- Welfare support for forest and farm producers has become even more important in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it wrecked economies and livelihoods across the globe. But the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) has stepped up to the plate. 

Over the course of 2021, more than 56,000 forest and farm producers in Africa, Asia and Latin America received food aid, hygiene products or government social protection schemes thanks to the work of FFF-supported forest and farm producer organizations (FFPOs). 

Recognizing the vulnerability of charcoal producers in arid area of Kenya

This included help for charcoal producers in Kenya’s counties of Baringo, Kitui and Turkana, who had their business wiped out by COVID-19 emergency measures, including a temporary ban on charcoal production. 

After a survey backed by FFF found that 70 percent of them were eating only one meal a day, and more than 40 percent were earning less han 20 dollars per month, Kenyan authorities recognized charcoal producers as a vulnerable group, making them eligible for state benefits. 

“Before we collected and presented this data, the Kenyan government was used to thinking of charcoal producers as destroyers of the environment without understanding their high level of vulnerability, as a group located in arid and semi-arid lands, characterized by frequent droughts and extreme food shortages; whose charcoal sales provide a critical safety net to supplement income thus needing social protection,” said Joseph Echomo, Chairman Turkana Umbralla Charcoal Producers Association, Kenya. 

“With our local partner, the Centre for Natural Resources Management, we were able to make a difference for these people as already some of them are now accessing cash transfers and social protection, and that’s what our work is all about. This year, we will conduct more surveys in other counties, to find out the CPAs level of vulnerability, options of expanding social protection and those potentially helping other vulnerable groups,” Richard Obiga, Programme Officer of the Social Protection Secretariat, Kenya.

Smallholder farmers sensitized on social programme systems existing in Ghana

The FFF is engaged in social protection work in several other countries.

In Tanzania, in 2021, nearly 400 tree growers received improved pension, savings and health services following a targeted training exercise in the Njombe, Makete and Ludewa districts.

In Ghana, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection collaborates with the Ghana Federation of Forest and Farm Producers (GhaFFaP) to create social protection profiles of FFPOs and link them to suitable welfare programmes. In a three-day workshop in April 2022, 40 smallholder farmers from GhaFFaP interacted with officials of the Ministry to explore ways for GhaFFaP members to access social protection services.

“Social Protection is a right. It is not a favour,” said Samuel Boakye-Marfo from the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection in Ghana.

Social needs assessments and information campaigns about available welfare services for rural, indigenous and forest communities were also provided in places like Nepal, Togo and Zambia, helping thousands of vulnerable people weather the economic shock caused by the pandemic. Forest and farm smallholders supply at least one-third of the world’s food, and play a crucial role in the fight against climate change and in efforts towards delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Supporting them has been at heart of FFF’s mission since its creation in 2012.

“Smallholder forest and farm producer organizations are indeed a great entry point and agents for social mobilization to achieve more inclusive social protection systems,” said Mark Kebo Akparibo, GhaFFaP Secretary.

For more information about social protection activities supported by the FFF in 2021, please read the FFF 2021 Annual Report