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Our Mission
Our vision is of a prosperous rural Africa. We aim to reduce poverty
by enabling African farmers and herders to make improvements to
their well-being through better management of their renewable
natural resources.
We seek to
achieve our mission by being innovative, specialised, practical
and operational. We catalyse processes - rather than merely providing
services - and bridge the gap between researchers and farmers.
When we conduct our own research, it addresses practical problems
facing communities. As an independent organisation, we build the
capacity of people and local institutions in Africa, rather than
developing parallel structures, and disseminate our practical
experiences widely, using the results to advocate for change in
policy and practice.
History
FARM-Africa started in Kenya in September 1985. It was set up
by Sir Michael Wood, then the recently retired Director of AMREF
(the African Medical Research Foundation) and ex- East Africa
Director of Oxfam, David Campbell.
Both shared
a vision of a prosperous rural Africa and common ideas on how
this could be achieved.
Beginnings
The first FARM-Africa project, in 1986, was the Kenya Pastoralist
Development Project, which promoted the camel and supported the
pastoral way of life.The Ethiopian Dairy Goat Project followed,
focusing on improving family welfare by increasing the productivity
of local goats managed by women. This project led to similar schemes
in Kenya, (the Meru Dairy Goat and Animal Healthcare Project)
and Tanzania (the Babati Rural Development Project). In 1991,
FARM-Africa expanded its work to include the Eastern and Northern
Cape Provinces of South Africa - building relationships with rural
communities neglected under the Apartheid Regime. Since then FARM-Africa
projects have expanded throughout Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa,
Tanzania and Uganda.
Challenging
Times
David Campbell. FARM-Africa's first Chief Executive, set up the
International Office, currently UK-based, in 1998. Dr Christie
Peacock took over as Chief Executive in 1999 and, on finding the
organisation to be non-financially viable, took steps to cut costs
and significantly diversify funding sources to include trusts,
the general public, private companies etc, so ensuring that FARM-Africa's
work could continue and reduce its dependency on statutory donors.
Future
Strategy
Having survived this period of economic insecurity, FARM-Africa
started to expand once more, with the years 2001-3 seeing the
development of a new organisational strategy - Strategy: Towards
2015: Innovative Solutions for Africa's Rural Livelihoods - recruitment
of new staff in Africa and the UK, greater financial security
and a larger fundraising department implementing a successful
fundraising strategy. In 2002, FARM-Africa was chosen as one of
three charities to benefit from the 2002 Telegraph Christmas Appeal.
The final amount received was £386,979 and was used to set
up the Uganda Dairy Goat Project in August 2003. This project
is unique for FARM-Africa as it is the first established solely
though FARM-Africa's own funds.
http://www.farmafrica.org.uk/
Registered
Charity No: 326901
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