• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
Annual Report 
2008
BURKINA FASO/ETHIOPIA/ERITREA/GHANA/KENYA/MALAWI/TOGO/UGANDA/ZAMBIA
    w    w    w .    s    e     l     f     h    e     l    p    a     f    r     i    c    a .    n    e    t
sha-annual_125_final_awV3.indd 102/07/2009 18:31:16
 
A RURAL AFRICA FREE FROM HUNGER & POVERTY
Self Help AfricaAnnual Report
2008
2
is a rural development agency that seeks to improve the lives of some of the poorest communities inSub-Saharan Africa. The organisation works with local staff, local partners and rural communities inBurkina Faso, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Togo and Zambia. Self Help Africa’s aimis to deliver cost effective and sustainable solutions to the challenges facing rural African people.
 
WHAT WE DO
 
Activities that enable people to grow enough food all year around
Crop diversification, improving access to quality seed, supporting irrigated farming, improving livestock, promoting the use of appropriate technologiesand other sustainable farming methods. 
Initiatives that improve opportunities for Africans to earn a living
 Improving access to micro-finance and loans, providing skills, training and backing for initiatives that allow rural households to increase their earnings anddiversify their sources of income. 
Activities to improve access to basic social services
Support for bore hole and shallow well construction, pump distribution, sanitation and pit latrine construction, support for school rehabilitation andexpansion, improvements to health services, education and training. 
Initiatives that support and strengthen the organisational capacity of African communities
Promotion and support for farmers co-operatives, support with marketing opportunities, development of improved infrastructures including crop storagefacilities, value addition to food production, establishment and support for savings and credit co-operatives and provision of training. 
Programmes that preserve and rehabilitate their natural environment and use available land wisely
Tree planting, nursery development, watershed management programmes, gulley regeneration and land reclamation, soil fertilitymanagement, promotion of composting, complementary cropping and other activities to encourage sustainable land use. 
Advocacy and dissemination for policy change 
Self Help Africa seeks to influence policies and issues affecting the lives of rural Africans through advocacy, dissemination,partnerships and the promotion of best practice. 
Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS and gender
Voluntary counselling and testing programmes and measures to increase understanding and reduce the stigmaassociated with HIV/AIDS along with activities and training initiatives that promote gender equality.
 
sha-annual_125_final_awV3.indd 202/07/2009 18:31:21
 
3
    w    w    w .    s    e     l     f     h    e     l    p    a     f    r     i    c    a .    n    e    t
INTRODUCTION FROM THE CEO
Self Help AfricaAnnual Report
2008
 
Ray Jordan
Chief Executive
W
elcome to the first annualreport of ‘Self Help Africa’.Within these pages we seek torecord some of the notable achievementsof the organisation leading up to andfollowing the successful integration ofthe operations of Self Help DevelopmentInternational and Harvest Help, lastsummer.Although Self Help Africa is a new organisation, the programmesthat we are implementing and the support that we are providingin our African programmes and here at home in Ireland andthe UK is building upon the experience, the knowledge and theunderstanding that the integrated new organisation has drawnfrom its 25 years of experience working to alleviate the challengesfaced by Africa’s rural poor.We firmly believe that agricultural production and the needs ofsmall-scale farming communities must be at the centre of efforts toalleviate poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa in the years ahead.It is a case that we make in the article on food and livelihoods onthe following pages and is at the heart of the work that we aredoing and which we document throughout this report.The economic downturn of the past year and the alarminginflation in global food prices over the same period underlines theuncertain times we live in. Nonetheless, it is more pressing thanever that we play our part and support communities in Africa sothat they escape the poverty trap once and for all.The ‘self help’ approach to development that is applied by ourorganisation across more than 40 development programmes innine countries works. We have seen it time and again and theachievements and impacts are well documented in numerousindependent evaluations and assessments of our work. It is alsoin our view the most cost effective way to achieve sustainableand lasting change for the communities in Africa with whom wecollaborate.I would urge you to share with us the successes that have beenachieved, but do so in the knowledge that a great deal of workmust still be done if millions of Africans are to have enough foodto eat, clean water to drink and the chance of a better life. Do soalso with the awareness that you too can play your part in makinga reality our vision of an Africa free from hunger and poverty.
Ray Jordan
,CEO, Self Help Africa
 
sha-annual_125_final_awV3.indd 302/07/2009 18:31:23
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...