The Project
BCCT is now working with the local elders, members of the Agoro community and the Gulu Women's Empowerment Network (GWENET) in Northern Uganda to create sustainable livelihoods, through trade, for people in a former war zone.
For 20 years, Northern Uganda was gripped by war, during which boys were forcibly enrolled as child soldiers and girls as sex slaves. Those not abducted were placed in ‘protected camps’ and acquired a total dependency culture. In January 2009, after two years of peace, the camps closed. Families returned to their villages, where utter poverty prevails. The project will be based in Lamwo District, where 230,000 formerly Internally Displaced People (IDP) live.
Traditionally, 95% will become subsistence farmers with families, in the plentiful, fertile land, but with few skills. This project will focus on ensuring that the predominantly young population is empowered with skills to kick-start the region’s economic recovery by growing for income and trading in identified markets.
The Pilot Project
In September 2008, British Consultancy Charitable Trust (BCCT), working with the local elders, members of the Agoro community and the Gulu Women’s Empowerment Network (GWENET) began a Pilot Project to establish viable practices through which to empower ex-IDPs with skills in sustainable agriculture and supportive building trades in rural Agoro in Lamwo County, Northern Uganda. An institute was created, entitled the Agoro International Vocational Institute (AIVI) with the twin objectives of ‘social reconstruction' and the development of ‘sustainable agriculture’. Thirty-six acres have been allocated by Elders, part of which is used for tenant farmers through whom close understanding of ex-IDP needs and wants are attained and part of which is directly managed by AIVI to demonstrate how things can be done – ultimately directly managed land will produce income to underpin AIVI’s financial sustainability. Significant achievements have been made and lessons learnt such that an Outreach Programme is now planned to reach ex-IDPs in the villages to which they have returned. To date local trainers wherever possible have been used, which has highlighted the need for intensive capacity-building in training skills.
Tackling the Problem
Following comprehensive consultation in the Pilot Project, the Outreach aim is to establish a sustainable agricultural enterprise network, incorporating best practice demonstration farms within AIVI and two satellite training centres from which will be developed farmers’ groups and model farms. These will be established through building capacity, working with local organisations and the community. Co-location of local tenant farmers with demonstration farms will promote skills acquisition by ‘seeing and doing’, while demonstration farms will develop supply chains to provide outlets to markets for produce. This will build the infrastructure and skills base to enable local people to make a living during the course of the project and create a framework for establishing sustainable livelihoods, through trade, beyond the project’s conclusion. Appropriate Grass Roots Intervention (AGRI) on the Kenya/Uganda border has been introduced to help establish the high-performance agriculture using the latest cropping and drip irrigation procedures.
The Challenges
The major challenge will be demonstrating that sustainable livelihoods can be achieved through moving from a culture of dependency towards one of aspiration, motivation, skills acquisition and self-determination through work. Vocational skills training, business training, community mobilisation, advocacy and specific actions to ensure self-employed participation in planned reconstruction and new economic activity will be key elements in bringing about this change in culture.
A key issue is the current heavy reliance on woodland for fuel and homestead construction, resulting in uncontrolled ‘slash and burn’, which will continue to degrade the environment if left unchecked. Conservation agriculture and building will be taught.
The project has been designed to fit well with the Government of Uganda’s Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) for Northern Uganda, launched in October 2007 and implemented from 1 July 2008. The PRDP is a commitment by the Government to stabilise and recover Northern Uganda over three years through a set of coherent programmes in one organising framework.
The project is tailored to provide a practical basis for participation in the new Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF II), a commitment to promote broad-based agricultural and rural development through community development initiatives. Implementation of this project will be within government policy and NUSAF II strategy.