SAA Profile:
Following the 1983-84 famine that ravaged the Horn of Africa countries; Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia, the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) was founded in 1986 in Geneva as a non-governmental organization (NGO) seeking to build up Africa’s capacity to feed itself and raise rural living standards. SAA was founded by Mr. Ryoichi Sasakawa, founder of The Nippon Foundation; Dr Norman E Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; and Mr. Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States of America (USA). Funding for SAA comes principally from The Nippon Foundation, led by Chairman Mr. Yohei Sasakawa. SAA currently works in eleven countries in Africa: Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Benin, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania.
SAA’s work is mainstreamed in the national agricultural extension and advisory services to empower smallholder farmers to increase their productivity as well as ensure sustainability. SAA interventions are guided by the needs of SHFs based on value chain approach. The SAA interventions are focused on crop productivity enhancement, postharvest handling and agro-processing, human resource development, and cross cutting themes such as business development and monitoring and evaluation. SAA also incorporates inclusive approaches such as nutrition and ICT. SAAhas accelerated its efforts to encourage participation of women farmers and youth groups in income-generation activities through service provision in the area of postharvest and agro-processing.