George Jacob

Self Help Africa

Self Help Africa works with rural communities to help them improve their farms and their livelihoods. Our mission is to empower rural Africa to achieve economic independence. On a continent where up to 75% of people rely on small-scale agriculture for their survival, we believe that it is only by tackling the challenges faced by rural farming communities that real and sustained economic progress can be made across sub-Saharan Africa. Self Help Africa works with local staff and partners in nine countries, supporting communities to grow more food, diversify their farm production, develop new off-farm enterprise, and sell their surpluses. We support rural micro-finance programmes, assist producers to organise into farmers associations and co-operatives, enable farm families to access markets and add value to their produce, and promote low-cost sustainable solutions to the management of natural resources, to community adaption to a changing climate, and to the challenges of gender inequality. Self Help Africa is also committed to advocating in support of the interests of African smallholder farmers, to ensure that there is a long-term commitment to aid and investment, to ensure the sustainable development of agriculture and food production in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. In 2014, Self Help Africa merged with Gorta, Ireland's longest established international development organisation working in agricultural development. Charity Number: 20008895