Additional information 2012 Following the end of the 2008 – 2011 strategic plan, EAFF with support from Agriterra and other partners undertook a successful evaluation of the old plan and held a planning session for the new plan (February 2012). The new strategic plan shall comprise four pillars: - Policy advocacy - Institutional development an sustainability (effective and efficient management) - Knowledge management - Agribusiness and Trade (value chains) There will be a shift from the previous strategic plan which focused a lot on visibility and building the credibility of EAFF. Members requested that we build in mechanisms to ensure the financial sustainability of EAFF, that EAFF get involved in agribusiness initiatives due to the perceived failure of engaging traditional private sector, there be in-build networks around selected themes, developing a coaching and mentor ship program to support leadership development, embrace ICT and other relevant technologies , having a strategy to handle emerging issues e.g. climate change, biofuels etc. and continue to develop capacity to advocate through generation of evidence based policy research and proposals. This change of thinking needs to be well managed, EAFF needs sensitize its staff and members to better understand the new strategic plan and this may necessitate the need to develop a theory of change in mindset of its members so that EAFF is seen to play a facilitator and catalytic role while the members have to understand their better role and especially how to evolve their respective commodities focus into viable enterprises. The members of EAFF need to vision their role in the various agriculture chains as key and major actors in them and they need to realize this potential and opportunity that presents itself to them, however they will need some interventions to make them realize and take advantage of this opportunity. 2011 The Eastern Africa farmers’ federation is a non-profit, non-political and a democratic farmers ‘organization of farmers of Eastern Africa region. The formation of the organization was out of conviction and foresighted by founding leaders to address issues of interest to farmers at all levels i.e. national, regional, continental and at global level. EAFF was launched in 2001 but registered in 2005. EAFF has a strategic plan (2008 - 2011) with eight pillars i.e. lobby and advocacy, capacity building, information and communication, partnerships and alliances, sustainability, membership, relations between EAFF and membership, crosscutting issues on Environment, gender, HIV and Aids. The role of EAFF is to promote the interests of farmers on issues touching markets, productivity, capacity, information and regional integration as well as voice the legitimate farmers ‘concerns and interest in socio-economic development through strengthening of individual country platforms, developing positions on regional issues, advocating on behalf of member organizations and enhancing regional cohesiveness. To this end EAFF has signed MoUs with a) Regional Economic Communities i.e. East Africa Community (EAC) (where they also have an observer status) and COMESA, b) regional private sector organizations/ East Africa Business Council (EABC), c) seat in boards of Regional Research Organizations i.e. FARA and ASARECA, d) seat in the FAO Committee on Food Security (CFS), e) have been admitted into the ILC membership, f) seat in the AGRA and AfDB partnership committee and board of Governors respectively

EAFF is a regional farmers’ federation that operates on behalf of its member organisations from the East African Region. It was formed on the basis of consultation and consensus between farmers´ organizations from Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Eastern Congo. The role of EAFF is to voice the legitimate concerns and interests of the farmers in the region, with an aim of enhancing regional cohesiveness and socio-economic development of farmers. The federation also endeavours to promote regional integration through promotion of regional trade, improved information exchange between country producer organizations, as well as the promotion regional input and output market development. Agriterra has bilateral relations with all member organisations of EAFF (CAPAD, COOCENKI, IMBARAGA, INGABO, KENFAP, MVIWATA, SYDIP, UNFFE). EAFF supports the principles of sustainable agricultural development for food security and sovereignty, improved livelihoods of rural communities, environmental and biodiversity conservation. In voicing the concerns of the farmers, EAFF aims at improvement of their socio-economic status through promotion of regional integration, appropriate information exchange, enhancement of the role of women and youth in agriculture, promotion of sympathetic understanding and good neighborliness, and enactment of the states’ commitments in protocols and agreements. The Eastern Africa Farmers’ Federation (EAFF) was set up in 2001, has its own equipped and staffed office in Nairobi as well as an elected Board and Council that provided EAFF with a strategic orientation for the following years. EAFF’s Vision is: “A prosperous and cohesive farming community in Eastern Africa” EAFF’s Mission: “To represent, lobby and advocate for Eastern Africa farmers’ interests and build their capacities” EAFF had formulated 8 strategic objectives for the coming period 2008 – 2011; • EAFF is a well recognized and pro-active partner in policy formulation and implementation in agriculture and trade related issues in relevant forums • Member organizations have the capacity to fully understand and influence EAFF affairs • EAFF leadership and secretariat have developed the necessary managerial capacities to fulfill the responsibilities given by its members • EAFF progressively covers basic institutional running costs out of gradual increase of members’ contribution and other incomes • Key stakeholders have access to relevant and updated information in the appropriate language • EAFF is well known and appreciated by all relevant stakeholders • EAFF has diversified and mainstreamed membership • EAFF and member organizations have close, satisfactory and mutually supporting relations

A training Financial Management will be organised for POs in East Africa. This training is a follow up of the previous FINBASE Workshop in Kenya. Besides for this moment Agriterra does not count with modular build up a financial course and a handbook that is tailor made for Rural Peoples organisations. Therefore MANGO will develop, together with Agriterra, a tailor made financial management handbook and a tailor made financial management course for POs.

EAFF is a regional farmers’ federation that operates on behalf of its member organisations from the East African Region. It was formed on the basis of consultation and consensus between farmers´ organizations from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Eastern Congo. The role of EAFF is to voice the legitimate concerns and interests of the farmers in the region, with an aim of enhancing regional cohesiveness and socio-economic development of farmers. The federation also endeavours to promote regional integration through promotion of regional trade, improved information exchange between country producer organizations, as well as the promotion regional input and output market development. Agriterra has bilateral relations with all member organisations of EAFF (KENFAP, MVIWATA, UNFFE, IMBARAGA, INGABO, COOCENKI, SYDIP). EAFF supports the principles of sustainable agricultural development for food security and sovereignty, improved livelihoods of rural communities, environmental and biodiversity conservation. In voicing the concerns of the farmers, EAFF aims at improvement of their socio-economic status through promotion of regional integration, appropriate information exchange, enhancement of the role of women and youth in agriculture, promotion of sympathetic understanding and good neighborliness, and enactment of the states’ commitments in protocols and agreements. The Eastern Africa Farmers’ Federation (EAFF) was set up in 2001, has its own equipped and staffed office in Nairobi as well as an elected Board and Council that provided EAFF with a strategic orientation for the following years. EAFF’s Vision is: “A prosperous and cohesive farming community in Eastern Africa” EAFF’s Mission: “To represent, lobby and advocate for Eastern Africa farmers’ interests and build their capacities” To enable itself to better face its future EAFF and its main partners agreed to carry out a self-assessment over the past performances and to do a strategic planning for the four years to come. All this was done in a very participatory way to further develop ownership of the member organizations over their regional federation. The assessment confirmed EAFF important achievements in terms of well established relationships with both some of the regional entities and with several development partners. A newsletter is operational but not really utilized by the member organizations. Since mid 2006 EAFF has a well staffed secretariat (Chief Executive and two program officers) which has to be further organized. However the assessment also revealed some weaknesses to be dealt with urgently in order to establish a strong, efficient and democratic organization, serving its member organizations. Among others, the financial management needs to be improved and become more transparent, the constitution is to be reviewed in a participatory way in order to change the composition of the Board and Council and better define their roles and responsibilities, and better services for the member organizations need to be developed. There is now need for EAFF and its development partners to convene on the funding of the different strategic objectives and avoid that some of them lack resources as they are all important and that others get overfunded. EAFF and formulated 8 strategic objectives for the coming period 2008 – 2011; • EAFF is a well recognized and pro-active partner in policy formulation and implementation in agriculture and trade related issues in relevant forums • Member organizations have the capacity to fully understand and influence EAFF affairs • EAFF leadership and secretariat have developed the necessary managerial capacities to fulfill the responsibilities given by its members • EAFF progressively covers basic institutional running costs out of gradual increase of members’ contribution and other incomes • Key stakeholders have access to relevant and updated information in the appropriate language • EAFF is well known and appreciated by all relevant stakeholders • EAFF has diversified and mainstreamed membership • EAFF and member organizations have close, satisfactory and mutually supporting relations

The overall goal of the project is to enhance the capacity of the organisation through internal assessment and strategic planning so that it can position itself regionally and be in a position to positively contribute towards regional integration through partnerships with Farmer Organisations and donors. This year, the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation plans to roll out its strategic plan for the year 2008-2011. The process shall be participatory and for EAFF it shall involve views and submissions from all its member platforms. In addition, the views of the development partners shall be obtained. EAFF also intends to broaden their operations by enlisting more members through increasing the membership at national platforms in existing member countries as well as recruiting new national federations from new countries such as Burundi and Ethiopia. To manage such larger capacities in membership, it will require strengthening of the secretariat in terms of internal processes, management and human resource.

The Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF) has been very active in carrying out its mandate of empowering regional farmers achieve higher levels of economic development through improvement in agriculture and food security by exploiting scale economies, commercializing small scale production and regional trade. EAFF aims at marketing the national platforms and commodity groups and enlightening them on the need for consolidation of their efforts on lobby and advocacy of farmers issues as stronger groups than small units, maintaining their organizations as independent entities. This would require the farmers' organizations of whatever form federating as one national entity or at least working towards common goals. Key activities in 2006 inlcude: 1. Recruitment of additional countries into EAFF membership EAFF has had membership in five countries of the Eastern Africa region for the last several year since inception. However, the ultimate goal of EAFF is to bring on board all the countries of the Eastern Africa including the remaining Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Burundi, Djibouti and Somalia. 2. Farmer- to- farmer country visits There was expressed a great need for farmers leaders in member countries to visit other farmers in the neighbouring countries to learn first hand what their counterparts do and their key success factors with a view of adopting some of these techniques and home made solutions to common concerns. 3. Linking commodity associations regionally Following successful in- county commodity associations workshops, it is time to take the process a step further. This is by creating a forum where the key commodity groups would meet regionally and share ideas. A commodity- by- commodity approach would be the best way of handling this. 4. Information dissemination Although a major marketing information system is very expensive and difficult to establish without adequate finances, it is equally important if farmers have to benefit from information on input and output markets. A number of organizations have come up with marketing information systems which are at various levels of development. EAFF would like to link these information systems with its member platforms and ensure producer and market necessary information reaches out to the farmers in time. 5. Networking Networking is a very necessary activity for any serious civil society organization that EAFF believes it is. Networking is also very expensive in terms of transport and sustenance while attending the various meetings and fora that discuss issues of importance to farmers. 6. Lobby and advocacy on regional cross- cutting issues Experience from some countries showed that under the prevailing political circumstances, lobby and advocacy issues were very sensitive with their governments. However, it is widely agreed that when the farmers are organized under a different umbrella from a national one and with representation from all the member countries, they would get audience with the individual country government and this way push forward issues of concern for farmers of the particular country more easily than they would have managed. 7. Training on input/output markets Trade issues are very key to the development of agriculture. Trade cannot thrive without proper development of markets and market information. Trade cannot thrive without the necessary commodities in the right quantity and quality. Small scale farmers are being encouraged by EAFF to go commercial in their limited scale of production and venture into lucrative markets by joining hands under farmers' organizations or cooperatives either as producers and marketers or just marketing groups. The budget for 2006 is expectedly higher than for 2005 due to the additional activities programmed and the rising cost of goods and services. Total amount is Euro 190.700

The overall objective of the Regional Workshop is to promote the development and articulation of a joint agenda of East African stakeholders in food security and trade, particularly small-scale farmers and other marginalised groups, on the ongoing WTO agriculture negotiations leading up to the December WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong. Specifically, it will: Provide a platform for East African multi-stakeholders in food security and trade to network and share their interests and concerns relating to the current WTO agriculture negotiations. Foster the development and articulation of consolidated positions, agendas and recommendations of East African marginalised food security & trade stakeholders as their contribution in the immediate preparation for the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial Conference. Promote coherence between the negotiating position of affected stakeholders, both at domestic and regional levels. Build awareness among small-scale farmers and other relevant civil society groups about the problems posed by the current WTO rules on food security and the livelihoods of small-scale farmers in East Africa. Provide input into the current negotiations in agriculture from the perspective of farmers and other groups who will not be able to attend meetings in Hong Kong and other international and regional trade negotiations' fora. Strengthen knowledge of stakeholders in food security and trade about the WTO, the Multilateral Trading System and the WTO agricultural reform process, which will ultimately help to increase their capacity to effectively participate in the WTO negotiating process and other related regional and bilateral processes.

Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF) has been conducting activities over two years now, aimed at strategizing a better service delivery to empower Farmers Organization platforms in the member countries and strengthen farmers. The federation has endeavoured to achieve its mandate for which it was formed. It has made remarkable achievements in some areas like successfully conducting training needs assessments surveys in such areas as, input availability, capability and facilitation of the extension service and marketing of farm produce. It has further gone ahead to address some of the identified needs through training of farmers' organizations leaders in the areas identified. Some issues like training needs identification is going to be made routine since there is great need to empower the leaders and the farmers through equipping them with appropriate skills like for lobby and advocacy to make them more knowledgeable and efficient in discharging their mandate.

EAFF has been conducting activities over the last two years, aimed at strategizing for better service delivery to the needy farmers. One of the key achievements of the federation was the survey, which was conducted in all the member countries to evaluate the current status and implications of the input distribution and pricing, agricultural extension service delivery and the produce marketing. This process needs to be completed during the year through a workshop to deliverate on the findings. EAFF needs to complete the process of the constitution of the council and facilitate a council meeting that will elect the management board. All member organisations have already submitted names of their representatives to the council. A workshop will be organized for the RegionalLeadership and meetings for the board. EAFF wil participate in the Policy Formulation Process; EAFF will support and assist POs to further their lobby activities. Eaff needs to maintain the office and meet the immediate needs of the secretariat. A training needs assessmetn exercise covering all the regional POs will be followed by a Capacity Building Training for farm leaders in identified areas

The programme 2002 will enable EAFU to organise its regular meetings, establishment of the secretariat and to have exchange visits and organize a workshop on Paid Extensions Services.