title
May 10th, 2022

Civil Society Support - Bees and honey for a better life (GIZ)

Bee keeping can be a source of livelihood in the EAC region. This is why the project Ahadi Forum, with support of EAC and GIZ via the Incubator for Integration and Development in East Africa (IIDEA), is increasing the income and improving the livelihood of 2,000 youths and women along the bee keeping value chain. Ahadi develops measures to improve the quality of honey, increase the production capacity of local beekeepers and links the beekeepers to reliable markets in the EAC through a contract model.

The project provides technical training on beekeeping combined with business training. Modern bee keeping equipment is provided as part of the training, and the capacity development has a focus on improving beneficiaries’ skills and knowledge about quality control in beekeeping and honey production, but also deals with regulations of trading across borders. These measures will enable the beekeepers to achieve better market access.

A contract model between beekeepers in Tanzania and a Kenya-based honey-processing company makes sure that farmers get beekeeping equipment and training on bee keeping best practises, apiary management, harvesting schedules, quality control, handling, storage and marketing skills such as grading, packaging, labelling and branding.

"The technical training we receive from this project has opened our eyes towards best practices in beekeeping. With this knowledge, we expect to increase the volume of honey and other bee products we harvest from 4 to 12 kg per hive, which will guarantee us to get a great profit," notes Paul Faustine, a beekeeper from Babati in Tanzania. "As we produce more honey and other bee products of higher quality than before, we are assured of getting a market for our products across the border in Kenya at fair and reliable conditions. This helps us to increase our income, make it more reliable and improve our livelihoods," he added.

The Ahadi project team works together with beekeepers and government officers when negotiating contract terms with the honey-processing company before signing to ensure that all parties benefit in a fair manner.

Ahadi is a partner of the EAC-GIZ IIDEA project. IIDEA incubates small-scale regional integration projects which are proposed and implemented by civil society and private sector across East Africa. IIDEA provides technical and financial support to innovative projects across East Africa that highlight and contribute towards East African integration.

Follow Ahadi Forum on Facebook.