Download - Self Help Africa - Uganda 2013
www.selfhelpafrica.org
UGAN
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The Uganda Programme has moved from direct
implementation to working through local partners,
in many of our programmes, this involves close
collaboration with local government extension staff from the
Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries.
Self Help Africa (SHA) is the technical agriculture lead
on a USAID funded programme worth 25 million USD,
that will work with 81,000 households from 2012 to
2016. The Community Connector is being implemented by
a consortium led by FHI360 and includes a range of partners
such as local NGOS, UN bodies, universities, research institutes
and government ministries.
This project will reduce poverty, food security and under-
nutrition through integrated nutrition and livelihood
interventions at the community and household level. The
Uganda Community Connector will reinforce existing state
support, or, where necessary, establish structures such as food
security and nutrition committees. SHA is taking the lead on
the establishment of baselines through a combination of HEA/
IHM methodologies and, through our partner, Evidence for
Development, are assisting the universities in developing short
and long course curricula in Individual Household Method
(IHM) studies. Self Help Africa is the technical lead on all
agriculture interventions and will be designing interventions
to increase productivity through improved access to inputs,
sustainable agriculture techniques and linking farmers to value
chains and private sector enterprises such as the Mukwano
Group.
In the first of three phases, we are working in 9 districts,
which sees us implementing activities in South Western
Uganda, in Kabale, Kanungu, Kisoro and Ibanda and the
North, in Pader, Agago, Nebbi, Dokolo and Oyam.
Direct Beneficiaries: 81,000 smallholder farmers
Programme Donor Timeframe ImplementingPartner
ProgrammeArea
Total Budget
Community Connector
Improved Livelihoods and food security in Northern Uganda
Plant Clinics
Climate change and bee-keeping
Seed Enterprise Development
Positive Deviance Nutrition Research
USAID € 2,233,436 2012 2016
FHI360, Vedco, Brac,Grameen Foundation,Unicef, Makere University, Gulu University, Mbarara University, CDFU
15 districts throughout Northern and Southwestern Uganda
Jersey Overseas Aid Cominnsion (JOAC), The Department for International Development (DFID)
€ 195,000 2011
2014
Send a Cow Uganda Amuru district, Uganda
Irish Aid, CABI,Isle of Man Overseas Committee
€ 310,000 2012
2015
Cabi,Local government
Kayunga, Kumi-Bukedea, Ngora
Irish Aid,Be One Per Cent
€ 600,000 2012
2015
Tunado,Local government
Kayunga, Kumi-Bukedea, Ngora
Irish Aid € 400,000 2012
2015
Local government Kayunga, Kumi-Bukedea, Ngora
DFID € 35,000 2012
2013
Makere University Nwoya
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01 COMMUNITY CONNECTOR
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Working with recently returned internally displaced
people, this project is supporting 300 families
in integrated crop and livestock activities in
Amuru district. Due to decades of land degradation and
poor cultivation techniques as communities were stripped
of their assets, there is high demand and huge potential for
growth. This is a holistic programme that integrates social
development, animal production and sustainable organic
agriculture with the aim of empowering the communities
to improve household food security and nutrition, improve
household incomes through sale of produce and off-farm
activities, reduce social stigma, increase confidence and self–
worth, improve gender relations and improve environmental
management and land use.
Rebuilding social cohesion is of immense importance in post-
conflict regions so strong emphasis is placed on the building
and strengthening of farmer groups and cooperatives, with
the dual purpose of increasing efficiency and fomenting social
relationships.
Direct Beneficiaries: 300 smallholder families
02 IMPROVED LIVELIHOODS AND FOOD SECURITY IN NORTHERN UGANDA
UGANDA
togo
ghana
kenya
burkinafaso
zambia
malawi
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1. Community Connector
Improved Livelihoodsand Food Security
2.
6. PD Nutrition Research
Ruwenzori RangeUGANDAUGAUUU ANDAAA DgU ADR CONGO
KENYA
SUDAN
Kampala
3. Plant Clinics,
4. Climate Change and Bee Keeping,
5. Seed Enterprise Development
Lake Victoria
Lake Albert
Gulu
Lira
To combat crop reduction caused by pests and diseases
which pose a threat to income and livelihoods in
Uganda, Self Help Africa is establishing community-
level plant clinics to encourage farmers to carry out early
detection of pests and disease. Plant clinics are an extension
model that empowers the farmer to seek agricultural advisory
services from trained agricultural personnel. The model builds
the capacities of local communities to identify & report any
diseases affecting their crops and livestock to the trained
personnel for diagnosis and treatment. This creates a technical
dialogue between farmer, agricultural extension staff and
agricultural research institutes.
The lessons learnt from implementation of plant clinics will
be shared with a large section of stakeholders and through
the collaboration with Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry
and Fisheries (MAAIF) and Self Help Africa. Within Uganda
it is envisaged that MAAIF will incorporate the Plant Clinics
model into the development of national policy & practice.
Additionally Makerere University will incorporate project
learning into future educational programmes. This work
is being undertaken in partnership with the the UK-based
Centre for Bioscience
International (CABI), who are co-implementing and funding
activities. Plant Clinics will also be rolled out across the districts
targeted by the Community Connector Project.
Direct Beneficiaries: 3,000 smallholder farmers
This project serves a triple purpose - combating
environmental degradation, increasing incomes and
boosting food security amongst 1,000 households.
Since bees rely on trees and plant life for survival, there is an
incentive for farmers to preserve existing foliage and continue
planting. Bees are equally important in contributing towards
food security. The earnings from bee keeping provides an
alternate source of income, and encourage local communities
to conserve local forest resources.
Insects are the earth’s chief pollinators and most crops
which provide global food security are bee-pollinated. Of
the 100 crop species that provide 90 percent of the world’s
food, over 70 are pollinated by bees. By increasing local bee
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04 CLIMATE CHANGE AND BEE KEEPING
03 PLANT CLINICS
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populations, the project will help boost crop productivity
and thereby increase local food security. As beekeeping does
not require land ownership (the hives are hung in trees)
and is not a labour-intensive activity, women and people
with reduced mobility or comprised health (e.g. people with
disabilities or those affected by HIV/AIDS)—who are often
denied land ownership or are less able to undertake labour-
intensive farming—can actively participate. Beekeeping is also
complimentary to other farming activities. Self Help Africa
is working with smallholder farmers to establish producer
enterprises and sustainably integrate into value chains. SHA
is developing the more commercial side of bee-keeping,
building farmers’ skills at producing high quality, high value
products and negotiating directly with potential buyers.
Direct Beneficiaries: 1,000 smallholder farmers
Self Help Africa is working with seed grower
associations to produce high quality seed on a
commercial basis. The seed sector is still under
developed in Uganda with most of the rural smallholders
using farmer-saved seed as growing material which greatly
affects productivity. This initiative addresses the challenge
of increasing smallholder farmers’ access to quality seed
through developing local seed enterprises and supporting
their integration into seed value chains. The project aims to
improve access for 20,000 smallholder farmers to superior
varieties of maize, groundnuts and cassava in sufficient
quantities, at the right time and at an affordable price. This
will result in greater crop productivity and diversification,
increasing smallholder farmers overall production, promoting
adaptation to climate change and improving livelihoods.
Local seed enterprises will significantly increase incomes of
farmers’ involved. Seed security and seed sovereignty will be
enhanced, contributing to community resilience, with wider
impacts from contributing to social organisation, economic
development and entrepreneurship.
Accessing high quality foundation seeds from national
agricultural research institutes National Semi Arid Regional
Research Institute Serere (NaSARRI) is key to the success of
this project. SHA is building partnerships between research
institutes, farmers and seed growers. These links are critical to
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05 SEED ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT
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enable production of improved seeds in sufficient quantities
to meet smallholder farmer requirements.
Direct Beneficiaries: 2,000 seed growers
Surveys conducted in various parts of Uganda have cited
inadequate access to food, suboptimal infant feeding
practices, poor health, hygiene and sanitation practices
as the major contributing factors to high malnutrition rates.
Moreover, related studies conducted in other countries have
indicated that solutions to underlying causes of malnutrition
lie within the affected communities and just need to be
uncovered. The current study will seek to discover this.
These solutions are the best nutrition practices that tap
into local wisdom for successfully treating and preventing
malnutrition. These solutions are more sustainable than those
brought into the community from the outside. They involve
promoting behaviour change and empowering caregivers to
take responsibility for the nutritional rehabilitation of their
children using local knowledge and resources. The study shall
be used to find out whether the identified best nutrition
practices/positive deviant practices can be used to rehabilitate
malnourished children within the target area.
This is being conducted in Nwoya district, Northern Uganda
and is focussing on the effectiveness of using the positive
deviance method to address malnutrition among children,
lactating and pregnant mothers. This study has two purposes:
one is to look at how to better integrate nutrition training
across our programmes and two to use this research to inform
policy makers at the district and national level on the use of
cost effective methods in combating malnutrition especially
in districts where populations are resettling after two decades
of war.
06 POSITIVE DEVIANCE NUTRITION RESEARCH
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Self Help Africa UgandaPO Box 34429, Plot 44 Ministers’ Village,Ntinda, KampalaTel. +256 414 286305