Investment, food safety and nutrition: the three pillars of the programme
The programme pursues three complementary objectives: (i) increase investments, productivity, income and employment opportunities, especially for women, young people and marginalised groups, within the targeted horticultural value chains; (ii) improve plant health, food safety, quality management and sustainable agroecological practices among horticultural producers and processors; and (iii) strengthen diversified, nutrition-sensitive horticultural value chains.
SPRING targets priority value chains at three levels: export (mango, capsicum, groundnut), the local market (tomato, onion) and nutrition through biofortified crops (orange-fleshed sweet potato, iron-rich beans, cassava).
Youth training, nutrition, infrastructure, finance: new levers for action
Beyond COLEAD's long-standing areas of intervention — plant health, food safety, sustainable practices, capacity building for MSMEs and producer organisations, access to markets and finance — the SPRING programme enriches the support offer with several complementary levers for action:
- A "Next-Gen" traineeship programme linking young professionals with businesses and institutions in the horticultural sector;
- The integration of nutrition into COLEAD's support, through nutrition-sensitive value chains and dietary behaviour change;
- An infrastructure component, aimed at boosting productivity, processing and quality in the targeted value chains, including laboratories;
- A Matching Grant Facility to finance or co-finance investments by horticultural SMEs in infrastructure, equipment and sustainability-driven innovation;
- The promotion of horticultural investment, by facilitating matchmaking between actors in the targeted value chains and potential investors, both local and international.
Baseline studies, public-private dialogue, support to beneficiaries: early progress on the ground
On the ground, work to establish the baseline is under way: a bottleneck study, an R-SAT assessment for the competent authorities and a survey on access to farming inputs. A draft nutrition strategy has also been developed, while public-private dialogue has intensified through the revitalisation of the National SPS Committee during World Food Safety Day events organised in collaboration with the World Bank-funded GIRAV programme. Following stakeholder meetings organised by COLEAD for private sector representatives, the industry also proposed revitalising the private sector association, GAMHORT.
Direct support to the programme's beneficiary partners is generating strong interest, with nearly one hundred expressions of interest already received. The priority needs identified include access to adequate financing, improved water and irrigation management, skilled human resources and technical expertise, reduced post-harvest losses, better access to markets, and the adoption of climate-resilient practices.
Next step: the evaluation of the national SPS control system using the R-SAT tool
In early August 2026, The Gambia will host a workshop to evaluate its national sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) control system as applied to value chains destined for the local market — onion, tomato, sweet potato, cassava and cowpea. Led and facilitated with the "Domestic Value Chains" Technical Working Group, established as part of the revitalisation of the National SPS Committee, this exercise will draw on the R-SAT tool and will see the first roll-out of the new "RSAT" application developed by COLEAD.
The workshop will be accompanied by discussions with the competent authorities on their needs and the support the programme could provide, with partners beneficiaries who have already expressed interest — in order to identify priority actions to be implemented — as well as with the Delegation of the European Union and other technical and financial partners, with a view to potential collaborations.
This activity is supported by the "Sustainable Production for Resilient and Inclusive New Generations" (SPRING) programme, funded by the European Union and implemented by COLEAD. This communication has been produced with the financial support of the EU. Its content is the sole responsibility of COLEAD and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the EU.