Sustainable Agro-Enterprise Development This is a three year recovery food security and livelihood project called Rebuilding of communities in West Nile and Acholi. The project focuses mainly on organizing farmers into producer groups and training them on leadership and managerial skills, building their capacity to mitigate and adapt to climate change and variability and availing them with agro-inputs like high yielding crop seeds and animal types.

The project is implemented in West Nile region in 2 subcounties -Vurra and Erussi in the districts of Nebbi and Arua and in Acholi land in Lamogi, and Koro subcounties in Amuru and Gulu.
Using SACU methodology of reaching out to several vulnerable households through her approach of passing on a gift of a cow to farmers, the project will also promote adoption of health, hygiene and sanitation practices, promote Sustainable Organic Agriculture where communities are taught on developing backyard/kitchen gardens to grow vegetables and other foods for nutrition, food security and increased income.

Project intended outcomes;
1.  37 women-led groups in West Nile and Acholi will have improved their food and income security through :
-Practising sustainable organic agriculture through start-up seeds, training on crop husbandry, simple gardening techniques, manure composting, preparation of organic pesticides and kitchen gardens
-Livestock development through training on animal husbandry, animal placements, breeding and pass-on gifts
- Growing and selling marketable crops (which will be decided by farmers themselves annually through enterprise selection) in bulk through formed market associations
-Linking those market associations to market information sharing mechanisms such as Grameen
-Support in Value Chain Development to meet demands for the local, regional (DRC, South Sudan) and international market
-Setting up/strengthening the VSLA-component of the groups and support in setting up and management of buffer funds

2.  21 groups  in West Nile and 16 groups in Acholi will have increasedtheir resilience for disaster (floods, droughts and human, crop and animal disease) , resulting in a reduction of people who are affected by natural disasters in their respective communities through:

-Practising knowledgeand skills in disaster mitigation through training by the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction in identifying and analyzing different types of hazards and their impact affecting the communities.

-Adopting climate change adaptive crop varieties such as tree planting of soil enriching types of trees reducing erosion impact, types of mais that are able to grow in dry times, promotion of good agronomic practices such as soil conservation.
-Development of (37) early warning systems and community adaptation plans per group/community

3.  21 groups  in West Nile and 16 groups in Acholi will have influenced the social cohesion within their communities and families positively through:
-improved health and hygiene practices (garbage disposal systems, pit latrines, washing/bathingfacilities, mosquito nets, furniture)
-reduction of domestic violence, better sharing of household tasks, greater appreciation forwomen/girls rights including inheritance rights
-supporting attitude and reduction of stigma towards people with disabilities, PLWHA#s, child mothers and widows
-improved female leadership, not only within SACU#s group structure but also in local and community politics
Psychosocial support will be available through SACU#s extension workers who have gotten counsellingskillsin trauma healing. (In extreme cases they refer to specialized entities)

Target groups/beneficiaries
By end of 2015, the project should have supported 37 groups in Acholi and West Nile regions.
Total beneficiaries will be 5,180 farmers (on average there are 20 members per group and each member represents a household i.e. project will target 740 households and it is also assumed that on average there 7 members inhousehold)