ACSA Overview
Advocacy Coalition for Sustainable Agriculture (ACSA) is legally registered network of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), which work with smallholder farmers and promote Sustainable Agriculture, Agricultural market development, Environmental conservation, and undertake Research & Advocacy. This work is aimed at increasing farmer’s understanding of policy issues affecting small holder farmers in Uganda.
ACSA is implementing a Project under the title of “Influencing Agrarian Policy Environment in Uganda for better service delivery” with an aim of increasing farmer’s understanding of policy issues affecting small holder farmers in Uganda, under the mandate of “Advocating for the agrarian policy environment for small holder farmers in Uganda”. Currently, ACSA has membership of 29 CSOs (9 Faith Based Organizations, 3 Networks, 4 Farmers’ Associations and 13 NGOs) spread country wide in 46 districts of Uganda.
ACSA’s focus areas are; Advocacy and Lobbying (policy & budget), Research and documentation, Capacity building of member organisations, Capacity building of ACSA secretariat, Networking and Partnership Building, which are undertaken under the overall Goal of: “Relevant agriculture policies and services for Small Holder Farmers (SHFs) are implemented to foster profitable sustainable agriculture enterprises.”
Mission & Vision
ACSA works to empower civil society organizations (both church and non-church actors) working with small holder farmers to advocate for favourable agrarian Policy environment for sustainable communities, with a Vision of “Smallholder farmers living in a Sustainable Environment”.
A Brief History
Founded in 2006, after a series of studies which were conducted by Misereor – Germany on Uganda’s agrarian policy environment in relation to smallholder farmers, ACSA aims at increasing understanding of policy issues affecting member organizations and smallholder farmers in Uganda.
The studies highlighted that CSOs were playing a big role in the area of food security but with limited knowledge on agrarian policies, budgeting processes, and hence the inability to guide smallholder farmers in the identified areas. The CSOs then included; Caritas Kampala, Rural Community In Development (RUCID), Caritas Masaka Diocese Development Organization (Caritas MADDO), Caritas Kabale, Hoima Caritas Development Organization (HOCADEO), Agency For Integrated Development (AFIRD), National Organic Agriculture Movement Of Uganda (NOGAMU), and Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM).
Over the years, the Coalition has grown under the support of Misereor from the eight founding institutions (core group members) to more than 24 national, international and local organizations. ACSA has also witnessed phenomenal growth, particularly in membership and field staff.
Our Main Objectives
The main objectives of our work are:
Objective 1: ACSA Member Organizations (MOs) and smallholder farmers influence the agrarian policy and budgeting processes at local and national levels.
Objective 2: ACSA Member Organizations (MOs) access, generate, exchange and disseminate information and innovations to the benefit of the smallholder farmers, at all levels.
Objective 3: ACSA and its MOs forge Strategic Partnerships, alliances and collective action for improved service delivery to smallholder farmers at local and national levels.
Objective 4: ACSA Project Management Committees/ Board and Secretariat provide effective services to their member organizations (MOs).
Our Core Values
As part of our strategic focus to progressively influence change in the agricultural sector and promote agri-business through targeted interventions, we ascribe to several core values to enable us to achieve our goals, these include; Accountability, Integrity, Transparency, Equal Participation, Non-Discrimination, Creativity, Excellence, and Love & Care for the Earth.