www.selfhelpafrica.org

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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