Heifer reaffirms commitment to supporting more smallholder farmers in Africa
Surita Sandosham, the organization’s new president and CEO, reaffirmed the organization’s commitment to help 10 million smallholder farming households worldwide escape poverty and achieve economic independence by 2030 in line with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations during a recent visit to Heifer International’s operations in Africa (SDGs).
The nonprofit development organization’s operations were the subject of Sandosham’s first stop on a world tour, which also included stops at regional teams in Asia and the Americas.
She had the chance to share her enthusiasm for the work Heifer Africa is doing in the region when she first met the members of the Africa team at the regional office in Lagos, Nigeria.
She met with some of Heifer’s young agritech innovation partners while she was there as well as other significant Nigerian stakeholders, reiterating Heifer’s commitment to work with youth and innovate to transform Africa’s food systems as well as working with smallholder farmers, producers, cooperatives, and others to ensure sustainable agricultural interventions.
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In his remarks to the audience, Sandosham stated, “Heifer believes that smallholder farmers are the key to reducing food insecurity in Africa.
“With an average of over USD 43 billion in yearly food imports across Africa, we believe that access to finance, innovation, infrastructure, and training can enhance local food systems and increase food production, reducing vulnerability to climatic shocks and long-term reliance on imports.”
Adesuwa Ifedi, senior vice president for Africa programs at Heifer International, commented on the CEO’s visit to the area: “Having the CEO visit the region and meet our partners and key stakeholders, was critical to restating our position that for Africa’s food systems to thrive, the combination of interventions and partnerships at all levels is needed.
In order to achieve transformational scale, he said, “our strategic goal as a region over the next eight years is to enable more than six million farmers to reach a sustainable living income by 2030.”