out of the thirty-nine districts of The Gambia, twenty-five were affected by crop failure; nineteen were classified as most affected indicating that their incomes are dependent

on agricultural activities and that they did not have sufficient income from other sources. Six districts were classified as borderline affected implying that they were indirectly

affected by the drought. These districts were characteristically poor urban areas at risk of food insecurity due to high food prices, ongoing recovery from previous shocks and

faced with additional economic pressures caused by borrowing and migration from the most-affected rural areas.

Response: Source: JOINT HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE TO THE CROP FAILURE OF MARCH 2012: LESSONS LEARNED WORKSHOP

Food/Cash Distribution

The following total tonnage of food and cash were distributed to 229,955 beneficiaries from April to December, 2012 - 12,166 MT - D10.6 Million

The total number of beneficiaries reached by October 2012 surpassed the initial target of 206,000 (229,955)

The first round of food distribution by WFP started in Central River Region begun on 16 April 2012 under an Immediate Response Emergency Operation (IR-EMOP). At least 62,500 beneficiaries were targeted.

The Emergency Response (EMOP) targeting all other regions started by the end of May 2012. It targeted to 206,000 beneficiaries in the 19 most affected districts.

Under the food distributions of the EMOP 38,000 children ages 5-59 were also targeted for Blanket Supplementary Feeding (BSF)

The borderline affected population of 75,000 were targeted by the Gambia Red Cross Society, Action aid and other NGOs. Different actors including FAO, provided seed and fertilizer support, cash vouchers or even direct funds/food contribution directly to the Government.

Nutrition, Water Sanitation and Hygiene

The CERF contributed USD $135,649 for activities in nutrition and WASH response. In collaboration with the National Nutrition Agency and the MoHSW, UNICEF had procured 600 cartons of Plumpy Nuts and 1051 cartons of BP 100. A total of 399 Plumpy Nut cartons and 335 BP 100 cartons were distributed in all regions reaching a total of 764 children.

UNICEF procured Vitamin A (80,000 doses for children 6 – 11 months old), 800,000 doses for 12 – 59 months old and 800,000 doses of de-worming tables for 12 – 59 month olds. They were provided to the Ministry of Health through NaNA to supplement and de-worm children, prevent micronutrient deficiency and anaemia amongst vulnerable groups of children•

In terms of WASH interventions, UNICEF procured 10 drums of calcium hypochlorite to treat water points in 19 affected districts and supported the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to conduct water quality monitoring and treatment in affected areas. ,

703 water points disinfected.

2600 water containers (1300 of 10l and 1300 of 20l collapsible containers), 2043 cartons of vortex bleach, 2527 packets of soap and 1200 packets of water purification tablets were prepositioned and distributed in all of the 6 regions.

Resource Mobilization

Total Central Emergency Relief Funds (CERF) mobilized and received at the onset of the operations was $4.8M. Total resource needs for food assistance component of the emergency response was $11,357,441 of which $10,132,783 was mobilized

The table below lists the emergency response activities implemented in 2012 to address the crop failure of 2011.

Response to drought By activity and source

Year

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

D # of individuals assisted with cash transfer. source of information WFP, RDMC-URR

- - - - - - - - 20,000 -

E Individuals assisted through supplementary feeding sources: NDMA/NaNA/WFP/ MoH

- - - - - - - - 37,049 -

F Individuals assisted through therapeutic feeding sources: UNICEF/WFP/MoH

- - - - - - - - 3,164 -

G Individuals assisted through emergency targeted food/cash distribution Source: JOINT HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE TO THE CROP FAILURE OF MARCH 2012: LESSONS LEARNED WORKSHOP

- - - - - - - - 229, 955 in severely affected districts and 75,000 in borderline districts

-

H Enter other data sources, if available

SECTION 3: INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS Step 7: Describe the existing institutional arrangements in place to manage a drought response. The section can refer to other documents for more details, but these documents should be provided as annexes to the OP.

7.1 Does existing national policy and legislation related to drought exist? If yes, please give more details. Is there existing national policy and legislation related to other disaster risk management issues? If yes, please explain.

The national disaster response mechanisms are generally outlined in the National Disaster Management Act enacted in 2008. This Act provided for the establishment of the main institutions dealing with disaster management in The Gambia; the National Disaster Governing Council (NDGC) and the National Disaster Management Agency. The NDGC is the supreme body in charge of disaster management in The Gambia. It is chaired by the President of the Republic and is composed of sector ministers, The Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Executive Director of NDMA, the National Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator, and The Association of NGOs (TANGO). The NDGC advises the government on disaster management and ensures the implementation of strategies and policies. It also advises H.E. The President on aid needs, agreements and state of emergency declarations. The NDGC is supported at the national level by its secretariat, the NDMA. Established in 2008, the NDMA is headed by an Executive Director. The NDMA is responsible for administrative matters related to disaster management and prevention and ensures policies and strategies are implemented at the national and local levels. In 2014, a multi-stakeholder process led to the drafting of the National Contingency Plan, 2014-2016. This plan lists drought as one of the key hazards for the country and a priority in the contingency plan.

7.2 How do existing early warning (EW) processes function? What information are produced regularly, how is the analysis, do partners have access to that information, how helpful is the EW in detecting/mitigating drought and what are the major constraints

In October, supported by the permanent interstate committee for drought (CILSS), a joint Pre-Harvest Assessment is conducted on an annual basis at each district. Led by the Ministry of Agriculture’s Department of Planning, in collaboration with the Gambia Bureau of Statistics, Department of Water Resources at the Ministry of Environment, Water Resources Climate Change, parks and wildlife, NDMA, Food and Agricultural Organisation, World Food Programme, and FEWSNET. This pre-harvest assessment determines the food security situation, crop production, access to food in markets, household income and the expected needs of the households. The assessment is supported by extension workers at the district level of the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health and the District Disaster Management Committees of the NDMA. The findings of this assessment are compiled in a report which states the number of people affected and how long their food stocks are expected to last before they require assistance. This information allows decision makers to determine the required action. The Ministry of Agriculture, through its Minister is required to report on the findings to the National Disaster Governing Council and through this channel the Office of the President is also informed. Press releases, radio and other media channels are used to communicate the findings of the

needs assessment on a national level. If required a declaration of emergency will be made by the President. The National Disaster Governing Council advises the President on making such a declaration. This advice is based on the rapid pre-harvest assessment data collected and the culminating report. In 2014 the pre-harvest assessment was financed jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture and WFP. The latter provided the logistics to support the field visits. The assessment cost approximately GMD 20,000 and was complete in a 5 day period. Currently, there is no set line item in the budget for this pre-harvest assessment. In the event that there is an indication of a problem – either by the results of the pre-harvest assessment or information received from the District Disaster Management Committees, the NDMA will authorise a Rapid Needs Assessment and then a follow up Multi-sectoral Needs Assessment. The rapid needs assessment is conducted in a 2-3 day period, it is based on literature reviews of key monitoring reports and additional data collection through questionnaires and interviews of households selected through random sampling within the affected areas. The multi-sectoral needs assessment uses the same methodology, but relies on a more comprehensive review of literature and more comprehensive interviews and questionnaires.

7.3 Describe the existing contingency planning (CP) procedures for drought.

In 2014, a National Contingency Plan was drafted for the period 2014-2016. This plan identifies the following as the key hazards affecting The Gambia: drought, flood and windstorm, disease outbreak, population movement and pest invasion. The Contingency Plan presents the best, worst and most likely scenarios for each of these hazards. It also specifies the early warning indicators and potential emergency relief operations that can be triggered for each hazard and specifies the responsible implementing ministry or agency and its supporting partners. The National Contingency Plan also specifies the procedures for each of the emergencies, for drought the following procedure is in place: the first step following the pre-harvest assessment, would be the national declaration of an emergency by H.E. The President. Subsequent to this, the Executive Director of the NDMA will be responsible for activating the Contingency Response Plan and setting up of a Crisis Unit comprising of key government and partner humanitarian actors for the coordination of an emergency response. At this stage an inter-agency rapid needs assessment team will need to be deployed and expected to complete the assessment within 48 hours. This will be coordinated by the NDMA’s Deputy Executive Director. On the basis of this assessment a first status report will be prepared by the inter-agency team. An initial response will be launched, the Gambian Red Cross Society will be responsible for coordinating this initial phase of the response through its regional offices across the country. The NDMA Logistics Officer will prepare an overview of the contingency stocks to guide government on the needs and this will determine the mobilisation of emergency resources.

7.4 Describe the drought response coordination mechanism. Make sure to indicate coordination between government and major non-government institutions and the coordination between the national and regional institutions Indicate whether institutions in charge of mitigating drought have office in drought prone regions? Describe in detail the regional linkages.

Within the context of coordinating drought response, the National Disaster Management Governing Council (NDGC) is the overarching body for emergency response and preparedness activities. The Secretariat of the NDGC is the National Disaster Management Agency, which also serves as the technical arm of the National Platform for Disaster Risk Management. The NDMA coordinates and monitors the implementation of drought response. The NDMA is supported in this process by the Ministry of Agriculture, FAO, WFP Ministry of Finance, International NGOs, including as Concern Universal Gambia, and Gambia Red Cross Society in their formation as the national al, Action Aid The technical working group. There is a Regional Disaster Management Committee (RDMC) which is composed of key partners in disaster management at the regional level. Key institutions such as NDMA, GRCS, MOA, DWR, FAO, NaNA, and Forestry Department have Regional Offices. The RDMC is accountable to the NDMA and is supported by a Regional Disaster Coordinator. The work of the RDMC is decentralised in every district through a District Disaster Management Committee (DDMC).

Step 8: Describe how a pay out from the ARC insurance policy would be considered or managed within the larger country early warning and contingency planning processes defined for drought.

8.1 How does the ARC OP fit within (link to) national and sub-national contingency and operational planning processes and coordination mechanisms?

In the National Contingency Plan for The Gambia (2014-2016) the ARC is listed as one of several financing tools available to the Government of The Gambia in the event of drought. The ARC Operations Plan builds on the existing coordination structures that exist in the country from the central office of the NDMA or the NaNa through to the regional and district offices of these agencies in addition to the extension workers of the Ministry of Health. The ARC Operations Plan also channels funds to safety net programmes that have been used previously in parts of the country in emergencies and are also listed as part of the response plan in the National Contingency Plan. These parallels allow the ARC to complement existing national plans and structures, it also means that the ARC can be part of a wider national emergency response.

8.2 Please briefly describe how an ARC pay out might be used to supplement a potentially larger response? Describe what you might do with a payout of 4.8 million USD Describe what you would do with a payout of 2 million USD Describe what you would do with a payout of less than 20,000 USD

In the case of a severe nationwide drought $4.8 million would be required to reach 75,000 people in immediate need of humanitarian assistance. This will be split between $3 million for an unconditional food/cash distribution and a $1.8m supplementary feeding programme for Moderate Acute Malnutrition focussing on screening of children 6-59 months and pregnant and lactating mothers (15,000 potential beneficiaries) In a moderate widespread drought, unconditional Food and Cash Distribution - $1 million would be needed to reach 20,000 people and the supplementary feeding programme costing $1million for 8,300 beneficiaries In a sub national drought affecting 5-7 regions a payout of up to $20,000 would be split between $10,000 for food or cash assistance and $10,000 for supplementary feeding. The beneficiary numbers would be 200 and 80 respectively

8.3 Please provide details on what government agency will manage the ARC funding, including bank account details.

The ARC payout will be received by the National Treasury into a Basket Fund, this is a fund within the national treasury in which all donor funds are received and can be used promptly to specified accounts dedicated to specific programmes. There will be a dedicated ARC account, and upon deposit of the ARC payout into the Basket Fund, funds will automatically be transferred to this dedicated ARC account. This is done through the Integrated Financial Management System used by the Ministry of Finance. From this account funds can be transferred to finance activities, specified in the ARC Final Implementation Plan, directly to implementing ministries, agencies, partners or service providers and suppliers directly. The Accountant General at the National Treasury and one other authorised signatory will be required to approve fund transfers. The process of transferring funds out of the dedicated ARC account can be completed in 24 hours.

SECTION 4: RISK TRANSFER PARAMETERS

Step 9 : Define the risk transfer parameters based on the configuration of African Risk View (ARV). Note: This data will not be finalized until after ARV configuration is complete, but please complete what you can with the best available information.

Coverage period Year: 2015

Season: June – October 2015

Expected payout frequency 1:5

Maximum payout $5,000,000

Risk transfer level: 8,768,000

Estimated premium: 569,618

SECTION 5: SCENARIO DEFINITION AND GEORGRAPHIC COVERAGE

Step 10: Define a set of scenarios based on possible payout amounts1. The objective here is to determine four possible scenarios that are different enough to result in changes in how a country might spend the ARC funding, thus causing a different set of procedures to be implemented. We have provided some standard benchmarks. Please replace the highlighted sections with what makes the most sense in light of your country’s contingency planning processes.

1The risk indicator (or what determines the severity of the drought and ultimately the size of a payout) is parametric satellite rainfall data. These data are fed into African Risk View (ARV)

and combined with other pre-configured data on population vulnerability figures, costs of activity implementation, etc. to determine the payout amount.

Table 4: Scenario Definition

Scenario Description

#1: No pay out Average year with regards to rainfall. No payout from ARC insurance is expected.

#2: Small pay out Below average rainfall, coinciding with an expected ARC payout of less than USD 20,000.

#3: Medium pay out Below average rainfall, coinciding with an expected ARC payout of USD 2million.

#: 4 Large pay out Well below average rainfall, coinciding with an expected ARC payout of the ARC maximum of USD 4.8 million OR the country maximum based on the risk transfer parameters.

Step 11: Define current ‘at risk’ areas and estimated numbers of affected people based on different pay out scenarios. List all potential areas that could potentially be

impacted by drought and thus eligible for ARC funding. Use ARV data using historical rainfall from small, medium and large pay out years as the source of your information unless there is another reliable and authoritative source available. Please clearly reference any alternative source of this information. The objective of this step is to better understand the magnitude of impact based on the severity of the drought2.

2Here we assume that a small payout is related to a less severe drought. This assumption is based on the simulation which uses historical rainfall data to find a year or years which would have triggered a certain pay out based on the scenarios (e.g. USD 500,000, USD 5 million, USD 30 million) and then calculates the number of people affected based on the most recent vulnerability profiles sourced from household data. We recognize that this is only simulated data and does not include all the relevant information that might impact vulnerability numbers (e.g. market dynamics, conflict, etc.); however it provides a starting point by which to better understand the required size of a response under different scenarios.

Table 5: Geographic Coverage of Drought by Scenario

Admin Level 1: (Region/Province) Total

Population

Estimated number of vulnerable people under each pay out scenario

No pay out

Small pay out# and %

Medium Pay out # and

%

Large pay out # and

%

Greater Banjul Area 1,052,712 - - 19,280

Kiang 30,168 - - 10,123

Niamina 37,961 16,527 13,500 16,527

Lower Saloum 15,881 7,835 7,835 7,835

Lower Nuimi 57,358 17,802 18,471 18,471

Fulladu East 131,011 - 13,975 13,975

Fonis 60,389 - - 13,292

Jarra West 27,205 154 2,000 2,315

North Bank West 53,612 16,070 13,133 16,496

Central River North 83,227 38,839 38,839 38,839

Janjanbureh 88,949 22,807 22,807 22,807

Upper River North 108,905 - 8,965 10,472

Jarra Central and East 24,988 - 9,912 10,469

North Bank East 110,084 39,747 45,590 45,590

TOTAL 1,882,450 159,781 195,027 246,491 Use the lowest level of granularity within ARV (the level at which the household survey data we have is statistically representative)

Step 12: Describe how the government currently conducts a needs assessment in times of drought. Needs assessments are conducted jointly with the participation of major government institutions and humanitarian partners in The Gambia. While overall coordination is conducted at the central level by the NDMA, overall data collection and reporting is decentralized at the regional level through the leadership of the Regional Disaster Management Committee. Data collection is conducted at the grass-roots level through established structures at the district and ward level. Standard household interview tools are used to guide the overall data collection process while information are complemented through focus group discussion and observation.

12.1 When is a needs assessment likely to be conducted and what are the criteria used to make the decision? Do you conduct other preliminary surveys before conducting a need assessment ( quick surveys, specific market, nutritional surveys)

An initial Pre-harvest Assessment is conducted in October on an annual basis. Supported by CILSS, this assessment is conducted in each district. The assessment is led by the Ministry of Agriculture’s Department of Planning, in collaboration with the Gambia Bureau of Statistics, Department of Water Resources at the Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources, NDMA, Food and Agricultural Organisation, World Food Programme, and FEWSNET. This Pre-harvest Assessment determines the food security situation, crop production, access to food in markets, household income and the expected needs of the households. The assessment is supported by extension workers at the district level of the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health and the Regional Coordinators of the NDMA. The Ministry of Agriculture, through its Minister is required to report on the findings to the National Disaster Governing Council and through this channel the Office of the President is also informed. H.E. The President is responsible for declaring an emergency. Subsequent to this, a rapid needs assessment is conducted under the coordination of the NDMA’s Deputy Executive Director. This takes into account the crop production, market assessment, household food stocks and income. On the basis of this assessment a first status report is prepared by an inter-agency team. This will guide the initial emergency response. A Rapid-Needs Assessment is conducted when there are indications – either from the Pre-Harvest Assessment or information received from the District Disaster Management Committees that there are concerns relating to food security. This assessment is conducted over a 2-3 day period and authorised by the Office of the President. A Multi-Sectoral Assessment is conducted following the Rapid Needs Assessment, it is conducted over a 2 week period and is authorised by the Office of The President.

12.2 What tools and methodologies are used to conduct the assessment?

The Rapid Needs Assessment relies on a number of different tools for its methodology: - Literature review: Key monitoring reports and bulletins are reviewed, these include nutritional surveillance

reports, agricultural sampling surveys, market price monthly reports, and early warning reports. - Data Collection: Key informants are interviewed, these include the governor/mayor’s office, office of RDMC and

grassroots NGOs. Focus group discussions with village committees and other representative groups. Household surveys, these households are selected through random sampling.

The Multi-sectoral Assessment uses the same tools for its methodology but conducts a more comprehensive analysis and relies on a bigger sample size for its data collection.

12.3 What are the steps involved in the needs assessment process? Please list them.

The initial Post-harvest Needs Assessment is completed in a one month period – two weeks allocated to field visits and two weeks allocated for report writing and validation. The process is as follows:

Training of data collectors

Sensitization of communities

Household data collection

Focus group discussion

Analysis

Report writing

Reporting and dissemination The Rapid Needs Assessment conducted following an emergency declaration is completed within 2-3 days and the Multi-sectoral Assessment is conducted within two weeks. They both rely on information already gathered in the Post-harvest Assessment and additional information gathered from discussions with the sub-national Regional Disaster Management Committees.

12.4 Who conducts the need assessment? Is the process consensual and does it include non-governmental agencies ( NGOs, UN agencies)

The Rapid Needs Assessment and the Multi-sectoral Assessment is led by NMDA and the UN agencies: information from independent needs assessments carried out by NGOs – Gambia Red Cross Society, Concern Universal is compiled and included in the overall report.

12.5 What type of coordination occurs during the implementation of the needs assessment?

The disaster management coordination structure is decentralised in The Gambia. The District Disaster Management Committee from each district provides information to the Regional Disaster Management Committee. The National Disaster Management headquarters relies on the Regional Coordinator in the RDMC for information for the needs assessment. The RDMC works closely with regional offices of NGOs including Red Cross Gambia and Concern Universal. The Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Water Resources and NDMA headquarters staff reinforce the regional teams conducting the needs assessment. WFP and FAO provide logistical support for the field visits.

12.6 What is the timing around regular needs assessments?

Early Warning Reports are conducted pre and post-harvest, October and February and if these are giving signals of crop failure, the NDMA and UN agencies will immediately act on this information to launch a Rapid Humanitarian Needs Assessment.

12.7 How is the needs assessment paid for?

The needs assessment is funded by government and partners jointly. In 2014, GMD 200,000 was allocated to a Rapid Needs Assessment (Approximately 5000 USD) funded by Ministry of Agriculture and WFP. Currently there is no regular budget line for the needs assessment, it is funded on an ad hoc basis each year.

SECTION 6: INTERVENTION DETAILS Step 13: Briefly list the proposed interventions in the event of an ARC payout. Each intervention should have:

i. a short name; an intervention type which describes the main function of the intervention;

1) Unconditional Food or Cash Transfer/ Supplementary Feeding 2) Supplementary Feeding for Children 6-59 months and Pregnant and Lactating Mothers

ii. a flag to indicate whether the intervention is a scalable (program exists in non-drought times but intends to be scaled in the event of drought) or an emergency intervention (implemented strictly during times of need);

iii. a brief description of the intervention. In this table enter a brief description of the interventions selected to be funded under ARC insurance payout. You will go into detail of each intervention in the next section.

Table 6: Summary description of interventions that can be funded in the event of an ARC pay out

Intervention Name Intervention Type

Please select from list in Table 7

Program type (tick box that applies) Description

1. Unconditional Food/Cash Distribution

B and D Emergency

Purchasing and distributing food and/or cash to drought affected households to protect assets and the future agricultural cycle.

2. Supplementary Feeding for MAM

F Emergency

Securing the welfare of under 5s and mothers in the drought period

Table 7: Intervention Types

Intervention Types

A Cash Transfer – conditional G Distribution of food stamps, vouchers, coupons

B Cash Transfer – unconditional H Nutrition supplement

C Cash Transfer – for Assets I Seed distribution

D Food distribution –need based J Water trucking

E Food distribution – for Assets K Borehole development

F Supplementary feeding L Other [ Enter name here]

Step 14:

a. FIRST INTERVENTION 4.1 Enter name of intervention. This should be a short name that can be easily referred to in the rest of the Operations plan.

Unconditional Food/Cash Distribution

14.2 Enter the type of intervention. The intervention type describes the main function of the intervention (e.g. cash transfer, food for Assets, etc.). Please select from the list, if possible.

Indicate whether this intervention is [ ] Scalable [x ] Emergency [ ] Other __________________

14.3 Enter a brief description of the intervention: This five-month emergency operation will enable The Gambia to provide food or cash assistance to up to 300,000 people in the 19 most-affected districts with the aim to prevent increased food in security. The specific objective is to improve food consumption of targeted households, whose food security and nutrition have been adversely affected by the drought, enabling them to pursue their livelihood activities without depleting their household assets. Since beneficiaries are expected to access food from other sources, the ration for targeted unconditional food distributions will provide 1,706kcal per person per day, corresponding to 80 percent of total energy requirements. It includes rice and vegetable oil in line with the food preferences of the targeted population. Alternatively, the cash equivalent of this ration will be distributed if market conditions allow, giving vulnerable households greater control over their drought response strategies. This emergency operation would be based on the findings of joint assessments, including the post-harvest assessment and a multi-sectoral emergency needs assessment. It will be designed in consultation with the Government and other partners. The intervention is planned for a

period of five months after the end of the harvest (December – April). It will address the food assistance needs of the most vulnerable households, about half of the drought-affected population in most-affected districts, while the Government and other humanitarian partners, based upon this catalytic intervention, will be expected to provide assistance to the remaining affected households. Where markets are functioning effectively, cash can be distributed in amounts equivalent to the cost of the food ration as above. Cash transfer has been implemented in The Gambia for the past 5 years. NGOs (Concern Universal, Action Aid the Gambia and Gambian Red Cross Society) implemented this activity during the response to flood related disasters. The Gambian Red Cross Society is relied upon for this implementation due to their strong and long standing presence at the community level across the country. The largest scale of a cash transfer program was during the 2012 Sahel food crisis emergency response. WFP through its Emergency Operation in response to the drought supported 2,800 families in the Upper River Region (URR) region for a period of two months. Concern Universal, through its local partners, implemented the programme (Annex 1 details these local partners). The structures in the Gambia have the capacity to scale up the implementation and monitoring of the cash transfer. Concern Universal have local partners in all of the regions. Specifically, the National Disaster Management Task Force will allocate the resources for the intervention to regions according to the outcome of the needs assessment. Decisions will be taken at the RDMC level on whether to intervene with food or cash on a region by region basis: for simplification of logistics each RDMC will either handle the distribution of food or cash, but not both.

14.4 Explain why this intervention activity is a good option for ARC funding. How does it meet the ARC eligibility criteria (time-sensitive and/or catalytic; livelihood saving and able to be completed within six months)3? What livelihood groups are the major beneficiaries (e.g. farmers, agro pastoralists, pastoralists, fishermen, women, etc) This activity is selected as there are legally mandated national structures that work with humanitarian stakeholders to carry out this activity according to the eligibility criteria. There are currently no social protection structures in the country so interventions will be carried out on an emergency basis. The ARC payout has the potential to protect a large proportion of the population in need in the immediate aftermath of drought induced crop failure. In a drought scenario the food stocks at the household level and therefore cash or food distribution would support the vulnerable households with their immediate needs.

14.5 Who are the possible implementing partners of this intervention? Please list the names and key contact information for all partner organizations. If the implementation is expected to be decentralized (e.g. lower-level administrative units select the implementing NGOs) please list the key contact person for each admin unit in the table below AND as an annex, provide a list of the NGOs (by admin unit) capable of implementing the activity.

3 For more information on the ARC eligibility criteria please refer to the ARC Contingency Planning Standards and Guidelines.

Name of Partner Organization

Name of contact at organization

Telephone number

Email address Responsibility and role in Implementing activity

NDMA Lt Col. Alhajie Sanneh

9977255 macds3@yahoo.com Coordination Targeting Distribution Monitoring and Evaluation Procurement

Ministry of Finance

Mr. Abdoulie Jallow

9966523 liejallow@hotmail.com Receipt of funds from ARC Payment to implementing Agency Enabling

Ministry of Health

Modou Njie 9939851 Modounjai2002@yahoo.com Distribution Monitoring Evaluation

World Food Programme

Vitoria Ginja 4494784 vitoria.ginja@wfp.org Procurement Capacity Building /training

Gambia Red Cross Society

Buba Darboe 980 2242 buba.darboe@redcross.gm Targeting (through regional offices) Food Distribution Monitoring and Evaluation

Concern Universal

Ismaila Jarjou 439 6072 Ismaila.jarjou@concern-universal.org

Targeting (through local NGO partners) Monitoring and Evaluation

Regional Coordinators of NDMA and Head of Regional Disaster Management Committees

West Coast Region Binta Sey Jadama 998 8716 bbsey@ndma.gm

Lower River Region Lamin Saidy 999 6717 lsaidy@ndma.gm

North Bank Region Modou Ceesay 395 1550 mbkceesay@ndma.gm

Central River Region Baboucar Fofana 999 7109 bfofana@ndma.gm

Upper River Region Mawdo Amadou Jallow 704 1104 mamadou@ndma.gm

14.6 In the event of a payout, how will funds flow from the Government account to each implementing partner? Explain what checks are in place to ensure the funding flows in a timely manner and can be tracked. Please be as specific as you can. Again, if decentralized, explain how the funds will move from the National account to the regions/districts and what checks/paper work is completed to ensure this happens in a timely manner.

At the Final Implementation Plan stage, the government will assess conditions at the time and will determine whether the Ministry of Finance will directly procure food for the food distribution activity or whether funds will be transferred to WFP to procure from regional warehouses and suppliers. The NDMA will be responsible for procuring the services of a Financial Services Provider who will distribute cash to beneficiaries. They will be supported by District and Regional staff of NDMA, Extension Health Workers and the regional staff of NGOs. The NDMA, Ministry of Health and other implementing partners will request funds for staff and operational costs, the Final Implementation Plan (FIP) will specify the allocated amounts and the Ministry of Finance will provide funds on this basis. The Ministry of Finance can transfer funds out of the specially created ARC recipient basket fund to implementing ministries and partners as well as service providers within 24 hours. Two staff members from the National Treasury, including the Accountant General will be required to oversee and approve these fund disbursements. The Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), an efficient portal used by the Ministry of Finance to generate financial reports and to monitor expenditure. For the implementation of the food distribution activity, the targeting process generates a list of beneficiaries which are sent to NDMA through its Regional Offices. The village level committees that implement the distribution of rations are required to report which beneficiaries collected their rations on a monthly basis. For the implementation of the cash transfer, the financial service provider will set up distribution points. At these distribution points, DDMC and Village Community Team are present to verify the identities of the beneficiaries against a list generated through the targeting process. The financial service provider is required to submit a financial report which lists the beneficiaries that collected their cash and specify the amounts collected. In addition the DDMC representatives will submit reports to the RDMT who in turn reports to the NDMA headquarters on the beneficiaries that collected their cash, this is done after each distribution, on a monthly basis.

ARC Insurance Company Ltd

Ministry of Finance National Treasury

Basket Fund - ARC

Ministry of Health NDMA Ministry of Finance –

Procurement Department Other

Implementing

Partner Financial Service

Providers

Food Suppliers RDMC

DDMC

NDMA F

un

d flo

w

Procurement Operations

WFP

Step Description:

1 Description: Requisition by the Regional Disaster Coordinator / NGO partner Responsible officer: Regional Coordinator Checks: Governor/ Mayor

2 Description: Approval By Executive Director -NDMA Responsible officer: Executive Director Checks: Secretary General Office of the President

3 Description: Request funds from Ministry of Responsible officer: Finance Assistant Checks: Executive Director

4 Description: Payments Responsible officer: Finance Assistant Checks: Executive Director

14.7 Define the Unit Cost (cost per beneficiary) to undertake this activity for 1 month. This amount should include the value of the benefit as well as procurement, transport, and administrative costs. Please include in an annex supporting documentation on how these costs were estimated (e.g. use the ARC OP budget tool). If there is no supportable information on how this unit cost might rise/fall by the different pay out scenarios, please put the same number in each box. Unit Cost under Scenario #1: USD: _____________ (only if scalable project is ongoing) Unit Cost under Scenario #2: USD: ______$10_______ Unit Cost under Scenario #3 USD: ______$10_______ Unit Cost under Scenario #4 USD: _____$10_______ Budget Breakdown based on 2011/12 intervention (Source: WFP EMOP)

For 5 month intervention based on figures from 2012 intervention

Quantity Value

Food 15.8mt 8,300,000

Transport 1,200,000

Landside Transport, storage and handling

1,000,000

Other direct operational costs 1,600,000

Indirect Support Costs (WFP) 843,742 Population

Total 12,943,742 246,491

Cost/Person/month $10

14.9 In the event of a drought/ARC pay out, please describe in as much detail as possible how the targeting for this activity will occur.

What type of targeting mechanism and criteria will be used?

Targeted unconditional food distributions: Targeted unconditional food distributions will reach drought-affected vulnerable people. The intervention can in the most severe drought scenario, cover the 19 most-affected districts in the following five regions: West Coast Region, Lower River Region, North Bank Region, Central River Region and Upper River Region. The NDMA, in collaboration with WFP and national partners, are defining vulnerability criteria for household targeting following a community-based approach. Priority will be given to households with subsistence farming as the only income source, households not receiving any remittances, and female-headed households. Beneficiaries will be identified by the NDMA’s Regional Coordinators in consultation with the district and village representatives. Through regular coordination meetings, NDMA, with support from WFP, will ensure that other food security interventions-such the provision of seeds and fertilizers by FAO and food distributions by the Gambia Red Cross Society-are complementary in terms of targeting and outreach. Although a previous market study indicated that markets in the Gambia have potential for cash or voucher-based interventions, food transfers are still considered to be more appropriate in

some cases because of inadequate food supplies in some geographical areas in the drought emergency context.

Targeted unconditional cash transfer: The first step necessary is to conduct a multi-sectoral needs assessment. The assessment will determine which areas are most affected by the emergency food crisis and what sectoral needs are on the ground. The assessment, led by the Ministry of Agriculture, will be carried out in partnership with the UN, Ministry of Health, and the NGO community.

The next step is to involve communities in targeting households. This will be done in a participatory manner, whereby NDMA in collaboration with the Multi-Disciplinary Facilitation Teams (MDFT), comprised inter alia of government extension staff and train GCRS volunteers, will facilitate the communities in the targeting process using pre-defined criteria to identify the affected households. The list of the selected households will then be displayed openly within the community for confirmation of the list. A complaints mechanism will be in place to clarify/process any complaints arising from the households that have objections to the process.

Contacts will be made with each community and village assistance committees will be formed at each village level. Linkages will be established and communities will be informed that this intervention is only to protect them against the food insecurity and not part of any Government social safety net programme. This component is very important as the vulnerable groups might consider it as a long term intervention and once this support is withdrawn it may trigger some kind of inconvenience and tension within the communities.

Sensitization will be done to ensure that the most vulnerable households are selected for the programme and they are also sensitized on avoiding any negative coping strategies. This will also contribute to promoting integrated social protection strategies based on traditional mechanisms. There is no data available on the individual households from social protection systems so planning is required to factor in the identification of the most vulnerable households applying the community based targeting. NDMA with support from the Gambia Red Cross Society and WFP will supervise the overall implementation and monitoring of the activities. Targeted unconditional food distributions will be coordinated through the NDMA and its decentralised bodies, and will be implemented by joint teams comprised of NDMA regional and district staff, Ministry of Agriculture extension workers, Gambian Red Cross Society regional staff, WFP and community members.

NDMA, through their regional structures, will identify district disaster management officers, food management committees and warehouse managers to work closely with WFP food monitors for planning, implementation and reporting. Partnerships: Partnerships with NGOs will be formalized through field-level agreements. Cooperating partners will prepare food distribution plans, with technical support from WFP, submitting monthly distribution reports, narrative reports and a final report. Participation: NDMA will work closely with WFP and NGO counterparts to establish and train food management committees at village level, through which communities will be involved in the delivery and distribution of food assistance. NDMA will work to strengthen the participation of women in food management committees, ensuring that they represent at least 50 percent of the committees’ members. Women will also be encouraged to collect the rations on behalf of their families.

Who will do the targeting? The communities will be mobilized to form village assistance committees who will facilitate the selection of eligible households, they will ensure families restrain from negative coping mechanisms, children receive due attention and their basic needs are met on priority and no cash is misused. The village assistance committees will receive support from the regional and district staff of NDMA. The multi-sectoral rapid needs assessment on vulnerable households will also identify the households with needs. This is done at the village level by district staff of NDMA with the support of extension workers and regional staff of NGOs. Potential claimholders for the cash grants will be identified through a community based selection process. Public awareness campaigns and consultations on food distribution/cash grants will be held in each region down to the village level, mobilizing the Multi-Disciplinary Task Force (comprised inter alia of government extension staff and train GCRS volunteers) to educate people on the proper utilization of these adjusted amounts and its provision only during emergency and no commitment for future once the project funds are over.

Appeal and Grievance Committees will be established or strengthened where available for each community councils to resolve and address such arising issues. This ensures the process of targeting is fair and participatory.

How will the targeting be paid for? The targeting will be budgeted for as part of the ARC funded intervention.

Is there any process of verification of targeting?

In addition to the community targeting, the NDMA, working with the Gambian Red Cross Society, conduct wealth ranking questionnaires with a specific criteria. This self-targeting process will be used to support the validation process and to cross check the status of the beneficiaries selected by the community targeting process.

When will the targeting take place in relationship to the ARC pay out?

Whilst rapid assessments will inform the procurement process, the targeting exercises can be completed within a two to three week cycle and can commence immediately after the pay-out has been disbursed , whilst the procurement process is proceeding

14.10 Does this intervention require the procurement of goods or supplies? If yes, please give more details. For instance, do you buy from national/local markets or from other countries; be specific in each column how, who and timeframe for purchases internationally Both options are agreed upon that purchases of food could be done nationally and outsides

How will procurement take place?

FOOD OPTION A GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT Procurement: Commodities will be procured nationally if available or regionally and internationally. This will be done by the Procurement Department at the Ministry of Finance through its registered suppliers. The procurement will be expedited using the emergency procurement process which allows procurement without approval from the Office of the President. Logistics: Non-food inputs: FOOD OPTION B WFP PROCUREMENT Procurement: Commodities will be procured regionally and internationally at the most competitive prices, in line with WFP standard procedures. Logistics: Internationally procured food will arrive through the port of Banjul delivered by the supplier and regionally procured food will be delivered by road to WFP’s main warehouse to be dispatched to partners’ warehouses or final distribution points by commercial trucks. A letter of guarantee of the government’s

further transmission of funds for the procurement of food upon receipt of the ARC payout will allow WFP to begin procurement process even before the ARC fund is received by the Government. Non-food inputs: WFP will provide a range of non-food items required for the implementation, including pallets, tarpaulins, measuring tins, scales, calculators and record-keeping tools. WFP will also provide computer equipment, electronic scales, measuring tapes and fuel to field enumerators in order to enhance food security and nutrition surveillance. CASH PROCUREMENT The cost of the payment agency includes the fee that is charged by the service provider per household to deliver their payment at a central location, where selected beneficiaries are invited to collect their quarterly payments. Currently they are charging (US$3.5) per household per payment. Apart from that the total amount is also insured to avoid any unforeseen losses. The budget also includes the insurance cost. Due to the previous experience of implementing this activity, Action Aid and/or Concern Universal will be called upon to support community mobilisation, organisation and information but they will not be responsible for payment distribution. This will be handled by the financial service provider, with protection from the police and also supervision from the Regional Disaster Management Committees and village elders. The services provided by the payment agency are:

Preparing per household payment according to the payment list and its packaging, coding and registering in the system;

Transporting the cash to distribution points and ensuring its security;

Distribution of cash among intended beneficiaries after proper verification and collection of supporting documents including stamping, scanning and coding beneficiaries pass books;

Final reconciliation and returning any undistributed amount. The Government procurement system is flexible to outsource the procurement service to WFP in the event that NDMA do not still have the capacity to do the procurement. This would be done using the delegated management contract provision in the Gambia Procurement Act. In this case the Ministry of Finance will disburse the funds to WFP to do the procurement. This not require any limit to an amount.

Who is responsible for procurement?

Option A: Ministry of Finance receives the money from ARC Insurance Company and procures services of financial service providers. The fund is then transferred to the accounts of the identified service provider through the NDMA following GPPA procurement Rules

Option B: The budget holder is the government. WFP supports the government with capacity building on Emergency Procurement and Logistics prior to and in readiness for any ARC payout. In the event that there is an ARC payout and the NDMA still lack the capacity to do the procurement then the WFP will be

outsourced to do the procurement by the Ministry of Finance. In the case of the later WFP procurement rules shall apply.

What are the timelines around procurement?

Option A: Emergency procurement procedures allow for payments to be made without approval from the Office of the President. As per the provision of Gambia public procurement Act 2000, the Government will outsource to WFP to purchased food and fortified foods in the event that the NDMA is not capable. This means that the Ministry of Finance will be asked to transfer the funds directly without going through a multitude of steps. This also applies to other service providers who may have comparative advantage at the time. All of these action steps can be completed within 90 days

Option B: The standard procurement timetable is two months. In a situation where a guaranteed minimum payout is known in advance, MoUs can be incorporated into a FIP whereby WFP can deploy any existing stocks and supplies and also commence the procurement process using reserve funds.

14.11 Please list all the items to be procured and the possible procurement sources:

Rice : 22 500 MT Local, regional or international depending on the rice availability

Oil: 1 125 MT Local, regional or international depending on the rice availability

14.12 Please describe in as much detail as possible how cash/goods will move from procurement to implementing partners to the targeted beneficiaries. Explain what checks are in place to ensure the cash/goods reach the targeted beneficiaries in a timely manner and can be tracked. WFP will provide logistical support of transporting food from the warehouses to the distribution points. On the basis of a contract signed with WFP, transporters are responsible for transporting commodities from WFP warehouses to the distribution points. The food commodities deliveries, accompanied by a waybill, are made to distribution centre warehouses, in the presence of NGO partners and community committees. However, before deliveries are made, the NDMA sends a notification to the local authorities at regional and district levels involved in the food assistance intervention. The process will allow for a minimum of 1 weeks to deliver the food commodities to the communities.

Step Description

1 Description: Commodities delivery to distribution point Responsible officer: Disaster Management or WFP Logistic officers Checks: Disaster Management or WFP Programme Officers

2 Description: Commodities reception Responsible officer: Implementing partners Logistic officers Checks: Programme Officers

3 Description: Commodities distribution Responsible officer: Communities distribution committee Checks: Village Committees

14.13 How will the implementation of this intervention be monitored?

Does the implementing partner have a monitoring system in place? If yes, please describe this system in as much detail as possible. Is it paper-based? The information gets keyed into an MIS system? Excel? Who can access the information

Food: NDMA will refine existing evaluation (M&E) tools for this operation, including food basket monitoring questionnaires, daily distribution reporting forms, food distribution lists, house hold data collection and food movement forms. NDMA with Technical support of the WFP will monitor a range of outcome and output indicators. Monitoring schedules have been developed to ensure regular monitoring of activities during and following food distributions. With the support of the WFP M&E Officer, the Regional Coordinators of NDMA will prepare monitoring plans which will be prepared at field level and country-office level, and consolidated into the country office work plan. Monthly joint monitoring visits will be organized by WFP with NDMA and cooperating partners to assess the quantity and quality of programme implementation. There will be frequent randomized monitoring at food distribution points, as well as regular post-distribution monitoring visits by NDMA, WFP and cooperating partner monitors

The engagement of government counterparts in the implementation combined with WFP’s capacity-development efforts will support the handover of tasks. On-the-job training will be provided and, when necessary, equipment will be supplied to strengthen the Government’s emergency preparedness and response capacities at central and decentralized levels. The NDMA currently has no dedicated M&E Officer, however, there are plans in place to recruit someone for this role. The Regional Coordinators will be responsible for reporting on the monitoring and evaluation. The NDMA has an active MoU with WFP for enhanced and systematic collaboration, therefore WFP M&E Officer could be requested to provide technical support to the RDMCs Cash

NDMA is responsible for coordinating the monitoring and evaluation of the cash transfer through their regional and district teams. WFP and relevant NGOs (Gambia Red Cross Society and Concern Universal who have experience in cash transfer) will support the monitoring and evaluation.

A monitoring of cash will be done on the day of the cash distribution for verification purposes. A monitoring report will be prepared after three months, it will assess the impact of the cash transfer at the community and household level to determine the impact of the cash transfer as well as issues arising. This will also be to determine which households do not fit the criteria to benefit further and can be considered to have graduated from the programme.

A mid-term evaluation will be conducted at the end of the 3 months of the response. This will be to determine and assess the methodology used, and any required strategy changes to improve the programme.

A final evaluation will be conducted at the end of the project. A post distribution impact report will be produced from the final evaluation. The NDMA, with support from WFP who has a monitoring infrastructure which provides for all data to be collected in a central database and for reports to be generated, will report on the programme.

If an existing program, has monitoring occurred in the past? What criteria is used to monitor one program or not to conduct monitoring Have any evaluations of the program been detailed in the past?

The Cash Transfer Programme was previously conducted by Concern Universal and WFP on two separate occasions. WFP presented a comprehensive report and evaluation which included a lessons learned section which was completed in collaboration with other implementing partners. Concern Universal also completed an evaluation of their Cash Transfer programme and the report was widely disseminated.

Please detail the data or bits of information to be collected by the monitoring system.

The monitoring of beneficiaries includes data on perception, access and utilisation of benefits, food consumption score and diversity of food. Demographic data is broken down by gender, including children. Implementing Partners such as the Credit Unions (NACU) or Reliance (private credit entity) are required to report data systematically on their operations as part of their tender obligations

Who is responsible for collecting this information? The process is reported on by the regional and district staff, with support of local partners and WFP. They will collect this information from beneficiaries.

The regional and district staff of the NDMA will be responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of the programme, with support from local partners and WFP. In addition, Field Monitoring Assistants are project dependent and should therefore be budgeted for as part of an ARC payout to be hired for the full 6 months, so that they can carry out a baseline survey prior to the intervention starting and then monitor on a monthly basis, to enable any corrective actions to be taken on the basis of regular monitoring information.

What measures have been introduced to ensure the timely and accurate collection of monitoring data?

Smartphones have been introduced together with GPS devices where internet connectivity is lacking. Data from the GPS device can be input into phones and sent for collection to the central database. Each questionnaire has its unique GPS coordinates. The surveys are done by local multi-stakeholder teams two weeks after distribution.

What is the timing around M&E in relationship to the ARC pay out?

As the ARC payout is expected in October and the intervention expected to run from January to May, an initial 10% sample of targeted beneficiaries from the needs assessments will be selected to complete a questionnaire in the period November-December to understand the condition in which they are found and to establish a baseline.

14.14 To gain a better understanding of how this activity fits into the ARC pay out timeline, please insert an implementation timeline for this activity. Please use GANT chart format where you list the activities in the Activity column and either highlight in colour or use “X’s” to indicate the month(s) in which the activity occurs. In the last column enter the organization or person who is responsible for carrying out the activity.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May

June

Sensitization

Targeting and registration

Capturing of beneficiary lists and Plans

Distributions and verification on going

processes

Monitoring (PDM)

Coordination meetings

Reporting

b. SECOND INTERVENTION (From List in Table 6)

14.1 Enter name of intervention. This should be a short name that can be easily referred to in the rest of the Operations plan. 1. Supplementary Feeding

14.2 Enter the type of intervention. The intervention type describes the main function of the intervention (e.g. cash transfer, food for Assets, etc.). Please select from the list, if possible.

Indicate whether this intervention is [ ] Scalable [x ] Emergency [ ] Other __________________

14.3 Enter a brief description of the intervention: Prevention of acute malnutrition: A supplementary feeding programme will be implemented in drought affected regions to tackle moderate acute malnutrition amongst children under 5. In the early stages of drought it is expected that the number of cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition will be few and that Ministry of Health/UNICEF will mobilise a separate clinic based programme for such cases. Pregnant and lactating mothers will also be targeted with relevant food supplements. The supplementary feeding ration for children aged 6-59 months will be Super Cereal and corn soya blend (CSB). The program will be coordinated by NaNA and implemented by the Ministry of Health through its decentralised structures, and the regional health teams supported by the RDMCs. This approach is replicated at the district level where community health nurses will be supported by the MDFTs to do the actual implementation at the operational level. If the drought occurs nationwide, it is expected that MAM will spike above prevailing levels of chronic malnutrition and a programme supported by ARC may need to consider that based upon current estimates, up to 30,000 children will need to be reached by the intervention to prevent deterioration of the nutrition situation and stabilised the well-being of young children. If the food emergency is confined to certain districts which are particularly drought prone, a programme will be prepared accordingly. In 2011-12 certain districts were targeted for SAM interventions, as they had serious or critical levels of wasting, bearing in mind that the intervention only started 7-8 months after the failed harvest.

The supplementary feeding programme funded by an ARC payout might consider preventative blanket feeding of children aged 6-23 months in the most food insecure regions as it is very likely that in a drought emergency, food shortage situation, malnourishment rates in the immediate post-harvest months will be very high. Blanket feeding has the additional benefit of avoiding targeting and in terms of management it becomes much easier to mobilize communities to bring forward their under age 2 children when feeding is guaranteed.

Previous exercises of MAM screening have worked with target beneficiary numbers from projected census figures, and have failed to reach these numbers as partners do not have the capacity and outreach to spread awareness and carry out screening in villages that are not in close proximity to health centers. It has been found that the mothers in such communities often do not undertake the risk of travelling to the health centers if there is no guarantee of food support. This is because in the case where children may not be identified as MAM, the mothers cannot risk of undertaking uncompensated travel costs.

There is typically a health circuit of 3 to 4 villages with a distribution point which may not be precisely centrally located within the villages. The potential beneficiary children from the furthest villages arrive in lower numbers for the feeding support. The outreach of the existing Health Staff to counteract this is limited, as staff are overstretched. This can be mitigated in the case of an ARC intervention by budgeting for NGO partners to do the additional outreach, including additional petrol and vehicle allocation, stationing volunteers, who are provided with a stipend, in the villages concerned and creating additional distribution points.

14.4 Explain why this intervention activity is a good option for ARC funding. How does it meet the ARC eligibility criteria (time-sensitive and/or catalytic; livelihood saving and able to be completed within six months)4? What livelihood groups are the major beneficiaries (e.g. farmers, agro pastoralists, pastoralists, fishermen, women, etc.)

The protection of the well-being of pregnant and lactating mothers and the under 5s is a first priority in the drought situation as the impact of food shortage on these populations can have lifelong consequences. The attention to MAM is considered most timely and appropriate for the early drought period. A six month intervention cycle with monthly screening for new cases is considered viable for ARC funding as it fills a major gap in the current intervention spectrum. In previous cases, such programmes experienced delays of up to 8 months after the harvest failure, well into the subsequent lean season, before the required funding was available to start the initiative. This has significant consequences on malnourishment rates and associated developmental setbacks.

14.5 Who are the possible implementing partners of this intervention? Please list the names and key contact information for all partner organizations. If the implementation is expected to be decentralized (e.g. lower-level administrative units select the implementing NGOs) please list the key contact person for each admin unit in the table below AND as an annex, provide a list of the NGOs (by admin unit) capable of implementing the activity.

Name of Partner

Organization

Name of contact

at organization

Telephone

number

Email address Responsibility and role in

Implementing activity

National

Nutrition Agency

(NaNA)

Modou

Cheyassin Phall

4498851 modoucheyassinphall@yahoo.com Coordination/Supervision

Ministry of

Health

Modou Njie 9939851 Modounjai2002@yahoo.com Implementation of TSF

Reporting

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)

Lt Col. Alhajie Sanneh

9977255 macds3@yahoo.com Coordination Procurement Implementation

4 For more information on the ARC eligibility criteria please refer to the ARC Contingency Planning Standards and Guidelines.

World Food Programme (WFP)

Vitoria Ginja 4494784 vitoria.ginja@wfp.org Procurement

Gambia Red Cross Society (GRCS)

Buba Darboe 980 2242 buba.darboe@redcross.gm Targeting

A joint implementation task force will be formed, led by NaNa and involving inter alia, WFP, NDMA ,Ministry of Health and GRCS NaNa will manage, supervise and conduct training for the intervention and ensure the design and delivery of awareness programs to ensure that the food is solely consumed by the children and mothers identified.

WFP will be responsible for the procurement and distribution of the specialized food and supplements and provide advice to the implementing coalition at all levels. WFP will also be responsible for technical coordination of the monitoring of the operation.

Ministry of Health will conduct the screening exercise and run the feeding program from the decentralized health facilities. They will provide information for monitoring and evaluation.

NDMA will coordinate and manage multi-stakeholder consultation for the targeting process and the planning of the implementation in order to avoid previous challenges regarding over–estimation of need and to ensure that there is no overlap in programming with other intervening agencies.

14.6 In the event of a pay-out, how will funds flow from the Government account to each implementing partner? Explain what checks are in place to ensure the funding flows in a timely manner and can be tracked. Please be as specific as you can. Again, if decentralized, explain how the funds will move from the National account to the regions/districts and what checks/paper work is completed to ensure this happens in a timely manner.

Step Description

1 Description: Requisition by the Regional Disaster Coordinator / NGO partner Responsible officer: Regional Coordinator Checks: Governor/ Mayor

2 Description: Approval By Executive Director -NDMA Responsible officer: Executive Director Checks: Secretary to Cabinet/ PS 1 office of the president

3 Description: Preparation of Voucher and cheques Responsible officer: Finance Assistant Checks: Executive Director

4 Description: Payments

ARC Insurance Company Ltd

Ministry of Finance National Treasury

Basket F

und - ARC

WFP NaNa Ministry of Health NDMA

Local Partners

Extension Workers

Procurement

Operations

Fu

nd

Flo

w

Responsible officer: Finance Assistant Checks: Executive Director

...

14.7 Define the Unit Cost (cost per beneficiary) to undertake this activity for 1 month. This amount should include the value of the benefit as well as procurement, transport, and administrative costs. Please include in an annex supporting documentation on how these costs were estimated (e.g. use the ARC OP budget tool). If there is no supportable information on how this unit cost might rise/fall by the different pay out scenarios, please put the same number in each box. Unit Cost under Scenario #1: USD: _____________ (only if scalable project is ongoing) Unit Cost under Scenario #2: USD: ____20_________ Unit Cost under Scenario #3 USD: ____20____ Unit Cost under Scenario #4 USD: ____20________

14.9 In the event of a drought/ARC pay out, please describe in as much detail as possible how the targeting for this activity will occur.

What type of targeting mechanism and criteria will be used?

The Ministry of Health staff at local level will organise a screening for Moderate Acute Malnutrition for the 6-59 month age group and compile detailed list of cases. Likewise all pregnant and lactating mothers will be identified

Who will do the targeting? The targeting will be done by the Ministry of Health and publicized and validated through multi-stakeholder events organized by NDMA and NaNa

How will the targeting be paid for? The targeting will form part of the operational costs, with monthly screening constituting an essential component of the intervention

Is there any process of verification of targeting?

As the targeting is categorical and monitored on a monthly basis throughout the intervention no further verification will be required

When will the targeting take place in relationship to the ARC pay out?

The targeting will take place in the immediate post-harvest period, October -November

14.10 Does this intervention require the procurement of goods or supplies? If yes, please give more details. For instance, do you buy from national/local markets or from other countries; be specific in each column how, who and timeframe for purchases internationally

How will procurement take place?

The Super Cereal and CSB will be procured by WFP due to their comparative advantage in sourcing such specialised food products. Where appropriate, procurement will be done using GPPA procurement rules. In the event national procurement mechanism are not possible, WFP’s procurement rules will apply especially in the case of food from the international markets.

Who is responsible for procurement?

Government shall by the provisions of the GPPA act outsource the procurement to WFP

What are the timelines around procurement?

Food procurement from the international markets typically take between 60 and 90 days for the commodities to arrive in country.

14.11 Please list all the items to be procured and the possible procurement sources: Super cereals or Corn Soya Blend =9 000 MT Iron /Iodine Supplements for PLM Commodities will be procured internationally

14.12 Please describe in as much detail as possible how cash/goods will move from procurement to implementing partners to the targeted beneficiaries. Explain what checks are in place to ensure the cash/goods reach the targeted beneficiaries in a timely manner and can be tracked.

Step Description

1 Description: commodities delivery to partners Responsible officer: Logistic officer Checks: Programme Officer

2 Description: Commodities reception Responsible officer: Logistic Officer Checks: Programme Officer

3 Description: Commodities distribution Responsible officer: Community health workers Checks: Villages Committees

...

14.13 How will the implementation of this intervention be monitored?

Does the implementing partner have a monitoring system in place? If yes, please describe this system in as much detail as possible. Is it paper-based? The information gets keyed into an MIS system? Excel? Who can access the information

The WFP system mentioned in Intervention 1 has also been used for supplementary feeding monitoring. The Cooperating Partner reports are provided to WFP by Ministry of Health and NaNa. All the nutrition indicators contain a monitoring check list which are monitored and reported on quarterly. The routine data, such as the Nutrition Surveillance, is collected every six months through the Regional Health Team (RHT). The Community Health Nurse collects the data from the village level and submits the summary form to the RHT through the Nutrition field officer who now compiled all the data set in his or her region and then submits to the central level as a national data set after which a report is produced. The Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM) also follows the same procedures as indicated above with quarterly reporting.

If an existing program, has monitoring occurred in the past? What criteria is used to monitor one program or not to conduct monitoring Have any evaluations of the program been detailed in the past?

Yes, the Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM) will be used. As such the criteria used to monitor the program are as follows: the required food distributed and the number of children responding to the treatment

Please detail the data or bits of information to be collected by the monitoring system.

The number of children entering into the programme The quantity of fortified food distributed The number of children screened The number of children recovered after the treatment Treatment success rate

Who is responsible for collecting this information? The Maternal and Child Nutrition and Health Result Project (MCNHRP) data verification is also done monthly in the identified health facilities and the data set is compiled at the central level for analysis and produce quarterly report. The information is collected by the Community Health Nurse and the Multi-Disciplinary Facilitations Teams (MDFTs) at communities level and send to the Nutrition Field Officer

How is M&E paid for? The M&E is budgeted for as part of the ARC funded intervention

What measures have been introduced to ensure the timely and accurate collection of monitoring data?

The collection of monitoring data will follow the system in place. However the Nutrition Field Officer will summarise the data in excel and send it via internet for compilation

What is the timing around M&E in relationship to the ARC pay out?

If applicable, the ARC payout is expected in October, and the intervention is expected to run from January to June. The monitoring will be conducted on monthly basis from February to July,

14.14 Implementation Timelines

Jan Feb Mar Apr May

June

July

Sensitization

Targeting and registration

Capturing of beneficiary lists and Plans

Distributions and verification on going

processes

Monitoring (PDM)

Coordination meetings

Reporting

SECTION 7: M&E FRAMEWORK AND PLAN

Step 15: Design an M&E results framework to help measure the performance of the rollout of the ARC contingency plan. Since ARC requires countries to monitor and

report on specific performance indicators these are included below. Each country must also include an additional indicator per intervention that measures a medium term

outcome of the activity.

Interventions: Unconditional Food Distribution and Supplementary Feeding

Results Performance indicators Means of Verification Assumptions

Intervention Outcome 1

Stabilized acute malnutrition in children

under 5 in targeted emergency-affected

population

Prevalence of acute malnutrition among children under 5 (weight-for-height %)

Baseline (example from 2012) 17.7% in North Bank; 12.7% in Central River North; and 13.7% in Central River South

Target:10-12% in the three targeted regions

Nutrition monitoring reports provided by community nutrition based agents

No additional weather-related shock(drought or floods) which led to a further deterioration of food insecurity among vulnerable households

Intervention Outcome 2

Improved food consumption over assistance

period for target households

Household food consumption score (FCS)

Baseline: 42 acceptable

Target: Average FCS above 42 (acceptable) in all five regions

Activities monitoring and survey reports

Intervention Outcome 3:

Improved implementation time for assistance to targeted households

First ‘contact’ with targeted beneficiaries within 120 days of the ARC pay-out received

Activities implementation monthly reports

Adequate and credible structures, as described in the Operations Plan, are in place

Adequate and transparent targeting systems used to ensure that the right beneficiaries

Intervention Outcome 4:

Improved implementation time for ARC activities

Activity completed within 180 days Final implementation report submitted by NDMA

Adequate procurement procedures are adopted

Output

Food and non-food items distributed in sufficient quantity and quality to targeted women, men, girls and boys under secure conditions

Number of women, men, girls and boys receiving food and non-food items, by category and as % of planned figures

Tonnage of food distributed, by type, as % of planned distribution

Quantity of fortified foods, complementary food and special nutrition products distributed, by type, as % of actual distribution

Monthly distribution reports submitted by implementing partners

Government and partners operational capacities in place(especially human resources requirement) to support the implementation

SECTION 8: PROGRAM RISKS AND ASSUMPTIONS Step 16: Define risks and assumptions

Risk Likelihood (low, medium, or high)

Intervention(s) impacted by risk

Impact on intervention

Mitigation Strategy

Contextual risks: Additional weather-related shocks would result in a further deterioration of food security. High food and fuel prices also continue to pose a risk to food security of both rural and urban populations.

Medium General Food and Cash Distribution Blanket supplementary Feeding

Reduced impact and reduced numbers of beneficiaries Increase number of beneficiaries

Partners, will continue to monitor market information and other early warning systems.

Institutional risks: Potential risks include limited or late funding from other donors to complement the ARC payout and the operational capacities of the country office and partners.

Medium Both interventions ARC intervention does not catalyse other resources and remains isolated

NDMA/WFP will continue advocacy efforts to mobilize sufficient funding and will borrow from in-country stocks of other projects. In collaboration with NDMA, the established structures will be strengthened during the course of the intervention to ensure a smooth implementation.

Design vs operation risk: Number of beneficiaries that come forward for assistance is lower than estimated, targeted number of beneficiaries not reached, risk that intervention fails to reach the most vulnerable people

Medium This happened in 2012, particularly in relation to supplementary feeding

Intervention loses credibility as need appears to be less than estimated.

High levels of sensitisation, placing of emergency support staff in all settlements to improve mobilisation of needy women and under 5s for screening and collection of rations, emphasis placed on targeting and reporting.

SECTION 9: DEFINITION OF STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES Standard operating procedures represent a set of tasks that will need to be completed before, during, and after a pay out to ensure that the ARC OP/FIP plans are implemented accordingly and that funding and benefits pass on to beneficiaries within the ARC-defined timelines. These procedures form the basis of any post-pay out audit, so it is important that you think carefully about what is feasible and practical and edit/adjust the table accordingly. Step 17: Complete the following table by i) ensuring that each SOP fits your country situation, editing the details where appropriate; ii) indicating the officer responsible for each SOP, iii) verifying the timing, and iv) entering the appropriate turnaround time for each SOP. Please add additional SOPs to the table, where appropriate.

# SOP Name SOP Details Responsible Officer

Timing

Turnaround time (days) Type Min Max

Informational and Planning Processes

01 Monitor food security levels

Intense monitoring of ARV and other EW tools to track severity and deterioration of food security situation

National coordination

Ongoing Monitoring

02 Update contact databases

Confirm contact details for TWG members, implementing partners and other staff involved in the rollout of a disaster risk management plan

Disaster management agency

As soon as possibility of payout is identified

Update

03

FIP development and submission

Mobilize the ARC TWG responsible for contingency planning

National coordination

As soon as possibility of payout is identified

5 10 Meeting

Decide most likely scenario National Coordination

5 15 Decision

Decide on most likely regions/districts to receive ARC funding

Technical Working Groups

10 15 Decision

Decide on most likely interventions to fund given the scenario

Technical Working Groups

10 15 Decision

Estimate the number of vulnerable people targeted Technical Working Groups

10 15 Meeting

Draft FIP, including detailed budget Technical Working Groups

10 15 Meeting

Obtain internal government approval for the FIP Steering committee

As soon as FIP has been drafted

10 20 Approval

Submit FIP to ARC Secretariat for approval National coordination

Not less than 30 days before anticipated pay out

20 25 Submission

04

FIP re-submission (if necessary)

Integrate feedback and resubmit FIP if not approved by the ARC Board

National coordination

As soon as FIP Review Process decision has been communicated

1 5 Submission

05 Coordinate Needs Assessment

Work with the group responsible for coordinating the larger country drought response [enter name here] to get results from the needs assessment

Technical Working Groups

Less than one month before the payout

10 15 Conduct Joint fields visit

06 FIP adjustment (if necessary)

Following the needs assessment, adjust the FIP estimates regarding number of vulnerable people targeted and how ARC funds will be used

Technical Working Groups

Following the needs assessment

2 7 Meeting

Financial Processes

07 Notification to financial institution to receive ARC funding

Inform National Treasury and/or Ministry of Finance of the country of imminent pay out and verify all the bank details.

National coordination

30 days before payout

5 10 Meeting

08 Notification to implementing partners of potential funds transfer

Inform implementing partner(s) and or procurement sources of possible funds transfer and verify the bank details

National coordination

At least 30 days before payout

5 10 Meeting

09 Verify arrival of ARC funds national account

Verify arrival of ARC funds national account National Coordination

At least 14 days after the end of season

5 14 Follow up

10 Funds transfer to implementing partners

Transfer funds to implementing agencies and/or procurement sources

National Coordination agency

After payout 7 10 Allocation

Operational Processes

11 Coordination

Inform other implementing partners of the possibility of payout

National Coordination

As soon as possibility of

5 10 Meeting

payout is identified

Inform county and sub-county structures of possibility of payout

National Coordination agency

As soon as possibility of payout is identified

5 20 Meetings

Inform existing programme managers of possibility of scale up (if selected intervention is scalable)

National coordination

As soon as possibility of payout is identified

5 20 meetings

12

Targeting and registration

Identify additional beneficiaries and update beneficiaries’ lists

Implementing agencies

As soon as payout is confirmed

15 20 Field visit

Assess completeness of list of beneficiaries in each identified district/county

Implementing agencies

As soon as payout is confirmed

15 20 Check

13

Procurement (if required by intervention selected)

Identify responsible actors for the procurement of goods / supplies

Procurement Units

After funds reception

5 7 Identification and selection

Verify that procurement sources and procedures are functional

Procurement Units

As soon as possibility of payout is identified

5 7 Task

14 Verify functionality of existing systems

Confirm that food transfer distribution/payment systems are in place and functional and can handle additional caseload (in case of scalable intervention)

Implementing partners

10 days before payout

10 20 Task

15 Communication Develop clear communication channels among implementing partners

National coordination

As soon as payout is confirmed

3 10 Task

16

Monitoring and Evaluation

Identify additional M&E personnel and training needs for a possible pay out

National coordination

As soon as possibility of payout is identified

- - Task

Ensure implementing partners are familiar with ARC M&E requirements (monthly and final implementation report)

Coordination agency

As soon as payout is confirmed

5 15 Meetings

Ensure that implementing partners submit monthly progress reports

Coordination agency

Ongoing during pay out

30 35 Task

Submit monthly monitoring reports to ARC Secretariat

Coordination agency

Ongoing during pay out

30 35 Task

Submit final implementation report to ARC Secretariat

Coordination agency

After implementation completion

30 90 Task

Country Team to review lessons learned and make decisions about changes for the next Operations Plan drafting process.

National Coordination

After implementation completion

60 365 Task and Meetings

ANNEX 1: LIST OF LOCAL PARTNERS

National Bee Keepers Association of the Gambia(NBAG) Mr Henry Jammeh West Coast Region Hmjammeh@yahoo.co.uk

Agency of Village Support(AVISU) Lamin Sam Jaiteh Central River Region North laminsamjaiteh@gmail.com

Freedom from Hunger Campaign(FFHC) Alpha Khan Lower River Region alphapullo@gmail.com

National Credit Union of The Gambia(NACCUG) Babucarr Jeng Bakou/Kanifing Municipal Council info@naccug.gm

Wuli and Sandu Development Association(WASDA) Kebba Sillah Upper River Region sillahkebbam@yahoo.com

Children and Community Initiative for Development (CAID) Ebrima Ceesay Kanifing ceesaydigital@gmail.com

Reliance Financial Services Baboucarr Khan Pipe line bkhan@reliancegambia.com

Njawara Agricultural Training Centre Mama MK Manneh North Bank Region natcfarm@yahoo.co.uk

Women Initiative The Gambia (WIG) Isatou Ceesay Kanifing Municipal Council isatouceesay2002@gmail.com

Asset Bantaba (ASSET) Adama Bah Kanifing Municipal Council bahs_54@yahoo.com

Guaranteed Gambia(GG) Sheikh Tijan Nyang Kanifing Municipal Council satnyang@yahoo.com

Trust Agency for Rural Development(TARUD) Sandang Bojang Gunjur/West Coast Region sandang.bojang@gmail.com

Bee Cause Lamin/West Coast Region beecause@gmail.com