Swaziland
Food Security in a Changing Environment:
Homestead gardening in the rural Hhohho District, Swaziland.
The Challenge:
The northern, largely rural Hhohho district is the second most populated of Swaziland’s four districts. There are just two tar roads, making access to and distribution of health and training difficult. There are 20,000 people currently living with AIDS and only 2,000 hospital beds in the national hospitals.
Affecting over 40% of its 1 million population, Swaziland has the second highest per capita HIV prevalence in the world. Whilst anti-retroviral treatment (ART) is available from the State, many ARTs require medication to be taken with food, enhancing absorption of life saving treatment, while aiding immune reconstitution. About 25% of the population depend on food aid, representing a real challenge to the provision of effective treatment.
There are already 70,000 orphans in Swaziland (a staggering 13% of the total number of children). When including those whose parents are too ill to care for them, this figure rises to 130,000. Approximately 15,000 households are already headed by children. This means that 10% of all Swazi children are responsible for providing for their households.
Most Swazi live in rural areas that are ravaged by drought. Overgrazing, soil depletion and invasive species exacerbate the ability of many to provide for those in their care. Swaziland has experienced its fourth consecutive year of adverse climatic conditions resulting in declining crop production of nearly 60%. This has been caused by localised drought and heat waves, followed by heavy downpours and hailstorms, washing away valuable topsoil and increasing the likelihood of localised flooding.
The negative effect of these socio-environmental challenges at the community level, are:
• An adverse climate results in poor harvests for commercial farmers thus contributing to unemployment, yet inadequate harvest from family fields is critical for unemployed people; meaning that the negative effect of unemployment is multiplied.
• Sick people and family members providing care (usually women) cannot adequately tend their crops or sustain employment, contributing to food insecurity within their family, multiplying the negative effect of both unemployment and adverse climate.
• People living with HIV have higher than normal nutritional requirements - up to 50% additional protein and up to 15% additional calories – thus, food insecurity hastens the onset of AIDS and ultimately death, increasing vulnerable children in need of food.
• Without the hope of employment or adequate crops, a person is vulnerable to high-risk behaviour associated with HIV; although one desires to avoid HIV, the ‘economics of sex’ determine behaviour. This dynamic particularly applies to women with children.
GardenAfrica's Response:
This project is addressing food insecurity in adverse climatic conditions, by using an inter-disciplinary approach that will have a positive impact on the cross cutting issues of environment, gender, HIV/AIDS care and support.
Food aid has been the standard response to the growing food/income deficits in Swaziland over the past 15 years. Whilst food aid has demonstrated some success in meeting basic food needs, it does little to promote livelihoods, sustainable resource management, crop diversification, or value-added activities such as food storage practices. This project is designed to contribute practical lessons on an effective inter-disciplinary approach that promotes environmental management practices relevant to adverse climate conditions within the realities of rural homesteads, while motivating participants to improve health and generate plant-based incomes.
GardenAfrica and its partners have successfully developed and piloted its training methodology in two communities, selected for their distinctive ecologies. Applicants had the opportunity to receive training in sustainable resource-use and cultivation techniques, and were supported to establish small nurseries at their own homesteads, from where they can transfer their newfound skills to others in their area, whilst earning an income.
With the foundation phase having yielded some exciting results, led by our local partner, Vusumnotfo, and informed by progress on this initial year, we are now rolling out this action across a further six communities, over the three years (2009 – 2011). See how some of our training participants fared, and what their gardens look like now
A simple garden demonstration site is under development with GardenAfrica’s local partner, Vusumnotfo which will be extended over the current EU-funded phase.
Each year, 25 successful candidates will come to the demonstration site for intensive training, whilst continuing to implement what they have learned at home. GardenAfrica’s approach highlights the need to identify and train people who are not only willing to learn, but who are enthusiastic about teaching and assisting others. This peer training approach adds significant value to the initial funding investment, ensuring that these skills and resources are more widely available at community level. Participant gardens will be resourced during this time to increase plant diversity for biological control and livelihoods – providing encouragement and resources to other budding gardeners.
In addition, GardenAfrica’s capacity building with our local partners ensures that training and facilitation skills are absorbed into the organisations for the benefit of other programmes and ongoing training beyond the life of this project.
Immediate Beneficiaries
This project is already having a significant impact. Given conservative estimates over the project period:
• 75 gardeners each influence the creation of a further 20 productive home gardens.
• 1,575 home gardens would be producing nutritious food for their families.
• At an average of eight people per household, this equates to 12,600 beneficiaries.
• Added to which, fresh fruits and vegetables are more locally available to surrounding families, providing health benefits across the wider community.
Project Update (October 2008)
The sussessful training programme candidates:
Project collaborators:
• Vusumnotfo Community-based Organisation
• Seed, Swaziland
<< Back to Countries where GardenAfrica operates list
Homestead gardening in the rural Hhohho District, Swaziland.
The Challenge:
The northern, largely rural Hhohho district is the second most populated of Swaziland’s four districts. There are just two tar roads, making access to and distribution of health and training difficult. There are 20,000 people currently living with AIDS and only 2,000 hospital beds in the national hospitals.
Affecting over 40% of its 1 million population, Swaziland has the second highest per capita HIV prevalence in the world. Whilst anti-retroviral treatment (ART) is available from the State, many ARTs require medication to be taken with food, enhancing absorption of life saving treatment, while aiding immune reconstitution. About 25% of the population depend on food aid, representing a real challenge to the provision of effective treatment.
There are already 70,000 orphans in Swaziland (a staggering 13% of the total number of children). When including those whose parents are too ill to care for them, this figure rises to 130,000. Approximately 15,000 households are already headed by children. This means that 10% of all Swazi children are responsible for providing for their households.
Most Swazi live in rural areas that are ravaged by drought. Overgrazing, soil depletion and invasive species exacerbate the ability of many to provide for those in their care. Swaziland has experienced its fourth consecutive year of adverse climatic conditions resulting in declining crop production of nearly 60%. This has been caused by localised drought and heat waves, followed by heavy downpours and hailstorms, washing away valuable topsoil and increasing the likelihood of localised flooding.
The negative effect of these socio-environmental challenges at the community level, are:
• An adverse climate results in poor harvests for commercial farmers thus contributing to unemployment, yet inadequate harvest from family fields is critical for unemployed people; meaning that the negative effect of unemployment is multiplied.
• Sick people and family members providing care (usually women) cannot adequately tend their crops or sustain employment, contributing to food insecurity within their family, multiplying the negative effect of both unemployment and adverse climate.
• People living with HIV have higher than normal nutritional requirements - up to 50% additional protein and up to 15% additional calories – thus, food insecurity hastens the onset of AIDS and ultimately death, increasing vulnerable children in need of food.
• Without the hope of employment or adequate crops, a person is vulnerable to high-risk behaviour associated with HIV; although one desires to avoid HIV, the ‘economics of sex’ determine behaviour. This dynamic particularly applies to women with children.
GardenAfrica's Response:
This project is addressing food insecurity in adverse climatic conditions, by using an inter-disciplinary approach that will have a positive impact on the cross cutting issues of environment, gender, HIV/AIDS care and support.
Food aid has been the standard response to the growing food/income deficits in Swaziland over the past 15 years. Whilst food aid has demonstrated some success in meeting basic food needs, it does little to promote livelihoods, sustainable resource management, crop diversification, or value-added activities such as food storage practices. This project is designed to contribute practical lessons on an effective inter-disciplinary approach that promotes environmental management practices relevant to adverse climate conditions within the realities of rural homesteads, while motivating participants to improve health and generate plant-based incomes.
GardenAfrica and its partners have successfully developed and piloted its training methodology in two communities, selected for their distinctive ecologies. Applicants had the opportunity to receive training in sustainable resource-use and cultivation techniques, and were supported to establish small nurseries at their own homesteads, from where they can transfer their newfound skills to others in their area, whilst earning an income.
With the foundation phase having yielded some exciting results, led by our local partner, Vusumnotfo, and informed by progress on this initial year, we are now rolling out this action across a further six communities, over the three years (2009 – 2011). See how some of our training participants fared, and what their gardens look like now
A simple garden demonstration site is under development with GardenAfrica’s local partner, Vusumnotfo which will be extended over the current EU-funded phase.
Each year, 25 successful candidates will come to the demonstration site for intensive training, whilst continuing to implement what they have learned at home. GardenAfrica’s approach highlights the need to identify and train people who are not only willing to learn, but who are enthusiastic about teaching and assisting others. This peer training approach adds significant value to the initial funding investment, ensuring that these skills and resources are more widely available at community level. Participant gardens will be resourced during this time to increase plant diversity for biological control and livelihoods – providing encouragement and resources to other budding gardeners.
In addition, GardenAfrica’s capacity building with our local partners ensures that training and facilitation skills are absorbed into the organisations for the benefit of other programmes and ongoing training beyond the life of this project.
Immediate Beneficiaries
This project is already having a significant impact. Given conservative estimates over the project period:
• 75 gardeners each influence the creation of a further 20 productive home gardens.
• 1,575 home gardens would be producing nutritious food for their families.
• At an average of eight people per household, this equates to 12,600 beneficiaries.
• Added to which, fresh fruits and vegetables are more locally available to surrounding families, providing health benefits across the wider community.
Project Update (October 2008)
The sussessful training programme candidates:
Project collaborators:
• Vusumnotfo Community-based Organisation
• Seed, Swaziland
<< Back to Countries where GardenAfrica operates list
