Bottom up FARM AFRICA

• Bottom-up development strategy


  Development approach that starts at the local community level and works upwards
• Farm Africa


  • UK-based NGO
  • Runs 28 community-based local development projects in East Africa
  • Operated in Ethiopia with SOS Sahel Africa since 2012
• Farm Africa had a significant positive impact in Ethiopia just in 2021 alone
• Farm Africa's projects in Ethiopia

  1. Planted 2.7 million trees

  2. Sustainably manages 470,000 hectares (4,700km2) of forest land in the Bale region

  3. Trained local women on how to build Kenyan top bar beehives
• Kenyan top bar beehives

  Produce 30kg of honey twice a year, representing a much higher yield than traditional Ethiopian hollowed-out log hives
• Increased farmer's income from beehives

  Spend it on the local economy producing a multiplier effect which can increase the number of jobs in the local area
• Farm Africa boosted household incomes of forest-dependent communities in Bale by 143% between 2016 and 2021
• Bottom-up development projects


  • Small scale
  • Can only boost development at a local scale
• Ethiopia has the second highest population in Africa with over 100 million, so a single NGO like Farm Africa will have a limited impact at the national scale
• Bottom-up development projects depend on ongoing partnership with NGOs
• If an NGO's financial support ceases

  The project's subsequent benefits may also diminish