ESAFF is a small-scale farmer’s forum working in 13 countries in the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) Region. ESAFF is a relatively new organisation with a long history of struggle for space and recognition in regional policy processes. ESAFF was established during a parallel farmer’s conference at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002. ESAFF works to “Empower small scale farmers in eastern and southern Africa to influence development policies and promote ecological agriculture through capacity strengthening, research and networking”
ESAFF was awarded a grant worth USD 34,600 from TrustAfrica in mid-2011. The goal of the support was to strengthen the capacity of Small Scale Farmers Forums to hold States accountable in fulfilling and translating the Maputo Declaration and CAADP Compact for sustainable agriculture and food security in Eastern Africa. The geographical focus of the project was in three countries; Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
(i) How the Project has affected the way we do policy advocacy
Advocacy is not about shouting randomly but transmitting a tailored factual and personal message to the right audience (policy and lawmakers) in the right space of time. The ESAFF TrustAfrica-funded project has tremendously changed the way we do policy advocacy. ESAFF, through the project, has learned how to tailor the right message to the right people for impact at various levels: the sub-regional level (the East Africa Community–EAC level); the national/country level and the grassroots level.
Because of the project, ESAFF started its advocacy campaign by performing scoping studies and policy analyses as to how small-scale farmers participated or did not participate in the preparations of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) national compact in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The CAADP Compact roundtable is the process where key players came together to assess the realities of the national agriculture development situation and to develop a road map for going forward. The CAADP Compact processes lead to the identification of priority areas for investment through a ‘CAADP Compact’ agreement that is signed by all key partners.
ESAFF also analysed key policy issues within the EAC agriculture framework. The analysis was to give farmers a precise focus of issues that formulated the central platform of our engagement with the East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA), in particular its committee on Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources (ATNR).
After gaining insight into the national CAADP processes, small-scale farmers in the project countries took to task the Ministry of Agriculture by starting to engage it on the CAADP issues, criticized its top-down approach in policy formulation and the lack of small-scale farmers at the CAADP Compact discussion table. In the mindset of policy makers and law makers, small-scale farmers were seen as unaware of the agriculture policy issues and disorganized.
Through these engagements small-scale farmers in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda gained a lot of clues as to how to conduct advocacy and how objectives can be achieved or at least advanced. It is evident that gone is the era where ESAFF could just organize a press conference or just put a statement in the media and call it advocacy!
ESAFF also used the media to amplify the need for small-scale farmers to participate in policy processes. Media was very sympathetic to small-scale farmers, calling on governments to increase their agriculture budget to the 10% level of the Maputo Declaration.
(ii) How the project contributed towards learning any new things; how important were the lessons?
Farmers learned that organized small-scale farmers can earn respect from lawmakers and policymakers if they have facts and are knowledgeable on policy issues. The positive response from EALA MPs is a testimony to that. Hon. Clarkson O. Karan (Kenya) said “I have never been as delighted... as I am today....the people feeding Africa are small-scale farmers’... We have just opened a channel of communication...we’ll find more time to dialogue and interact’
We have learnt that consistency is the key to advocacy. We need to have a program to address issues impeding the sector’s growth (like small budgets, harmful technology, seeds sovereignty) consistently. A one-off big event that comes once every year is far less important compared to small, but consistent advocacy actions.
(iii) How the project changed perception on advocacy
Initially ESAFF used to communicate its positions on various regional agriculture policies through media, Websites and online newsletters, however our perceptions have changed after this
