Facilitator to train communities in the Mt. Elgon Region on Farmer Field Schools Mbale (Уганда - Тендер #2336969)

The Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) with support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) is implementing the project “Integrated Landscape Management for Ecosystem Resilience and Improved Livelihoods in the Mt. Elgon Region” in the districts of Mbale, Bulambuli and Manafwa. The overall goal of the project is to empower communities in Mt Elgon to manage their production landscapes in an integrated manner for improved livelihoods and ecosystem resilience.

Mt Elgon landscape presents a variety of ecosystems providing services upon which local population heavily depends. A large portion of the landscape is now degraded, considering current changes in land use due to expansion of agriculture fields and human settlements, largely driven by high population growth. There is also increasing pressure on the land to accommodate a population that is still rising in the Mt Elgon region and the inherent danger is that this increasing pressure for land will impact negatively on land use, such as a) causing trees to be cut for fuel wood before maturing and b) increase encroachment into the upper protected watersheds c) increased land fragmentation d) increased soil erosion. Furthermore, it should be noted that women play a dominant role in land management even though they have limited control and access to knowledge and capacity building opportunities. With entire communities engaged in unsustainable utilization of natural resources, it is imperative that again entire communities’ capacities are built to work together to restore and to sustainably use the available resources. This was the basis for the selection of a landscape approach to resource management in this area, which needs to be coupled with farmer field schools approach to increase sustainability and ownership of the interventions.

As such the Ministry, would like to engage a Ugandan Farmer Field Schools(FFS) trainer to facilitate project activities in Mbale District. The objective of the assignment is to pilot the Farmer field school approach to achieve sustainable landscape management and development of community resilience to environmental shocks.

The stakeholders to be involved will include farmers, Local community Leaders, CBOs, Local NGOs, Farmer Based Organizations and extension workers.