A Brief History

The Gambia is one of Africa's smallest countries and unlike many of its west African neighbours, it has enjoyed long spells of stability since independence. However, Gambia has few natural resources and is highly dependent on peanut exports. Despite the presence of the Gambia River, which runs through the middle of the country, only one sixth of the land is arable and poor soil quality has led to the predominance of the crop. Without alternative exports, the country relies on foreign aid to fill gaps in its balance of payments.

Most frequent natural hazards in the Gambia are wild fires, droughts, coastal erosion, flash floods, dust storms and grasshopper outbreaks. Since 1970, recurring droughts have been experienced throughout the country along with increased incidence of wildfires, and dust storms. Since the mid 1980s incidence of dust storms lasting more than three days have become annual events causing millions in property damage. More recently flash floods have become a annual occurrence in many parts of the country causing extensive crop and property damage.

Muslim Aid Field Office in Gambia

We are currently carrying out an impact assessment of Muslim Aid’s investment to date in West Africa (Gambia, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal) by conducting a capacity audit of Muslim Aid’s partners in the region, researching the current development work which is being carried out by the Government, NGOs, UN etc, identifying potential partnership opportunities for Muslim Aid with local organisations and NGOs and researching funding opportunities.