Self Help Africa started works on a range of rural development projects in three countries in West Africa - Burkina Faso, Togo and Ghana.
Projects are managed from a regional headquarters in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and are run and managed on a day to day basis by local partners and collaborators.
The focus of work is on supporting local communities to grow more food, diversify, access markets, and cope with the effects of a changing climate on their livelihoods.
Work is taking place in a geographic cluster - from Burkina Faso to districts that are nearby across the borders in both Northern Ghana and Northern Togo - in each instance the poorest regions in these two West African countries.
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Burkina Faso is extremely poor even by West African standards, while the northern provinces of Togo and Ghana are amongst the poorest in each country.
The region is prone to recurring droughts, and a high proportion of rural people who live in this region survive on the equivalent of less than $1 a day.
Access to farming support and inputs, and to markets is a challenge for many small-scale farmers, who frequently must rely on the food that they produce to survive, and to support their family needs.
The region has few valuable natural resources and relies primarily on agriculture. 83% of the total population live in rural areas and depend on local natural resources for their livelihoods. However, the difficulties of recurring droughts or floods, high population pressures, and poor soil present many challenges for crop production. Rainfall is both seasonal and variable and there is a trend of decreasing annual rainfall. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS is increasing with the most recent estimate standing at 6.5%.
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