Self Help Africa - Annual Review 2011

2011 www.selfhelpafrica.org

ANNUAL REVIEW

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

OUR VISION

A RURAL AFRICA FREE FROM HUNGER AND POVERTY

In 2011, Self Help Africa...

Self Help Africa group* trained almost 400,000 smallholder farmers in production, business skills and organisational development.

Helped 160,000 farm families to improve harvests.

Improved market access for 284,000 smallholder farmers Supported over 800 local farmer organisations Supported microfinance services for over 35,000 people Cover: Thokozie Nyasulu hoes the land on her father’s farm in southern Malawi This page: Charles Manza on his parent’s farm in Katinta village, eastern Zambia Back page: Bringing fuel to market, Hurutu, Ethiopia

* includes activities of Partner Africa.

SELF HELP AFRICA IS A SIGNATORY TO THE DOCHAS NGO CODE OF CONDUCT ON THE RESPONSIBLE USE OF IMAGES AND MESSAGES

2

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

AFTER THE HARVEST

W

e want to change that.

In trying to explain to people what Self Help Africa does, I often simply say “we help African smallholder farmers grow more food and sell their surplus”. By growing more food, families can bridge the hunger gap that has so often been a part of their lives. By selling their surplus, they can afford to pay for goods we consider essential - clothes, medicines and school fees.

Growing more food is tough but, for many farmers, the hardest part of the year arrives when they look for someone to buy their surplus.

It might seem like a strange question coming from an organisation dedicated to ending hunger, but have you ever eaten food from Africa? If you live in Europe or North America, the chances are that you probably have at some stage in your lifetime, but not regularly.

If it has been a good harvest, the immediate problem is how and where to store the crop. If a farmer has enough storage, the next problem she faces is how to get it to a market. Bringing a 50-kilo bag of maize to the nearest town on the back of a bicycle is one way, but it’s also the surest route to a low price.

In Self Help Africa, we’ve been adapting to this market challenge for many years. Part of the solution lies with helping farmers

build better storage facilities; another part involves assisting the development of farmer groups and cooperatives, which can bulk harvests ahead of transport to markets; yet another sees the development of links to new markets, sometimes for new crops.

Ultimately, the solution to hunger and poverty in Africa doesn’t rest on the dinner tables of London or Dublin. It rests on the shoulders of Africa’s farmers, who must build new markets across the world, but particularly in Africa, for a range of both new and traditional produce.

Self Help Africa is with them every step of the way in this challenge.

And because our programmes rely on your support, you are walking with us.

From the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of almost 400,000 families across Africa, thank you.

Raymond Jordan

3

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

WHERE WE

WORK

THE BOTTOM LINE 4

• One in three people in sub-Saharan Africa is hungry • Up to 80% of the population lives in rural areas, where farming is the main source of food and income • Investing in agriculture is up to three times as effective in cutting poverty as investment in any other sector

malawi

ghana SELF HELP AFRICA zambia ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

kenya

Below: 19 year old David Banda produces cabbage as a member of Chanika irrigated horticultural group, Malawi

WEST AFRICA

zambia

burkinafaso

zambia

ETHIOPIA

ghana

burkinafaso

kenya

ghana

zambia

burkinafaso

UGANDA Uganda: Over 75% of the country relies on the land for survival. In 2012, Self Help Africa begins work on a major USAID-funded initiative in Uganda, providing support to farming communities in 18 districts across the country. It is one of the largest projects Self Help Africa has ever worked on, and will continue for five years.

ghana

Kenya: The hub for togo East African commerce. The presence here of Self Help Africa’s new sister charity, Partner Africa, gives added impetus to our kenya work with small agri-business and new export markets. New initiatives in Kenya for togo 2012 include work on seed development and cooperative development for tea growers. malawi

ZAMBIA zambia

kenya

MALAWI malawi

togo

zambia Malawi: Known as ‘The Warm Heart of Africa’, Malawi has made significant strides in recent years to cut rural hunger. However, the effects of climate change present particular difficulties for burkinafaso this landlocked Southern African nation. One of Self Help Africa’s key projects here in 2012 takes place in the northern part of the country, working ghana with a number of other organisations to improve farmers’ ability to cope with climate shocks.

zambia

ghana

burkinafaso

kenya

ghana

TOGO, GHANA & BURKINA FASO

malawi

malawi

burkinafaso

togo

malawi

KENYA

malawi

Ethiopia: The second most populous country in Africa. Self Help Africa has been working here since the organisation was founded, almost three decades ago.

Our work here in 2012 includes new initiatives in partnership with the private sector, along with consolidation of our largest micro-finance project, now with over 34,000 members.

togo

kenya

West Africa (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo): This three-country programme is coordinated from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, and concentrates its efforts on a 400-kilometre area of poor smallholder farming that runs across national boundaries. Water is a key pressure for all communities in the area, and our work here has made significant progress in improving access to water for community household use and for agriculture in 2012.

togo

Zambia: Self Help burkinafaso Africa has completed very significant work across the country in recent years to assist impoverished ghana smallholder farmers improve their access to seeds, in collaboration with local seed research centres. This work with seeds kenya continues, while 2012 also sees further work to assist farmers link to markets and develop privatetogosector linkages to the rural poor.

kenya

togo

5

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

Shelled corn is prepared for grinding in Togo

6

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

SMALL OBJECT, BIG OUTCOMES Self Help Africa has always had a significant focus on seed. Like the seed itself, our work in this area has grown and flourished, and we are now at the forefront of a trans-African initiative for the sector.

T

his work seeks to tackle a serious challenge for African smallholder farmers - access to superior variety and affordable seed at the right time. For Self Help Africa, the development of local seed enterprises offers a clear path towards improving access, thereby improving both food security and rural incomes.

In Ethiopia, we work with 19 primary seed producer cooperatives that last year had a total of 1,230 members. In Zambia, Self Help Africa works with 10 seed growers associations, as well as a cooperative; over the border in Malawi, our work is of a similar size, while we are rolling out new seed initiatives in Kenya and Uganda.

As an organisation we believe that supporting farmers to produce more and better seed is key to our mission, which is ‘to develop enterprising solutions that enable smallholder farmers to achieve a better quality of life’. Farmers who produce seed are rural entrepreneurs, earning an income from their activity. But they are also helping to boost food security in their local area as they sell improved seeds to other farmers.

It’s this win-win in seed multiplication that has encouraged us to scale up our seed initiatives, to reach more farmers and to bring experiences from practice into the policy arena.

Self Help Africa collaborates with Wageningen

University as part of a wider initiative with the African Union’s African Seed and Biotechnology Programme (ASBP).

Our new initiative will see a significant scaleup of local seed enterprises as part of an integrated seed sector development approach in ten African countries from East, West and Southern Africa.

The core programme will take place in six countries where key outcomes will be improved access to quality seed for over 440,000 farmers, with resultant increases in crop production and productivity.

and tubers as well as vegetables, with a particular focus on improved and locally adapted varieties for both the most productive and more marginal areas. Seed producers will benefit from a two-to-three-fold increase in income from their engagement in seed enterprises.

Increased use of quality seed will have a wider impact on smallholder farmers’ incomes - with over two million people (farming household members) benefiting from improved food and economic security as a result. That’s real impact and we believe the benefits of this work are sustainable in the long term.

This will be achieved with a range of crops including cereals, legumes, oil crops, roots

7

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

Grading peanuts at the Eastern Province Farmers Cooperative depot in Chipata, Zambia

8

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

SUPPORTING AFRICA’S TEAMS In management-speak, the acronym TEAM stands for Together Everyone Achieves More. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Africa, where individual smallholder farmers struggle to earn a viable living from the land. Joining up as teams, they become a vast alliance in the fight against hunger and poverty.

A

key part of the Self Help Africa’s work is in supporting Africa’s smallholder farmers to organise, and then to facilitate links to local, regional and international market opportunities that can enable them to increase their income and move out of poverty.

In Ethiopia, for example, our cooperative development programme has supported a range of cooperatives and unions to address the fundamental problems of increasing agricultural production and productivity against water scarcity, rainfall dependence and market instability for

smallholder farmers.

One of the organisations we’ve supported is the Meki Batu Fruit and Vegetable Grower Farmer Cooperative Union, established in 2002 in Oromia as the first irrigated farmer cooperative union in the country. The union aims to sell its members’ produce to local and foreign markets; supply agricultural inputs and credit; deliver market information; and provide training and support to member farmers.

members, there are now 135 cooperatives in the union with almost 7,000 individual farmer members. The union produces over 50,000 tonnes of vegetable and fruits which are supplied to local market outlets as well as exported to Djibouti and Holland. Hybrid maize seed production is also carried out by the union, meeting 68% of regional seed demand in what is a competitive and lucrative business. Overall the union’s capital base has increased 60-fold over eight years.

From an initial 12 cooperatives with 527

Self Help Africa provided capital for the union

to start up, for irrigation pumps, support to build warehouses, a truck, seed, contribution to staff salaries and training in management, planning and leadership, as well as developing its value chain. The union now operates independently with no further direct support from Self Help Africa.

As farmers celebrate the UN International Year of Cooperatives, our experience in Ethiopia and elsewhere suggests that cooperatives are stronger and more resilient when they are linked to viable commercial opportunities.

9

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

Self Help Africa’s Mavutu Kamamga conducts a farmer training course in the village of Masumbankhunda, Malawi

10

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

BUILDING ‘THE INVISIBLE’ Anyone visiting a rural community in Africa will quickly identify the need for increased investment in physical infrastructure - in input supply, irrigation, transport and warehousing, to name just a few of the most critical factors.

B

ut there’s another gap on African farms, one that can’t be seen but is keenly felt. Put simply, there’s an information gap at the heart of poor farming productivity.

Without access to the internet, without formal farm education and in many cases without any significant literacy training, Africa’s farmers struggle to access the knowledge necessary to adapt their traditional practices.

Farm radio and SMS are playing a significant role in filling this gap, but one of the most effective solutions is the development of farmer-to-farmer information flows.

For many years, Self Help Africa has placed farmers at the centre of information and knowledge generation and dissemination.

The community-based ‘extension’ system has two major advantages over the use of professional farm advisory services - local farmers have a better grasp both of local conditions and of their neighbour’s abilities, and community advisory services are far cheaper. State-run farm advisory services are chronically under-funded and rarely offer a viable alternative for farmers.

A study commissioned by Self Help Africa into farmer-to-farmer extension over the last decade in Ghana, Uganda and Malawi revealed that it delivers cost/benefit ratios

ranging from almost 1:7 to over 1:14, all within a four-year period. Impressive as this return is, it probably undervalues the service, as farmers will continue to benefit from information flows for years more than the simple four-year study cut-off.

Farmer-to-farmer extension offers a potentially low-cost and wide-reach alternative in farmer knowledge transfer.

The study provides important evidence that community-based extension works and is changing lives. The key challenge is how this potential can be used more effectively and sustainably, ensuring that the extension workers receive continuing support for their work from the community and continuing

training and information flows from research institutes.

Finding other ways to ensure continued sustainability of the farm extension system remains high on our priority list. In recent years, a pilot programme in eastern Zambia - in which extension and marketing services are joined together in a single, non-profit entity - is showing promise. The Eastern Province Farmers Cooperative (EPFC) has seen average incomes of participating farmers rise by over 800% in just three years. The challenge now is to replicate and scale up this model.

11

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

Maserat Debebe in the small shop she established in Legaba village, Ethiopia, with support from a savings and credit cooperative.

12

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

ENDING POVERTY THROUGH SAVINGS & LOANS There’s one thing that multinational business and small holder farmers have in common - the challenge to raise capital. So many of Africa’s poor are shut out from savings and loan services that many identify increased access to credit as one of the keys to tackling poverty in a sustainable way.

S

elf Help Africa has been working with rural savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs) in Ethiopia, for almost two decades. The Ethiopia programme now supports five SACCO unions, covering 254 individual groups. In total, this amounts to almost 35,000 people whose access to savings and credit facilities is being supported and developed by Self Help Africa.

For individual savings and credit groups, low levels of capital restrict not only loan creation, but also the ongoing viability of the savings model itself. Without access to increased capital and training services, these SACCOs are likely to offer both low deposit rates that leave savers worse off in real terms and low

loan rates that undermine profitability. In addition, undisciplined financial practices and poor risk management further hinders their viability and growth.

For Self Help Africa, the aim in Ethiopia is to continue supporting the SACCO union structures, rather than working on the development of new individual groups at village level, on the grounds that this offers better prospects for institutional sustainability.

Most of our input is focused on training union staff, but revolving funds are offered as incentives to improve loan performance rates.

We believe that the five SHA-supported unions include some of the best in Ethiopia,

with the potential not only to have direct and indirect positive impacts on poverty through the services they support, but also to influence development of SACCOs more widely by serving as role models of good practice.

poor. In many cases, this support takes place side-by-side with an intervention in agricultural productivity among a host community. By increasing farm output while also providing access to finance, sustained increases in rural incomes can be achieved.

In 2008 there were already more than 3,000 SACCOs in the country, but only 664 affiliated to one of the 30 unions (including the five supported by SHA). The remainder continue to struggle to access specialist expertise in rural finance.

On a practical level, this means that farmers without collateral or a credit history can access loans to buy a water pump or invest in livestock. In many cases, it allows a farmer to start a small off-farm business, thereby reducing risk and increasing rural resilience.

These are not risk-free investments but the repayment rate on loans experienced by the Ethiopian unions - over 98% - is clear evidence of its success.

Outside Ethiopia, our other country programmes support the growth of specialist micro-finance institutions among the rural

13

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

Partner Africa supports African manufacturers to meet the working conditions and standards that are required by Western buyers

14

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

PARTNERING FOR AFRICA’S FUTURE An increasing focus on the role of trade in promoting economic development in Africa has led Self Help Africa to establish a new ‘sister’ charity, Partner Africa.

O

perating since late 2011, Partner Africa provides a range of services to smallholder farmers, local artisans and homeworkers, as well as national and international companies, aiming to facilitate increased and ethically-responsible trade in Africa.

Partner Africa’s services rely on “local people providing local solutions” in four key service areas: Trade Development Projects: These are traditional development activities, carried out under an agreement with an institutional funder and/or through a public private partnership agreement. The focus is on

supporting and developing trade opportunities for those who are not currently able to trade on the international market. These are usually smallholder farmers or local artisans.

Ethical Audits & Assessments: Ethical audits are designed for larger, more established bodies, factories, farms, packing houses and plantations. Ethical assessments are focused on smallholder farmer groups, cooperatives, local artisans and home workers groups. All are seeking approval to allow them to sell into global companies.

Audits and assessments are carried out on the basis of a company supplier guide or an internationally-recognised code.

Partner Africa’s non-profit status gives it a

unique position in this market, as a number of global companies are keen to carry their corporate social responsibility mandate into procurement of audit services from a nonprofit.

Community Impact Assessments: Many global buying companies have worked with suppliers for years, investing in the improvement of their ethical trade standards through auditing and corrective action plans.

The community impact assessment service allows these global companies to measure the impact of their investment, not only on the factory and its workers, but also on the community at large.

Capacity Building & Training: Partner Africa has a number of valuable training modules.

Currently, these training programmes include: • Ethical Trade Awareness Training • Improving Workplace Communication • Supervisor Skills Training • Management Systems for Ethical Trade • SEDEX Supplier Member Training • Joint Body Training/ Worker Committee Training • Fairtrade Requirements • Rainforest Alliance Certified TM Standards Training

15

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT

ETHIOPIA

Members of Baakka Farmers Cooperative multiply and distribute seed potato to farmers in Holleta, west of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. The group, who are affiliated to Robi Berega Cooperative Union are pictured attending a farmers field school, where they receive training in nutrition management, disease management and post harvest management of potato - which is now a major food crop in the country.

16

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

ETHIOPIA SUCCESS BUILT ON COOPERATIVES The programme was selected by the European Commission as its ‘best performer’ across the Food Facility NGO initiatives.

I

n 2008, in response to soaring food prices in developing countries, the European Commission agreed to establish a E1bn (£788m) ‘Food Facility’. The facility, which aimed to help address food prices in the developing world, allocated E42m (£33m) in funding for Ethiopia, from which Self Help Africa received E1.3m. (£1m) This funding allowed Self Help Africa to initiate an extremely successful programme, designed to reduce food insecurity in 100,000 households in two regions by the end of 2011.

Over a 24-month period, the Agricultural Cooperative Development Programme aimed to increase production of food crops, vegetables and livestock products, by targeting efforts through existing and new farmer groups. In addition, it helped build

local capacity and added permanent infrastructure to assist with harvests.

A key part of the programme rested in the local multiplication of improved seed to farmer producers. From an initial consignment of just over 200 tonnes of foundation seed, farmer groups produced 4,800 tonnes of seed for local sale, which in turn benefited over 30,000 farmer households. As a direct result of the initiative, family farm incomes per hectare of land increased by an average of 100%.

Over 400 tonnes of improved grain and vegetable seed was also distributed to vulnerable households in the programme area, resulting in a 70% rise in incomes among farm households.

milk processing centres were built and other capital equipment was provided to cooperatives. In addition, over 1,200 farmers were trained in seed production and handling, along with 64 government extension workers and 60 coop staff. Farmer field school and seed multiplication workshops added to our training activities.

Overall, the Self Help Africa programme has been a significant success, contributing to alleviating food insecurity for 100,000 households. Following its mid-term evaluation, the programme was selected by the European Commission as its ‘best performer’ across the Food Facility NGO initiatives.

As a result, our Ethiopia country director, Dr Wubshet Berhanu, travelled to Brussels to speak to selected audiences about its success.

As part of the infrastructure work, seven seed storage depots and two

17

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT

UGANDA

Weeding the land in Kayunga, Uganda. The Community Connector programme will assist agricultural extension across the country

18

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

CONNECTING TO CUT HUNGER IN UGANDA The ultimate project target populations are vulnerable children below age five, with special emphasis on children below age two, and vulnerable women.

C

onnecting agriculture and nutrition in an ambitious programme for Uganda is the focus for Self Help Africa’s first major intervention under USAID’s Feed the Future initiative.

Joining with a range of US and Ugandan partners for the Uganda Community Connector (UCC) Project, Self Help Africa will work in 18 districts across the country to increase food production by working with government agencies, farmer groups and community-based organisations as well as the private sector.

A large US-based organisation, FHI360, leads the project, to which Self Help Africa will supply technical assistance, primarily on agriculture. Local organisations VEDCO and BRAC will focus on implementation while two regional universities, Gulu and Mbarara, will provide training and research inputs.

Despite its rich agricultural resources,

a growing economy and a government commitment to building on progress, nearly eight million Ugandans live in poverty. Of these, 90% reside in rural areas where access to quality land varies and vulnerable populations face serious food insecurity and malnutrition. Over time, these circumstances have taken an enormous toll on Uganda’s development and productivity.

The underlying causes of undernutrition and food insecurity in Uganda remain complex, with poverty as both a cause and result, exacerbated by the remoteness and isolation of most of Uganda’s rural farmers.

UCC aims to connect district subcounty and community authorities from different sectors, with community groups representing poor households, for the particular benefit of women and children in those homes.

The ultimate project target populations are vulnerable children below age five, with special emphasis on children below age two, and vulnerable women, particularly pregnant and lactating women. These women are likely to be smallholder subsistence farmers with few purchased inputs and technology, limited market orientation, and vulnerability to risk and household-level shocks such as acute or chronic illness.

Using the SHA-developed Household Economic Assessment tool, the project will focus on groups identified as “very poor” and “poor”, with the goal of moving these households beyond subsistence and up the rural socio-economic and nutrition ladder.

Working initially with six districts in the north and south-west of the country in 2012, the project will expand to 18 districts throughout Uganda by the end of the project cycle in 2016. The total budget for the intervention is $24m.

19

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT

MALAWI

Irrigating the land in Malawi with a treadle pump: The DISCOVER programme is helping farmers to adapt to climate change

20

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

DISCOVERING LOCAL SOLUTIONS TO CLIMATE CHANGE By project end, DISCOVER aims to have increased and diversified crop and livestock production, while also improving family diets in up to 40,000 households in the region.

S

elf Help Africa has joined a number of other international organisations in an innovative project to help communities in Malawi adapt to climate change.

The four-member consortium - which also includes Concern Universal, GOAL and Cooperazione Internazionale - has come together to implement the new project, entitled Developing Innovative Solutions with Communities to Overcome Vulnerability through Enhanced Resilience (DISCOVER), over a five-year period.

Every year in Malawi, tens if not hundreds of thousands of people face food insecurity as a result of climatic hazards. These episodes generally recur - affecting the same communities and individuals each year - and have been increasing in magnitude over the past decades as a result of climate change.

Working in six districts in the northern part of Malawi, DISCOVER aims to

strengthen community capacity to cope with climate change, directly benefitting almost 300,000 people as a result. It builds on the long experience of the four agencies in implementing communitybased livelihoods programmes and so is firmly rooted in an understanding of ‘what works’ in a Malawian context. The consortium has worked to ensure that the initiative has been designed alongside community members in response to the practical challenges of climate change.

The project aims to nurture practical, locally-devised adaptation activities and to combine these with the creation of a network of well-resourced committees at village, area and district level. This ensures real local ownership of project activities - a connection that will help long-term sustainability of the intervention.

The project also features inputs from other organisations with a diverse range of specialised skills, such as

SolarAid’s experience with microsolar entrepreneurship, Concern Universal Microfinance work in rural microfinance and Clioma’s expertise in low carbon technology and carbon financing.

By project end, DISCOVER aims to have increased and diversified crop and livestock production, while also improving family diets in up to 40,000 households in the region. In addition, 60,000 households will be using fuel-efficient stoves, tapping into global carbon financing and supporting the planting of over 10 million trees. Over 18,000 people will have access to rural microfinance services for the first time, while thousands more will have received small business training.

DISCOVER is supported by the UK’s Department for International Development, along with Irish Aid and the Norwegian Embassy.

21

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

On the road to Kayunga, Uganda. Self Help Africa is using the Individual Household Method to measure impact in a new nutrition and agriculture project in 18 districts across the country

22

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

MEASURING OUR SUCCESS Measuring the impact of our work has always been critical, and Self Help Africa has continued to develop new ways in which to show how our interventions deliver results for beneficiaries and value for money for donors.

A

recent collaboration with the UK-based Evidence for Development has led to our adoption of the Individual Household Method (IHM) as the tool to monitor the impact of our interventions on wealth, food security and smallholder production.

In common with any household budget survey, the IHM involves the collection of household income data. However, the IHM differs from other approaches in (i) the method of data collection (a semi structured interview, rather than a standard questionnaire format is used) and (ii) the use of specialised software, which allows data checking and analysis to be carried out at the time of collection. Taken together, these reduce the risk of errors in data collection and allow any errors to be identified and corrected.

During the 1990s, a Household Economy Approach (HEA) was developed as a predictive model for famine, and it is

used widely across Africa. HEA uses a model based on measurement of the level of entitlement which households actually achieved and their ability to ‘cope’ in a ‘reference’ non-famine year.

The data collected for a household includes: 1. Income obtained from crop & livestock production, employment, wild foods and hunting and transfers.

2. Savings and reserves including food stocks, cash savings, tradable assets e.g. livestock.

3. Potential alternative income sources e.g. alternative employment opportunities, increased wild food consumption.

This level of detail is sufficient for large area food security assessments, but the data set is not sufficiently detailed for both project design and monitoring and evaluation (M&E).

IHM overcomes these limitations and provides a practical

tool that can be used for many development purposes including programme design and M&E. IHM calculates the individual household’s ‘disposable income’ i.e. the cash remaining after household food energy needs have been met. The cost of essential non-food items is set locally. Households that cannot afford these items are shown as ‘below the standard of living threshold’.

By using the IHM (twice) as baseline and after the intervention, we can measure the direct impact of our projects on disposable income, food security and production of individual households.

Secondly the method can be used to design or improve project interventions, by using open-source software to simulate different intervention possibilities and forecast their expected impact on the different wealth groups.

23

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

FARMS VITAL TO AFRICA’S FUTURE

T

his report sets out to record the financial activities and accomplishments of Self Help Africa during 2011.

It also provides readers with some information about our work, and about some of the issues and challenges that we must address if we are to be successful in our work to eradicate hunger and poverty in Africa.

The past year has been a busy one for Self Help Africa. It saw us conclude 15 years of work in Eritrea, and launch new projects in a number of countries.

The grave food security crisis that forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in the Horn of Africa during 2011 underlined the great vulnerability of people who live off small farms in regions where support services are limited and where the climate is becoming unpredictable.

It brought home too the vital role that farmers play across Africa, and how hopeless circumstances can become when communities are driven from their land.

During 2011 we launched an important new document – an organisation five-year strategic plan - to map out the future direction, aims and goals of Self Help Africa as we continue to develop our work into our fourth decade in Africa.

That plan was the result of months of consultations between

24

staff across three different continents – and is being built upon this year as we develop clear strategies for how we work in each of the eight African countries where we now have a presence.

Much progress has been made in the fight to eradicate hunger and poverty in Africa – and the emergence of strong and confident new economies in many parts of the continent point the way for others in years to come.

Of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world last year, six were in Africa.

In Ghana and Ethiopia, that economic growth has been achieved on the foundations of agricultural production. For Self Help Africa, this reinforces our belief that farming and food production is critical not just at household level but also for Africa’s wider economic development.

At home, we are grateful for the continuing backing that we receive – from individual supporters, from businesses, and from institutional supporters such as Irish Aid, the European Union, UK Aid and USAID. To our management and staff - in Ireland, UK, USA and across Africa we are grateful for the manner that you go about your business, ensuring that Self Help Africa is as effective as is possible in its work. To our local partners we express

our deep gratitude for the many successful collaborations that are taking place, and the key role you play in enabling more African families to end the cycle of hunger and dependence.

I must also express my appreciation for the time, commitment and expertise provided by the members of our board of directors, trustees, advisory and technical panels, our field officers and ambassadors, who all play such a key role in the organisation.

To the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) a special word of gratitude is also in order, for your continuing support and backing of Self Help Africa as chosen charity.

And finally to all of our donors, we say ‘thank you’. We see every day the results of our work - when families who were once hungry find themselves with a food surplus or an offfarm income.

This is truly transformative work and, without your support, it could not continue.

Tom Corcoran Chairman Self Help Africa

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

Children at Legetio Primary school, near Rongai, Kenya, where Self Help Africa has been working with farming families for many years

FINANCIAL REPORT

25

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

SELF HELP AFRICA CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2011

Unrestricted Funds e

Restricted Funds e

Total Funds 2011 e

Incoming resources Grant Income 1,384,566 4,380,805 5,765,371 Voluntary Income 1,612,338 643,627 2,255,965 Interest Income 10,326 - 10,326 Other Income 216,326 - 216,326

Total Funds 2010 e

Unrestricted Funds GBP

Restricted Funds GBP

Total Funds 2011 GBP

Total Funds 2010 GBP

4,905,646 2,168,117 3,283 -

1,201,098 3,800,308 5,001,406 4,208,687 1,398,688 558,340 1,957,028 1,860,087 8,958 - 8,958 2,817 187,661 - 187,661 -

Total income 3,223,556 5,024,432 8,247,988 7,077,046

Resources Expended Direct charitable expenditure 2,293,474 5,052,834 7,346,308 7,409,551 Cost of generating funds 542,186 - 542,186 372,015 Governance Costs 127,987 - 127,987 67,699

Total resources expended 2,963,647 5,052,834 8,016,481 7,849,265

NET INCOMING RESOURCES 259,909 (28,402) 231,507 (772,219)

Loss on revaluation of investment assets (1,840) - (1,840) 1,997 Transfers between funds 135,188 (135,188) - - Exchange gain/(loss) on consolidation 39,290 10,650 49,940 69,491

NET MOVEMENT FOR THE YEAR 432,547 (152,940) 279,607 (700,731)

Funds brought forward 1,157,919 711,505 1,869,424 2,570,155

2,796,405 4,358,648 7,155,053 6,071,591

Funds at end of period

1,590,466

558,565

2,149,031

1,869,424

The EUR figures are extracted from the SHA Group audited accounts. The GBP figures are direct translations of the EUR figures at the appropriate rates for the period

26

1,989,567 4,383,287 6,372,854 6,356,856 470,341 - 470,341 319,162 111,028 - 111,028 58,080 2,570,936 4,383,287 6,954,223 6,734,098 225,469 (24,639) 200,830 (662,507) (1,596) - (1,596) 1,713 117,274 (117,274) - (5,311) (2,536) (7,847) (42,756) 335,836 (144,449) 191,387 (703,550) 996,659

612,416 1,609,075 2,312,625

1,332,495

467,967 1,800,462 1,609,075

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

1. HOW WE SPENT IN 2011 CHARITABLE ACTIVITY 91.5% GENERATING VOLUNTARY INCOME 7% GOVERNANCE 1.5%

2. OUR INCOME SOURCES IN 2011 EURO IRISH AID GENERAL PUBLIC DONATIONS DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT EUROPEAN UNION TRUSTS/FOUNDATIONS/OTHER

2,810,000 2,255,965 1,317,898 1,182,536 681,589

34% 27% 16% 15% 8%

We wish to acknowledge the generous support of the following trusts, foundations and organisations: Electric Aid, Guernsey Overseas Aid, Jersey Overseas Aid Commission, One Foundation, The Shanley Charitable Trust, Vitol Services Ltd

3. HOW WE WORKED IN 2011 SUSTAINABLE RURAL LIVELIHOODS FOOD SECURITY BUILDING COMMUNITY CAPACITY RESEARCH, LEARNING AND ADVOCACY

50% 35% 13% 2%

27

SELF HELP AFRICA ANNUAL REVIEW 2011

NOTES

28

USA Self Help Africa Inc. 41 Union Square West, Suite 631 New York, NY 10003, USA Tel. +1 212 206 0847 ETHIOPIA PO Box 1204 Addis Ababa Tel. +251 116-620659 KENYA PO Box 2248 Code 20100, Nakuru, Tel. +254 O51 2212291 MALAWI PO Box B-495 Lilongwe, Tel. +265 1750568 UGANDA PO Box 34429, Plot 44 Ministers’ Village, Ntinda, Kampala Tel. +256 414 286305 WEST AFRICA 12 PO Box 418, Ougadougou 12, Burkina Faso Tel. +226 50 36 89 60

Memory and Moofat Magombo at work on their farm in Mabwera village, Malawi

ZAMBIA 33 Cnr Joseph Mwilwa and Great East Road Rhodespark Lusaka Tel: +260 211 236604

“Self Help Africa has been a long-time partner in the fight against hunger and extreme poverty... Farmers are the backbone of Africa.

You believe in them and you invest in them. You link farmers with markets. You work with them in improving their practices and building up their capacity for achieving sustainability. There is no better work.”

Michael D Higgins, President of Ireland, May 5, 2012

www.selfhelpafrica.org

IRELAND Kingsbridge House, Parkgate Street, Dublin 8.

Tel 1850 757678

UK Westgate House, Hills Lane, Shrewsbury SY1 1QU, UK Tel +44 (0) 1743 277170

3rd Floor, Fitzroy House 18-22 Ashwin Street London E8 3DL Tel: +44 (0) 20 3051 8637