Poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is pervasive. Eastern and Southern Africa regions (ESAf), which make up more than 50 percent of this region, are among the poorest in the world with a huge population living below the poverty line. These two regions are characterized by low agricultural productivity leading to food insecurity, low incomes and consequent increase in poverty levels.
Aligned with the African Union’s Malabo Declaration of June 2014 on ‘Accelerated agricultural growth and transformation for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods’, ESAf currently works in five countries to deliver:
- Support for quality germplasm supply systems especially targeting trees for fruits, energy and fodder
- Diversified and supportive on-farm tree management including product processing and marketing
- Effective demonstrations of agroforestry systems at scale including dissemination of science-based evidence at both farm and landscape
- Ecological services with a focus on water management under agroforestry systems
- Strengthened and mobilized partner capacity including joint planning
Areas of focus include:
- Better engagement of youth and women in agroforestry-related businesses
- Improvement of cross–sector analyses and collaboration
- Improvement of communication, especially in local media and local languages
Cutting across all of these is support to policies that seek to mainstream agroforestry principles and practices into national development plans, strategies and projects and the facilitation of functional country and regional (e.g. EAC, SADC, IGAD), agroforestry networks.