Objective: To build sustainable livelihoods and strengthen community resilience by improving food security and nutrition for rural households vulnerable to food insecurity in 14 rural kebeles in Oda Bultum Woreda.

This project aims to alleviate deep rooted poverty through addressing the following issues in Oda Bultum: low crop and livestock production and productivity, limited access to markets and financial services, poor nutrition, and unequal gender relations.

Through participation in the project, farmers will have access to high-quality agricultural inputs which can be purchased from the multipurpose primary cooperatives. They will also have access to credit through the RuSACCOs which allow them to invest in these inputs or in livestock such cows, goats, and poultry. Farmers also receive training in crop production, processing, and storage as well as the care and welfare of their livestock to ensure maximum productivity and income generation. This is to ensure the farmers make the most from their investment and can repay their loan using the income earned. The repayments to the RuSACCOs and multipurpose cooperatives can then be used to support other farmers, creating a ‘revolving’ system which can be sustained long after the project closes.

• 18,887 smallholder farmer households;
• 95,721 people in the Oda Bultum ICD target area.

Objective: To develop a tool that will assess the capacity of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) and SACCO Unions, and identifying the existing gaps given their unique role in building local financial capital. These insights will help to inform the specialised training and coaching plans to support the professionalisation of the SACCO sector.

This project aims to develop the SCOPE Insight tool for assessing SACCOs to make it more relevant and applicable for the unique character of SACCOs, scale it up and standardise it for use across the SACCO sector. The role of SHA in this consortium is to pilot the new SCOPE Insight tool with existing SACCO partners. The tool is being developed in partnership with SCOPE Insight, Nuru International, ICCO (part of Cordaid) and Glimmer of Hope. Once the tool has been developed and staff trained in its use, SHA will pilot it as a monitoring tool with existing partner RuSACCOs.