Projects

‘Rooted in Diversity: Partnerships for Food Security and Livelihoods’, co-designed by farmer associations, civil society organizations (CSOs), and agricultural research organizations, will enhance local knowledge, skills, and capacities of small-scale food producers to improve food production and consumption in highly variable and poorly predictable agroecologies. Based on the premise that agrobiodiversity is the best way to promote food and nutrition security and adapt to unpredictable weather, it will: (i) build on and contribute to increased availability and use of locally adapted crops and varieties (including neglected and underutilized food plants), and (ii) improve access to market and income opportunities for small-scale food producer’s farmers to enable the commercialization of this enhanced crop and varietal diversity, extending its benefits to additional rural communities through markets and exchange networks. The project will build and enhance functional networks of exchange and opportunities for joint learning among a wide range of actors – farmers, CSOs, researchers – bringing together diverse cultural backgrounds, context and knowledge on seed and food system issues; this ‘social diversity’ is key to improve food and nutrition security and more just, inclusive, gender transformative and sustainable income-generating activities.

The project’s focus on farmer-managed seed systems aligns with Norway’s support for ex-situ conservation efforts such as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Its emphasis on local crop agrobiodiversity as the foundation for food security, and local control over input factors as key to increasing productivity, 7 resonates with Norway’s efforts to preserve crop diversity and place farmers at the core of seed and food system development, in alignment with the Norwegian initiative on smallholders’ access to the seed system presented at the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021. The project will work with and promote the creation of farmer organizations, aligned with the priorities of the Agriculture for Development program. It addresses agrobiodiversity loss, understanding country contexts while promoting cross-regional learning, and leaving no-one behind, in line with Norad’s strategy towards 2030. The design and implementation plans were developed based on the principles of inclusion, partnership, legitimacy, and context sensitivity. ‘Rooted in Diversity’ proposes ways to implement the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), of which Norway is a Contracting Party and a long-time supporter, specifically on sustainable use of Plant Genetic Resources (Art. 6) and Farmer’s Rights (Art. 9).

The KHEA Hub is one of the five Hubs of the Knowledge Centre for Organic Agriculture and Agroecology in Africa (KCOA) Project. It is part of the One World – No Hunger initiative by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through its executing agency GIZ to support a network of regional knowledge hubs for organic farming in Eastern, Western, Northern, Central and Southern Africa. Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT) is the Lead Coordinating Agency of the project in Eastern Africa and Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Uganda is a Co-Host of the KCOA-KHEA Project.

The implementation of Phase I and II of the Knowledge Hub for Organic Agriculture and Agroecology in Eastern Africa (KHEA) Project started in August 2019 and ended in January 2025. The KCOA-KHEA Project aligns with the Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative (EOA-I), an African Union-led continental undertaking with the oversight of the African Union Commission (AUC) Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy, and Sustainable Environment (DARBE)

Countries Implementing the KCOA-KHEA Project

KHEA is currently being implemented in Implementing Partners (CIPs) as follows: Kenya; PELUM Kenya, Uganda; PELUM Uganda, Rwanda; ROAM, Tanzania; TOAM and Madagascar; GSDM and SYMABIO.

Overall Goal of KHEA

The overall goal of the KHEA Project is to ensure that Ecological Organic Agriculture is integrated into the various countries’ agricultural systems.

About the Digital Knowledge Platform

One of the key project achievements has been the development of the Digital Knowledge Platform    (DKP) which is part of the KCOA Project coordinated by GIZ as a major component of the initiative.

This online resource currently provides excellent learning materials and resources for multipliers, farmers and other value chain actors. The DKP was launched in the Phase II of the KCOA-KHEA Project

To know more about the KCOA project, please visit these links:

• https://kcoa-africa.org/
• https://biovisionafricatrust.org/kcoaproject/

To know more about the KHEA Hub implementing the KCOA Project, please visit this link:

• https://khea-africa.org/

The organization also implements the “Empowering PELUM Uganda Members to Scale Up Agroecology for Resilient and Sustainable Food and Agricultural Systems” project (2020-2026), funded by Bread for the World.

AWOLA (Africa Women Leaders in Agroecology) Initiative is a leadership career development initiative of the PELUM network, to equip women working on agroecology, sustainable agriculture and food systems with leadership skills. Through the AWOLA initiative, the PELUM network envisions strengthening leadership capacities and the active participation of women in agroecology institutions. 

The project seeks to inspire, mentor, nurture, and fast-track the leadership development of African women in Agroecology. AWOLA initiative strives to ensure that women confidently take their position in leadership without apologies by

• Building the capacity specifically to lead and manage top-level positioning
• Building networks that add value to the leadership positions of women
• Building up a cadre of competent African women mentors and coaches in leadership in Agroecology
• Equipping women with top negotiation and policy-influencing skills
• Creating awareness in areas of gender and market dynamics

Youth in Agroecology & Business Learning Track Africa (YALTA) initiative is the agroecology & business learning track for youth in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. This program was initiated by the Netherlands Food Partnership (NFP) and implemented by PELUM Association country chapters and other partners in the targeted countries from 2020 to 2023. It supported young entrepreneurs to apply agroecological principles and to co-create networks around them, given contributing to the increased sustainability of food systems and youth employability.

The current initiative seeks to upscale the existing YALTA initiative and other related youth initiatives by youth networks to bring a critical mass of youth to agroecology business and policy spaces in Africa. PELUM Association, through its country chapters, uses a multi-level approach in the design and implementation of the activities, ensuring country-level and regional learning across regions in Africa.

Women Empowerment for Rural Resilience (WE4R) Project  

The WE4R project is implemented by PELUM Association in Eastern and Southern Africa, with her respective Country Chapters of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Malawi from November 2024 to October 2026. This project (WE4R) is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fu r Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH through the Global Project “Women’s Empowerment for Resilient Rural Areas”.

Women Empowerment for Rural Resilience (WE4R) project seeks to contribute to women’s resilient and transformation anchored on the 3 Rs (Rights, Resources, Representation) within the framework of the 3 Rio conventions. The main objective of the project is to enhance the capacity for women change agents and selected male allies to stimulate their agency to amplify voices for women’s rights, access to resources, and representation in the context of land and rural livelihoods resilience in Africa.

The project has 3 Key intervention areas;

• Capacity development and mentorship
• Learning and knowledge exchange on the best practices and innovations of the 3Rs
• Women Networks strengthening for women’s voices application on the 3Rs

PELUM Uganda has been involved in “Influencing Policies and Practices on Natural Resources Management in East and Northern Regions” (2017-2021), a consultancy project aimed at building advocacy capacity for sustainable natural resource management in the Teso and Acholi sub-regions. The organization continues to support interventions under the “Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA II) Loss and Damage Funding” (2021-2025), focusing on building the capacity of ActionAid Uganda’s local partners on agroecology and community resilience.

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