Animal Advocacy Africa

What problem is Animal Advocacy Africa working on?

Animal Advocacy Africa works to reduce and prevent the suffering of farmed animals by focusing on building the animal advocacy movement in Africa at a critical time: before animal farming practices become more intensive. Animal Advocacy Africa (AAA) shared the following fast facts related to the problem they are working on, and their approach to solving it:

• The human population of Africa is expected to nearly triple by 2100. Meat production in Africa has doubled between 2000 and 2022, and this rate is expected to increase to match the growing population and growing wealth of the continent.
• Approximately 3.7 billion land-based farmed animals live in Africa as of 2022. The predicted rate of increase of land-based and aquatic animal farming in Africa is the largest of all continents.
• Farmed animal welfare is incredibly neglected in Africa. Open Philanthropy estimated that only 1% of global funding for farmed animals went to Africa in 2019. AAA estimated the total amount of funding for farmed animals in Africa at USD 1.5 to 3.0 million for 2022.
• Growing signs of animal agriculture industrialisation in African countries is a concern that threatens to instate factory farming conditions. This shift towards industrialisation, without implementing humane and sustainable agricultural practices or establishing high welfare standards may lead to the potential suffering of trillions of land and aquatic farmed animals and contribute to global health crises and climate change.
• AAA believes now is a critical time to help build the animal movement in Africa before animal farming practices become more intensive.
• AAA is one of the first EA-aligned organisations dedicated to building the capacities of individual advocates and animal advocacy organisations in Africa. It achieves this by nurturing the interest of prospective advocates in pursuing a career in animal advocacy and developing the essential skills and knowledge needed to start or contribute to impactful organisations in Africa.

What does Animal Advocacy Africa do?

• In response to the identified lack of capacity among animal advocacy organisations in Africa, AAA started by providing support to animal advocacy organisations to develop key aspects of effective, evidence-based charities – including fundraising, strategy, operations, and communications. Until the end of 2023, AAA helped these organisations secure a total of $250,000 and influenced at least two organisations to adopt high-impact interventions (Animal Welfare League in Ghana and Animal Welfare Competence Center for Africa in Uganda).
• In the second half of 2023, AAA shifted its focus from working with organisations to helping individual advocates achieve more impact via a training programme (details on their reasoning can be found in their 2023 review). Through this initiative, AAA aims to cultivate a network of advocates prepared to launch new farmed animal advocacy initiatives or join existing organisations within Africa. The first cohort resulted in three new organisations incubated through the programme (more in the pipeline) and four participants taking on new roles to improve farmed animal welfare in Africa so far. As of Dec 2024, AAA estimates that it has added between $1.8 and $2.7 in value to the African animal advocacy movement for every $ spent on this training programme. These are conservative estimates given that further impacts are expected to materialise in the future. The second cohort started in Nov 2024.
• AAA offers assistance to donors interested in contributing to African animal advocacy initiatives by regranting or offering due diligence advice. This enables donors to make better decisions and tax-deductible donations to promising grassroots animal advocacy projects. In 2023, AAA reported that it advised individual donors and grantmaking foundations on grants and donations totalling ~$175,000. These donations go on to contribute to a range of areas, including programme interventions, staff salaries, operational expenses and professional development.
• AAA publishes research about the animal advocacy landscape in Africa. In 2024, AAA published three in-depth reports on strategic considerations and promising ideas to mitigate the rise of industrial animal agriculture in Africa, as well as the funding landscape for farmed animal advocacy in Africa. Previous reports can be found on their website.

What information does Giving What We Can have about the cost-effectiveness of Animal Advocacy Africa?^1.

We don't currently have further information about the cost-effectiveness of Animal Advocacy Africa beyond it doing work in a high-impact cause area and taking a reasonably promising approach.