TrustAfrica and their partner Solidaridad West Africa launched the "Reclaim Sustainability! Programme" project on the 30th of July 2021 in Accra, Ghana, to promote inclusive and sustainable supply chains. The theme of the launch was promoting inclusive and sustainable supply chains in Ghana. The launch was a successful event widely reported by various media platforms, including newspapers , television stations, and radio, and was live-streamed on our social media platforms.  

TrustAfrica, together with their consortium partner Solidaridad West Africa will launch the RECLAIM Sustainability! programme in West Africa on the 30th of July 2021. The West Africa project launch will be held in Accra, Ghana from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm GMT.   

With this programme, we strive to foster genuine and inclusive sustainability in global value chains, where the voices of farmers, miners, workers, and citizens are represented in decision making, and civil society is strengthened. We advocate for sustainable use of natural resources, decent work, fair value distribution, gender and social inclusion, and sustainable consumption.   

Mawuse Hotor (middle) and her parents, Mary Ahotor and Gabriel, cocoa farmers in Ghana 

“Engaging with and raising the participation of impacted communities has been a continuous challenge in sustainability initiatives.”

                                                             Veronika Ratri, Business Watch Indonesia (BWI)

Solidaridad, Fairfood, TrustAfrica and Business Watch Indonesia (BWI) are excited to launch our new joint programme, RECLAIM SUSTAINABILITY! This five-year programme (2021-2025) will be implemented in strategic partnership with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, within their Policy Framework Strengthening Civil Society. With this programme, we strive to foster genuine and inclusive sustainability in global value chains, where the voices of farmers, miners, workers and citizens are well represented in decision making, and civil society is strengthened. 

In recent years, sustainability has become something of a buzzword in international supply chains, the media, and consumer marketing. However, this has not yet created the desired impact, for there can be no genuine sustainability when the people who produce the products consumed by us all continue living in poverty; when natural resources are not managed sustainably, civic space in many countries is limited, and the working conditions of millions of producers are abject. Farmers, miners and workers are key players in tackling major challenges such as poverty and climate change, yet their voices are often unheard. The global COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the situation of millions of people worldwide.

“The pandemic is exaggerating existing inequalities in food supply chains. While we are all highly dependent on smallholder farmers and workers for our food, they find themselves in exceptionally vulnerable positions. We remain optimistic, as we recognise that the world is gaining momentum to actually build up better as we collectively hit rock bottom. With greatly improved awareness for sustainability from everyone involved in global supply chains – consumers, government and private sector – we can make change happen. Our joint programme taps into this momentum using smart innovations, thus heralding an era of truly inclusive supply chains, in which farmers and workers reclaim their rightful voice.”

                                                                                       Sander de Jong, Fairfood

The COVID-19 has brought an opportunity to learn and revisit how to build strong resilient African food systems and to safeguard food security and sovereignty. For the millions of small scale, peasant and family farmers who are self-employed and rely heavily on moving perishable and non-perishable goods from rural to urban mass markets and consumers, earning a daily wage, this has had disastrous consequences.

By Bethule Nyamambi

TrustAfrica, through its Agriculture Advocacy Programme, convened partners and other stakeholders in a policy and strategy development dialogue: “Agency and Accountability: Securing Citizens’ Voices and Participation in Africa’s Agriculture Development” from 2 to 3 April 2019 in Kigali, Rwanda. The two-day convening brought together participants from across the continent, including regional, strategic partners, smallholder farmer organisations, civil society, and government representatives.

May 10th 2019
Arusha, Tanzania   
Small Scale Farmers (SSFs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the East African region are organizing the 4th EAC Agriculture Budget Summit on Friday, 10 May 2019 in Arusha, Tanzania with the support of Trust Africa, Oxfam Novib, ActionAid and other development partners. 

The purpose of the Agriculture Budget Summit is to catalyse participation and inclusion in public financing and policy making for agriculture at the East African Community (EAC) level and enhance mutual accountability to benefit smallholder farmers, including women in the East African region. Prior to the Summit, a one-day pre-summit consultation meeting is scheduled on Thursday, 9 May 2019 and will bring together all invited delegates from the six EAC Partner States. 

After a series of policy engagement and advocacy dialogues by SSFs and CSOs with support from TrustAfrica and other development actors, the EAC agriculture budget summit was institutionalised as an annual dialogue framework between farmers, non-state actors, Governments, Agriculture Parliamentary Committee and the EALA’s ATNR during EALA seating in Tanzania Zanzibar on 20th October 2016. 

Venue: The Golden Tulip Canaan Hotel, Kampala
Date: 6 – 10 May 2019

TrustAfrica, in partnership with the Dutch Embassy in Uganda, plans to host a media training on transitional justice and international criminal justice in Kampala, Uganda.^[1] The purpose of the training is to build the capacity of a select number of media professionals from South Sudan and Uganda to effectively report on and generate constructive public debates on transitional justice developments and international criminal justice at the local, national, regional and international levels. The media’s engagement in generating constructive public debates on accountability will in turn ensure that the media is strategically placed to advance the democratization processes in South Sudan and Uganda.

TrustAfrica, through its Agriculture Advocacy Programme and together with its partners is organizing a policy dialogue convening themed: “Agency and Accountability : Securing Citizens’ Voices and Participation in Africa’s Agriculture Development” from the 2 to 3 April 2019 in Kigali, Rwanda. The convening brings together partners and like-minded institutions to strengthen civic engagement in the agriculture, environment and natural resource policy making space. The convening will profile TrustAfrica’s on-going agriculture advocacy work and impact, as well as advance proposals for harnessing opportunities and initiatives to better support civil society in addressing the pressing challenges in the African agricultural sector.  It is a timely platform to strengthen conversations and deepen debates on how to sustain the agenda for a more inclusive and sustained citizen’s voice, amongst a broad base network of non-state actors and, with government actors on emerging and pressing challenges on Africa’s development. 

TrustAfrica has co-organized the 1st ECOWAS People’s Agriculture Budget Summit The event, which was held in Abuja, Nigeria, on Wednesday, 12 December 2018, was organized in collaboration with the ECOWAS, ActionAid Global Secretariat, ActionAid Nigeria, Coalition of Non-State Actors on CAADP and the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources of Nigeria. TrustAfrica was represented at the meeting by M. Chinedu Nwagwu, Project Director. The overall discussion of the meeting was centered around highlighting the current situation of agriculture investment and expenditure within member states, its effect and impact and how best to increase the quantity and quality of agriculture budget for 2019/2020 fiscal year to benefit women and smallholder farmers in the ECOWAS region. 

On behalf of TrustAfrica, Bethule Nyamambi was invited to contribute to the workshop convened by the African Risk Capacity Agency (ARC) and the African Union Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture (AU-DREA) held at the African Union, in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, on 26 and 27 November 2018. 

Food systems are a global and immediate priority in the context of climate change, health and resilience. This 3-day conference focuses on the future of food systems in Africa. The conference will explore the complexity, diversity and nutritional value of African food systems and launch an action plan and declaration for change for better food systems geared towards the general public and policymaking bodies including the African Union and the Regional Economic Communities. The first two days will focus on five thematic areas. On the third day, the participants will join with the participants of an organic agriculture conference which follows the food systems event. The combined participants on the third day will number between 400 – 500.

Workshop participants group photo taken at Oceanic Bay Hotel, Bagamoyo Tanzania.

The TrustAfrica Agriculture Advocacy Program working with Agriculture Non-State Actors Forum (ANSAF) held a workshop for livestock stakeholders to sharpen policy advocacy skills and to validate a strategic communication and advocacy plan, developed after several months of stakeholder consultations and research. The workshop was held from the 8th to the 11th of August, as a follow-up to the groundwork that saw the emergence of a loose network of livestock policy advocates upon seeing the need to come together to promote accountable, inclusive and equitable livestock policies and investments in Tanzania.

The network is made up of wide range of stakeholders from civil society organisations, pastoralists, research private organisations, farmers unions, private sector companies, development partners as well as government.

The workshop aimed to build the advocacy capacity of the livestock policy forum in targeted and strategic policy and budget advocacy for the implementation of key reforms in the sector. The workshop provided an opportunity to encourage deeper engagement, coordination and collaboration amongst the network members to work together on championing and advancing livestock sector development.

Dr Bethule Nyamambi, who leads the TrustAfrica Agriculture Advocacy Program highlighted that a strong, coordinated advocacy network of stakeholders was necessary to important in livestock policymaking and providing evidence to ensure strategic investments and problem-solving in small-scale livestock sector development. Noting that the Tanzania livestock sector, though significant due to its large livestock numbers, was still under developed and underperforming in terms of contribution to GDP, it was therefore important to engage government on investments and better policies. Opportunities presented in National development plans (FYDP 2015-2020) and Agriculture development plans, ASDP2 (2016-2021), Tanzania Livestock Modernisation Initiative and Livestock Master Plan should be leveraged to make a case for increased investment and solving challenges impeding the sector currently. 

Opening the workshop, Dr S Mlote, Principal Economist M&E in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (MALF) said “the forum was coming at the right time, when the Ministry is finalizing the Livestock Master Plan, to guide interventions and investments in the sub-sector”. She emphasized that it is time for stakeholders to work together, advocate for issues and policies that will enable Tanzania to benefit from the large number of livestock through significant economic contribution to the GDP, CAADP goals and even industrialization.

*Dr Mlote, Principal Economist M&E, MALF giving opening remarks

Tanzania livestock sector’s potential contribution to achieving many of the national development goals represents a unique opportunity for far-reaching transformation. However, the 60% of the rural population, that relies on livestock herding for income and food security, are marginalized. Whilst livestock production is a fast-growing sector globally, due in part to changing diets because of increasing disposable incomes, investment in small scale livestock and mobile livestock keeping is still minimal and not inclusive. There is recognition that small-scale livestock farming should be supported for its additional positive and sustainable effects on the environment.

The workshop took time to review the advocacy and communication strategy whose vision is to improve production and productivity of the sector. The plan is to advocate for interventions that address 4 specific challenges impeding; increased public and private investments; low access to feeds; better regulatory environment and reduction in prohibitive taxes, improved access to resources including finance, land, and equipment. This advocacy and communication strategy will serve as a roadmap for the forum’s advocacy and communication engagement to achieve these objectives. Post workshop, the strategy will be finalised and launched in September 2017.

Participants engaging in a facilitated discussion on the livestock policy-making processes

By the end of the workshop, participants acknowledged that they had gained new knowledge and improved their skills on analysing and identifying the policy issues and gaps, and developing alternate policy positions, tracking and monitoring budget allocations and public expenditure, understanding strategies to work with and deepen political will and interventions to increase the visibility of livestock sector initiatives.

TrustAfrica’s agriculture advocacy initiative, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation initiative seeks to strengthen the policy advocacy capacities of unions, associations and intermediary organizations that represent the interests of smallholders. It currently focuses on six countries in West Africa (Ghana, Nigeria and Burkina Faso), East Africa (Tanzania and Uganda) and Southern Africa (Malawi) with a combined population of about 160 million people. TrustAfrica’s work on sustainable, inclusive and equitable agriculture development aims to help such groups as the livestock policy advocacy forum to build the capacity to engage more effectively for better policies. The initiative incorporates knowledge building, grant making and technical assistance, strengthening civil society’s capacity to engage in policy-making processes and advocacy for more inclusive platforms to formulate agricultural policies.

You can view the photos here

Download the report here

The reports summarizes the proceedings of a multinational convening organized under Trust Africa’s “Building an Advocacy Movement for Equitable and Sustainable Agriculture in Africa” project held on 24 to 26 November 2014 under the theme “Strengthening smallholder agriculture in Africa: Prospects for mobilization and advocacy”. The convening brought together stakeholders, partners, and researchers, program staff from TrustAfrica and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  

The convening provided a timely platform to reinvigorate discussions on how to sustain the agenda for a more inclusive and sustainable agriculture amongst a broad base of non-state actors with government actors. The convening was also used to launch the discussion on the second phase of TrustAfrica’s advocacy actions and movement building for sustainable agriculture project. The convening took the approach of setting the broader context and understanding the characteristic challenges and gaps of smallholder agriculture.

We are pleased to share On Africa’s Farms, an eBook that compiles articles published in the Mail & Guardian Africa. They are a result of TrustAfrica’s partnership with the Nairobi-based news organization which seeks to enhance coverage of development issues.

“Nearly 240 million Africans are malnourished and although only one-third of those who face hunger are based in Africa, the percentage of people who suffer from hunger here is higher than in any other region of the world,” stated Mr. Charles Abugre Akelyira, Africa Regional Director of the UN Millennium campaign, based in Nairobi.  “We must invest in agriculture not just to feed the current generation but to prepare for the two billion more mouths we will need to feed by 2050. In particular, we have to invest in small-scale agriculture, as part of our mixed strategy.  Two-thirds of our farm outputs come from small farmers,” he said.

Date: March 14, 2011
Location: The Nation (Lilongwe, Malawi)

Malawi will from Monday host a five-day high level international meeting in the capital, Lilongwe, which is expected to pool together smallholder farmers and civil society leaders from seven countries across Africa.

Ghana News Agency
May 9, 2011

The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), with support from TrustAfrica, an international donor organisation, has organised a day’s training workshop for leaders of small scale farms on budget process and advocacy.

The workshop, held in Accra over the weekend, was aimed at equipping the farmers with skills, which will enable them to take on their budget process effectively to ensure that their demands and interest were met in the annual national budgets.