Enhanced capacity of 4 ERI partner organisations to successfully empower small-holder farmers to improve their incomes while mainstreaming food security, natural resource man-agement and gender concerns through assessments, training, and knowledge management initiatives.
Directly involved are 120 people (48 female and 72 male), indirectly involved 4.100 people (2.540 female and 1.560 male).
Context: Partner organisations developed proposals that will guide their implementation of the fourth phase of the ERI East Africa program. A review of these, project reports, findings of monitoring visits have been used to inform the development of the ERI joint proposal. The four ERI partners shall focus on initiatives that promote increased incomes through farming as a business while ensuring tangible improvements in food security and sustainable use of natural resources by communities in a gender responsive manner. While old groups shall be supported to become associations, some of the associations will be empowered to develop into functional cooperatives. However, the success of this phase maybe hampered by the limited skills of partners and staff to transform groups into self-sustaining farmer institutions, lack of clear training methodologies for empowering groups (including youth) and limited knowledge management initiatives, suppressing cross learning for stakeholders.