FISH with Caritas Nebbi

Yesterday (27 September 2016), I attended a presentation by Caritas Nebbi’s progamme director, Alfred Masendi, to representatives of Zombo District and Zeu and Kango Sub-Counties.  The presentation was to inform the attendees about a pilot programme aimed delivering food and income security for households in Zeu and Kango (FISH programme).  The pilot programme is being run with funding from Caritas Belgium and an undertaking has been given, subject to a satisfactory report, for further funding over 3 years to roll the programme out in both areas and potentially more widely within the Diocese of Nebbi. 

Meeting venue at Zombo District Offices

The meeting provided me with an excellent insight into the challenges faced by NGOs running food and income security projects in rural Uganda (and I suspect that the challenges are to be found in many other countries across the developing world).  It was also an opportunity to understand how outcomes can be improved through positive collaboration between partners.  In this case, Caritas Nebbi and Belgium as the NGOs, the Catholic parishes and local community leaders and the local and regional government.

The pilot programme will work with 5 families from each Zeu and Kango Sub-Counties.  Zeu is about 50km from Nebbi and has a population of around 18,000 and 70% of the population is female.  Kango is just over 60km from Nebbi and has a population of 13,000 and 65% of the population is female.  Both communities are rural and the population are primarily subsistence farmers.  This area is close to the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

 

Map showing route from Nebbi to Kango

     

Map showing route from Nebbi to Zeu

The soil in both areas is fertile but heavy and so difficult to work.  The farmers rely on hand tools to work the land and most have had little or no formal education and so rely on farming practice that they have inherited and will plant the same crops year on year regardless of changes in the market demand or prices for these crops.  Surplus crops are relatively rare due to these limitations and indeed in many cases, famers struggle to grow sufficient food to feed their families, leave alone to generate the income needed to pay schools fees and medical costs.

The road network is very poor, especially during the rainy seasons; the roads are unmade murrum mix and so become very muddy and heavily potholed making journeys difficult and long.   I can take between 3 and 4 hours to make the journey by road from Nebbi to Zeu or Kango, depending on the state of the roads.  These difficulties also make it very difficult for the communities to access markets in Paidha, Nebbi and Arua very difficult and often impossible.  This means that they are reliant on selling any surplus crops to passing trade and so unable to secure good prices.  For example, a sack of avocados, tomatoes or beans which could be sold in the market in Nebbi for 100,000 to 150,000 UGS are sold for around 30,000 UGS on the roadside.  Therefore, the farmers invariably lose out on valuable income.

The pilot project will work with the households that have been selected from each area on the advice of the respective Parish Priests based on their knowledge of the commitment to improving their livelihoods and incomes to build a better future for themselves and their families.  Caritas Nebbi, together with staff from Zombo District Council, will provide training on agricultural practice, including crop planting and care, cropping and crop storage, record keeping and marketing; the pilot households will also receive seeds and where necessary tools to enable them to maximise the returns from their land; Caritas will also work with the households to secure the best market prices for the surplus crops and this will include training the families in the benefits to bulking (i.e. pooling their crops to secure a better market price). 

The pilot will also include working with the two communities to establish VLSA (village savings and loans associations) and provide bursaries for 4 vulnerable young people (two from each community) to enable them to enrol for vocational training in metal fabrication, mechanics, carpentry, joinery, hairdressing or catering (these areas of employment have been identified as offering good employment opportunities).

 From the early weeks of the pilot, Caritas Nebbi has identified a number of challenges, including:

• Time – the remoteness of the two communities from each other and Caritas Nebbi’s base and the logistics of travel between the communities have meant that it has taken longer than anticipated to establish the framework for the pilot in each community; it has also taken longer than hoped to reach agreement with the pilot households over the arrangements for training, etc.
• Road infrastructure – as highlighted above, the road network is very poor and often planned visits have had to be postponed simply because the roads are impassable after heavy rain; similarly, farmers have been unable to attend training events or have arrived very late for the same reasons.
• Managing expectations – some of the farmers have failed to embrace their role in ensuring the success of the pilot and have had unrealistic expectations about what Caritas Nebbi staff will “do” for them in improving their livelihoods.
• Land fragmentation – in many cases, the households’ land is not held as a single parcel but rather the households farm several small areas of land and these are often long distances from each other and can only be reached on foot or, if dry enough, by motorcycle.
• Distances between households – although each household lies within the same Parish and Sub-County, they are spread across a wide area; this means it is difficult and time consuming for the pilot members to meet with each other and for Caritas Nebbi staff to visit more than two households in a single day.

Despite these challenges, the pilot has, to date, found very high levels of engagement and participation from the households.  There is a clear desire to learn and work with the Caritas staff and those from their respective Sub-Counties to improve their knowledge of farming and cultivation and how to maximise the yields from their land and so raise their household income.  The pilot has also shown that the farmers have a good understanding of their local or micro-climate and which crops grow best on which plots of land and are keen to work with Caritas to apply this knowledge to new crops.

The pilot will run until around Easter 2017 and is subject to ongoing review.  The ongoing reviews are already showing very positive outcomes and the pilot households are benefiting from improved incomes and so becoming more sustainable.  Indeed, the early outcomes have already secured Caritas Belgium’s commitment to a longer term programme.