A delegation of the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) has recently visited The Gambia in line with the country programme evaluation IOE is conducting on IFAD's funded-activities for the last ten years in this country. The mission aimed at collecting data and information to build up evaluation evidence for the evaluation report, meeting with the government, donors and other partners; and gaining first-hand insights into project activities and results through selected field visits in various parts of the country. Cécile Berthaud, Lead Evaluator and Team Leader, was interviewed by the National television channel GRTS TV during the evaluation team's  official visit to the Vice-President of The Gambia, H.E. Dr Aja Isatou Njie Saidy.

The interview focused, among the many themes touched by the evaluation, on women's  role in agriculture. "The question we wanted to raise is to check how far the benefits have increased women's workload. They have benefitted in terms of increase in production and income, but have they benefitted in terms of being less solicited for work?", said Cécile Berthaud. "When developing targeted interventions, you need to make sure that no additional workload falls on women. What have IFAD activities done in this respect, and what can we improve in the future?", she added.

The country programme evaluation will assess the performance and impact of IFAD-funded operations in The Gambia and generate findings and recommendations to serve as building blocks for the preparation of a new IFAD country strategic opportunities programme (COSOP).

It will be completed by the end of the year and culminate with the organization of a national roundtable workshop, which is expected to take place  in November 2015.