2012 – 2016 IMPACT REPOrt selfhelpafrica.org Filimoni Malekano, Matembera Village, Filimoni Malekano, Matembera Village, Balaka District, Malawi, 2015. and sanitation practices. Who we are • Enterprise and value What we do chain development: Self Help Africa (SHA) is an We promote market-based • Climate-Smart international development solutions to poverty. We Agriculture: organisation dedicated to help farmers to access We help farmers to increase markets, add value to their the vision of an economically productivity, through produce and build strong thriving and resilient rural the promotion of the farmer-led organisations Africa. We have almost 50 sustainable intensification that continue to flourish years of experience working of agriculture while ensuring without the need for in smallholder farmer-led environmental stewardship. external support. agriculture and agri-enterprise We encourage the use of and support smallholders to techniques and practices • Access to Finance: build sustainable, healthy and that mitigate the effects of We support rural resilient livelihoods. climate change and ensure communities to access sustainable natural resource the financial services they management. need to establish secure livelihoods by facilitating Our mission • Food security access to savings, credit, and nutrition: and other financial services We go beyond increasing SHA is fully committed to our such as agriculture production to address mission to support sustainable insurance. livelihoods for Africa’s the quality and diversity smallholder farmers, with an of production and • Policy influencing: consumption. As well as emphasis on women and We want farmers to have supporting farmers to youth, as well as the vision of a voice in the policies feed their families through that affect their lives. We the sustainable development increased and diversified goals, which envision a produce evidence-based production and seasonal research and, as experts world free of poverty, hunger, availability of food, we in agriculture, use our disease and want, where all take a nutrition sensitive knowledge of what works life can thrive. approach to all our work; for farmers to influence promoting improved dietary reform in the agriculture diversity and good hygiene sector. 2 Our impact at a glance: 2012 – 2016 in numbers 47% of households we worked with had enough 78% of households we to eat throughout 2012. worked with had enough to eat throughout 2016. 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Total number of people reached where we work: 1,174,518 286,524 ETHIOPIA KENYA 480,468 901,338 MALAWI UGANDA 664,940 224,850 WEST AFRICA ZAMBIA 248% 25% increase in increase in disposable crop income* production** *based on those surveyed, this a weighted average for our poorest beneficiaries. **316,974 households (1,958,212 people) have increased their crop production by at least 25%. This equates to 79% of households with whom we are focussing on increasing production. 3 IMPACT IN FOCUS: Improving food security and nutrition in Northern Province, Zambia With extensive natural resources and proximity to international markets, farmers in Zambia’s Northern Province should have secure livelihoods, yet poverty remains entrenched; productivity is stifled by under-developed markets and a lack of infrastructure. A 2012 survey conducted by Self Help Africa showed that 43% of the region’s population did not have enough income to meet their basic needs. SHA has been working in Luwingu and Mbala since 2013 implementing the Irish Aid Local Development Programme (IALDP), which aims to improve the livelihoods and food and nutrition security for 16,000 households, and strengthen district authority service delivery. People Helping providing quality inputs and Nutrition Themselves training in climate-smart crop, Malnutrition in Northern SHA supports communities to livestock and aquaculture Province is extremely high, work together to create their production. We encourage with levels of stunting at own solutions to poverty. In farmers to plant a wider 45% in 2014. In IALDP, SHA IALDP, this has been achieved variety of nutritious crops is helping communities to through the establishment of and engage in small livestock tackle this problem head 372 Livelihood Enhancement production to improve diets on. With our support, Groups (LEGs): community- but also to provide valuable individual LEG members have based groups that ensure the income throughout the year. received UNICEF accredited needs of the community are training to become trainers in at the heart of the project, community-based infant and providing focal points of By establishing viable young child feeding practices. activity within each area community seed production These nutrition champions are targeted. enterprises and commodity setting up “Mother-to-Mother” producer groups we ensure support groups; organising Food Security that farmers are not reliant cooking demonstrations and educating the community on SHA is supporting farmers on our support beyond the the preparation of nutritious to increase productivity by lifecycle of our programme. meals. The “Mother-to- 10% 20% 16,740 increase in the increase in farmers trained proportion of the number of to increase their households who households that productivity have access to have acceptable food all year dietary diversity 4 Elizabeth & Showthem Sikombe, Nsunda, Northern Province, Zambia, 2015. Mother” groups, which include training and to store grain savings and credit within their male members as well as and seed. Market surveys communities. This enables female, are conducting a have been carried out and even very poor households to community supplementary we are setting up a database invest in the development of feeding programme for of buyers and traders as well profitable micro-enterprises. malnourished children using as a simple SMS system for simple diet plans created with sharing up-to-date market 90 Accumulated Savings and locally available foods. information. Credit Associations (ASCAs) have been set up through Improving access We are also working on policy the LEGs and members are to markets issues with the Zambian investing their funds in small While productivity increases Ministry of Commerce, Trade businesses such as trading in are helping to improve food and Industry to deliver training fish, vegetables, cooking oil, security, SHA is also helping in entrepreneurship. Farmers salt, beer and hairdressing. IALDP farmers to establish within the enterprise groups more secure livelihoods by are now aggregating their ASCA members have increasing business skills and produce and successfully reported that the groups have access to finance. selling in larger volumes to enabled them to manage their 62 enterprise groups have buyers such as the World cash flow better, to obtain been identified from within Food Programme, and the start up capital and to make the programme’s LEGs and Zambian Food Reserve improvements to housing and SHA is providing them with Agency. nutrition. The ASCAs have targeted mentoring and now set up six registered support. Storage sheds Access to finance “Village Banks” to give access constructed with the support SHA is helping IALDP farmers to more capital to on-lend to of SHA are being used for to invest in small enterprises members. farmer meetings, community and increase their assets by increasing access to 153% €26,479 €23,576 increase in cumulative in disposable turnover of accumulated income smallholder savings by among enterprises in October beneficiaries October 2016 2016 5 CASE STUDY: Charity’s life transformed My children and I are healthier and are sick less of the time. “When I look at the house, I still can’t Charity Kamwala’s warm smile speaks believe it’s mine. I feel like a different volumes about the transformation person owning it” she says. there has been in her life since she Charity Kamwala is amongst 10,000 families began working with Self Help Africa, receiving farm training and other support from in 2013. Self Help Africa in Mbala District of Zambia’s Northern Province, one of the poorest regions Instead of a basic diet of low-protein cassava in a country where over 60% of the population which was the staple for her family, the live on the equivalent of less than a Euro a day. 56-year-old widow from Nsunda village, Northern Province, Zambia says that her family As a member of a village-based savings and now eat millet, maize, vegetables and other loans group established in her community, she food that they grow on their small farm in a has taken out a number of small loans to buy the remote pocket of Northern Zambia. ingredients to make scones that she sells in the locality to supplement her farm income. A mother and grandmother who cares for seven of her young dependents, Charity “My life has changed a lot so far, and I am recently replaced her straw roof with new tin now living better than before,” she says, sheets, and extended her mud-brick built before predicting – with a smile – that it will get home with additional rooms. even better in the future. 6 IMPACT IN FOCUS: Strengthening cashew value chains in West Africa West Africa is the single largest raw cashew-producing region in the world, yet productivity remains low and just 10% of what is produced is processed in the region. SHA has been helping West African farmers to increase their incomes from cashew since 2013. In 2012, SHA embarked on snackfood company supporting legumes by smallholder farmers a pilot project with FritoLay a further 2,000 Beninese has not only enriched