Strength in Numbers

Which role does the EAFF play in Eastern Africa?

The EAFF is a regional network of farmers associations, cooperatives and commodity associations in the Eastern Africa Region. Currently in ten countries including East Africa plus Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti with a membership of 24 national organizations, representing over 20 million smallholder farmers in the region.

EAFF’s role is to voice legitimate concerns and interests of farmers in the region, with the aim of enhancing regional cohesiveness and social-economic status of farmers. The federation voices the views and demands of farmers on issues of markets, productivity, capacity building, information and fostering regional integration through trade and harmonization of relevant policies among others.

How are you trying to achieve this?

We are achieving the above guided by our strategic plan 2013 – 2020 which is embedded on economic service delivery, participation in policy processes, knowledge management, institutional development and all these contribute towards our mission which is to represent lobby and advocate for Eastern Africa farmers’ interests and build their capacities.

Who do you lobby?

We lobby different players at different levels based on the issue at hand. At International level through our Partners IFAD, CTA, AGRICORD, EU, We Effect, Agritera among others we are able to get dialogue space and exposure to learn from other FOs. At Continental level - we engage with African Union through Pan Africa Farmers Organization and IGAD. At the regional level - with the East African Parliament (We have an MOU with EAC and an observer status), COMESA, Private Sector players like East Africa Grain Council, East Africa Business Council among others. Research institutions like FARA, ASARECA and RUFORUM.

Our biggest success in policy was the enactment of The East Africa Cooperative Societies Bill 2014. This is a private members bill that was out of our own initiative.

At national and sub national levels - we work closely with our membership and engage with relevant Ministries of agriculture, cooperatives, East Africa Community Affairs and Local Administration.

What was the biggest success you have had in policy work so far?

Our biggest success in policy was the enactment of The East Africa Cooperative Societies Bill 2014. This is a private members bill that was out of our own initiative. We conducted a study to look at cooperative Laws in the different countries within our region and beyond, we also engaged the cooperative movement players through a consultative approach to present areas for improving cooperative growth and development in the region. Throughout this process we took care of all the necessary logistics like the studies that were conducted, the consultations at the national level in all five East African member states, the regional consultations, the drafting of the document and putting together all the issues that were raised and later presented to the East African legislative Assembly as a private members Bill by a Ugandan EALA then legislator Hon Mike Kennedy Ssebalu and passed in 2015.

We work on Gender and youth programs, currently we have an ongoing project to support 10,000 youth in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda to access financing and entrepreneurship skills.

What was the bill about?

The Bill is about opening opportunities for cooperatives in the region to drive regional integration. It intends to strategically position cooperatives to engage in cross-border business. For example a cooperative in Uganda can do business with a cooperative in Rwanda, Kenya or Tanzania much easier. Through our membership, we are currently pushing for ascent by all the EAC heads of state through the EAC Ministries in all the member countries and the EALA Committee of Agriculture.

How is this going to make life better for farmers?

If this bill is assented to, it will open opportunities for cooperative development not only in agriculture but other sectors including transport, health, insurance, housing and financial sectors among others. We believe cooperatives will have a potential to build a strong economy once the law is in place. 

What else do you work on?

We work on membership Economic empowerment; we have developed our own E-platform dubbed “E-Granary” which aggregates farmers for input, output markets and services. With data of over 100,000 profiled farmers on the system,   EAFF is able to bring off takers onboard and negotiate for farmers’ supply contracts. We have managed to negotiate with banks to design better credit products for farmers.

We also work on Gender and youth programs, currently we have an ongoing project to support 10,000 youth in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda to access financing and entrepreneurship skills

Together with the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions we have done work on Climate Change in the region. Our position on the same was presented to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change.

Why did you cooperate with South Africa?

We thought instead of having a position from each region it was important we partner with our fellow RFO in the Southern Part since climate change effects in the Eastern and Southern Africa are almost the same. Having two organizations teaming up with one position would carry a lot of weight. 

Who are your counterparts? Who are you talking to?

We talk with different players at different levels depending on the issue at hand. At International level through our Partners IFAD, CTA, AGRICORD, EU, We Effect, Agritera among others we are able to get dialogue space and exposure to learn from other FOs. At Continental level - we engage with African Union through Pan Africa Farmers Organization, IGAD and FARA. At the regional level - with the East African Parliament (We have an MOU with EAC and an observer status), COMESA, Private Sector players like East Africa Grain Council, East Africa Business Council among others.

At national and sub national levels - we work closely with our membership and engage with relevant Ministries of agriculture, cooperatives and East Africa Community Affairs. We have seen this engagement yield results for example through our Membership in Uganda; we were able to lobby Ugandan government to drop taxes on agricultural inputs and Agricultural Packaging materials from the VAT Act 2014.  

Through budget analysis and involvement of our membership in the process, they were able to understand the budget process and different terms used by finance ministers when presenting budgets and our members are able to understand which taxes affect them.

What are the challenges that you are meeting?

One of the challenges is financing, about 90% of our operation is donor supported and in most cases the available resource envelope doesn’t allow us to expand our programs to all countries in an equitable manner.

Policy work is also affected by political climatic changes both at National and Regional levels. The changes in leadership always cost us a lot of time and resources since we have to start a flesh explaining ourselves on policy developments undertaken. 

Do you run into conflicts with big cooperation?

We try as much as possible to strengthen our structures to have strong voice in dealings with private companies. Before our Membership at national and sub national level sign production supply contracts for example to supply commodities like Sorghum, Cassava to a big brewery or maize and beans to World Food Program, we provide capacity building and position them to negotiate for better prices. 

Majority of our membership are smallholder farmers, who produce on small scale, their strength is in numbers, and we encourage collective bulking and marketing.