English
Français
Of the 1.4 million refugees in Uganda, about 1 million come from Southern Sudan. Most of them live in refugee settlements in the north-west of Uganda and 82% are women and young people below 18 years of age. Refugees and host communities face a lack of socio-economic opportunities. In agriculture, small-scale producers lack access to demand-oriented services, advice and training. The market orientation of most small scale farmers producing for (semi-) subsistence is low and their integration into value chains is very weak.
The GIZ project "Support for refugees and host communities" is 50% co-financed by the EU and aims at improving the inclusive socio-economic development of refugees and host communities in the districts of Arua, Adjumani and Moyo.
AFC is responsible for supporting the agricultural activities of some 5.000 refugees and smallholder farmers in the host communities in terms of productivity, income and market access.
Services provided
- Support the participatory selection of refugee settlements in each of the 3 target districts that will be attended by the project
- Identify agricultural product groups in each district and settlement which are suitable for production and marketing and which are particularly suitable for less experienced women and young people, giving special attention to vegetables, poultry, field crops and honey
- Support the set-up of farmer groups which are composed of refugees and host community farmers in order to improve for refugees the secure access to farmland, creating incentives for related investments in the development of agricultural plots
- Set-up a training concept that combines the farmer field-school and Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLA) approach, putting emphasis on women and young people
- Elaborate training material in terms of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), entrepreneurship and business skills (farming as a business; Farmer Business School) as well as VSLA
- Systematically consider the issue of adaptation to climate change in the elaboration of training curricula, with special focus on climate smart and/or conservation agriculture
- Select, train and coach community based trainers, who will train farmer groups in a cascade training approach on issues of GAP along the crop calendar as well as business skills and VSLA
- Strengthen the capacity of VSLA to generate funds for agricultural inputs as well serve as a vehicle for their members to access financial services from other providers (banks; larger credit cooperatives)
- Cooperate with and strengthen the public agricultural extension staff at district and sub-county level in the implementation of training and coaching activities
- Support the set-up and operation of demonstration sites at farmer group level
- Support the farmer groups in the identification market opportunities and strengthen their marketing capacities
- Support the identification of off-takers, traders and processors that could integrate the farmer groups into inclusive business models like contract farming and out-grower schemes and support and accompany the set-up and development of such models
- Support the design and implementation of embedded services in the context of the inclusive business models
- Support value addition through training in post-harvest handling and simple processing
- Provide farmer groups with grants for the acquisition of inputs ( seeds, planting material, tools, young animals, beekeeping equipment etc.) and support them in the adequate use of those inputs
- Identify and implement measures that enhance the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in agricultural production, marketing and access to finance, putting special focus on the possibility to establish ICT based savings platforms for VSLA
- Support the knowledge management within the project as well as with relevant stakeholders at sectorial, regional and/or national level
- Support the implementation and operation of an impact oriented M&E system