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Sustainable agriculture: A pathway out of poverty for East Africa’s rural poor Some organizations specialize exclusively or mainly in lobbying work. Field-based organizations can form alliances with these lobbyists: the field-based organizations provides grounded examples of sustainable agriculture in practice, informs the lobbyists of problems faced in the field, and links the farmers they work with to the lobbying group. organizational scaling up Organizational scaling up involves increasing the organization’s capacity and making it more efficient. We can divide organizational scaling up approaches into governance and management; human resource development; and communication. organizational governance and management Revising governance of the organization can make it more able to deal with new situations, including the larger scale of operations needed to deal with a bigger number of farmers or a wider area of operation. • Strategic planning At regular intervals every few years, the organization should undergo a strategic planning exercise to review its vision and mission, evaluate its activities, and determine which directions it should move in the next few years. • Amending working rules and procedures Changing the way the organization works can provide efficiencies and enable the organization to do more and be more effective. For example, if the organization provides inputs to farmers for free, this can not only be an unsustainable cost burden for the organization; it also means the farmers do not feel they own the project. Introducing cost-sharing schemes, or even refusing to provide any inputs apart from advice and facilitation, can reduce these costs and increase the sense of ownership. The Diocese of Embu (p. 28) at first provided dairy goats for free; as a result, the farmers did not take enough care of the animals. After assessing the problem, the Diocese introduced a cost-sharing scheme, and modified the project rules to require farmers to register with the Dairy Goat Association of Kenya. The Association trains the farmers in goat management and breeding. As a result, management of the goats has improved. 130 Another example is rules on whom the organization serves. For example, church-based organizations may focus on serving church members, so excluding people belonging to other faiths from participating in their projects. In the Diocese of Embu at first only Catholics were able to participate in the Diocese’s development activities. The Diocese’s development committee later revised this rule, allowing non-Catholics to become involved. • Adapting the organizational structure An organization’s structure may need revising as its tasks evolve. This may mean creating new departments (and closing existing ones), reassigning staff, changing job descriptions and management procedures, and hiring staff with new skills. CHEMA (p. 77) provides an example of this: it established an inspection and marketing unit to facilitate farmers to grow organic pineapples. • Ensuring funding Many development organizations rely heavily on short-term, project funding. That is a danger to the type of long-term community involvement required if
5 Scaling up Figure 26 Organizational scaling up means improving the capacity and efficiency of the organization to enable it to accomplish more sustainable agriculture interventions are to succeed. Organizations may find they are unable to continue supporting even the best projects because of a gap in funding. If the organization relies too heavily on a single donor, it can be in real trouble if that donor withdraws its support. Organizations can overcome these problems in various ways: establishing fundraising departments, seeking funding from several donors, dividing activities into several small, related projects rather than a single large one, and seeking long-term funding support. In the case of the Diocese of Embu (p. 28), a committee to establish a fundraising department was formed in 2005. This committee will formulate operational guidelines of the unit and will recruit qualified staff. • Strengthening monitoring and evaluation Systematic, regular monitoring and periodic evaluations of activities and outcomes are vital to ensure that the organization is effective and efficient. Some organizations such as CCS–Eldoret (p. 21), Baraka College (p. 38) and the Diocese of Embu (p. 28) have established monitoring and evaluation units and procedures. These units are backed by a set of evaluation guidelines. Regulations in some organizations regulations require a regular review of their work and the development of further organizational strategic plans. • Investing in buildings and assets As the organization grows, it will be necessary to invest in buildings and other assets. For example, CHEMA (p. 77) was able to acquire an additional plot to construct a new training centre. Other organizations have been able to build offices, establish new demonstration plots, or to buy vehicles.. human resource development An organization’s effectiveness depends largely on the skills, experience and commitment of its staff. These can be improved in various ways. • Adding staff Adding activities and serving new areas – functional and quantitative scaling up – almost always means adding staff to handle the extra work. If this is not possible, the organization may have to reassign staff from other areas. When Baraka 131
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3 cases from tanzania Soil and wate
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HEM: Soil and water conservation on
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scaling up HEM: Soil and water cons
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what is conservation agriculture? C
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Name of farmer field school: AESA n
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learned enough that they were able
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Figure 17 The field school members
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CA-SARD: The Eotulelo farmer field
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organic farming in Karagwe District
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