MEPs demand more and better aid for poor farmers in Africa

In October 2006, Practical Action invited two members of the European Parliament to visit Kenya to see how EU development money could be spent more effectively on the people who need it the most.

Linda McAvan MEP�and�Fiona Hall MEP�travelled to Kenya in October to examine whether European aid reaches small-scale farmers and pastoralists in rural areas of Kenya, who represent the majority of the country's poor.

In the five day visit, Linda and Fiona visited Practical Action's project work in a slum in Kitale, where the development agency is improving the living conditions of displaced pastoralists. They then endured an arduous journey to reach the remote area of West Pokot near the border with Uganda, where they met farmers and pastoralists who are struggling to survive in the face of worsening droughts and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and yet are receiving little support from the government of Kenya or international donors.� The trip culminated in a roundtable meeting, where the MEPs presented their findings to officials from the EC delegation and the Government of Kenya.

Linda said, "my thoughts are still dominated by my visit to Kenya last month. In remote Alale, in Northern Kenya, women walk for nine hours each day just to fetch water. The frequent droughts mean that cattle have become harder to farm and violence is almost commonplace. Where women used to marry aged 16 only a few years ago, desperate fathers are now pushing them into marriage aged just 11, so that they can receive the cattle dowry. The pastoralists we had meetings with were living on the edge; most were surviving off one meal a day. Are we going to wait until people are dying and need emergency relief before we start focussing efforts to support them?"

Fiona said "we also identified a problem with small farmers who are very dependant on micro-credit schemes to make the improvement on their farms which are necessary, but currently the vast majority of government and donor support is for commercial agriculture, and very little is for small-scale farmers. Its time to insist that the donor support that comes through central government programmes in African countries gets through to the very poorest people, living in more remote areas."

Agriculture is key to reducing poverty in Africa, and yet agricultural productivity in the continent is on the decline and hunger is on the increase. Practical Action's figures show that European aid is focussed on developing commercial agriculture, and by-passes small-scale farmers and pastoralists.� Stuart Coupe, the African Voices project Manager said "Aid is not reaching small scale farmers whose livelihoods are suffering from increasingly severe droughts resulting from climate change, the HIV/Aids crisis, and local conflicts over increasingly sparse resources. If the EC is serious about reducing poverty in Africa, it must ensure more of its aid supports small-scale farmers in rural areas, who represent the majority of Africa's poor."

Linda and Fiona both serve on the European Parliament's Development Committee, and are planning to raise the importance of pastoralism and small-scale farming with the European Commission. Working with Practical Action, the MEPs will be pressing the Commission to ensure more of its aid reaches rural areas of African countries where poor people rely on subsistence agriculture and pastoralism for their livelihoods.

Online journals
Read Linda McAvan and Fiona Hall's day-by-day accounts of their trip.

Press statement by Linda McAvan MEP and Fiona Hall MEP.

Photo gallery
View a selection of photographs documenting Linda and Fiona's visit to Practical Action's project work.

For more information, please contact Adam Musgrave adam.musgrave@practicalaction.org.uk

Official websites: Linda McAvan MEP and Fiona Hall MEP