I hope that you agree that the statistic above shows just how important it is to make sure that our programmes help women reach their full potential.

To highlight how important closing the gender gap is to us, we held an award ceremony at our Gender Learning Bazaar to recognise the projects and people who are making the most progress towards this. And we were lucky to hear from farmers involved in our project about their experiences.

I will also be honouring International Women's Day by attending the UN’s ‘Commission on the Status of Women’ in New York. I will be participating in the NGO consultation day, sharing my experiences from Ethiopia and learning from other organisations.

Visit the website to read more about how Farm Africa is marking International Women's Day

I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about a woman called Masho and the difference she is making in her community.

After hearing about a Farm Africa project starting in her area, Masho brought her neighbours together to form the Obitsu Village Savings and Loans Group. With training in key business skills and access to credit, the women are now able to invest in growing their farming businesses and incomes.  

Read more about the difference Masho has made to her community’s lives

Over the next two weeks we will be sharing lots of interesting news and updates.

Tomorrow we will be joining in the global conversation about women and highlighting their role in agriculture. Keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages to see what we're saying and see how other organisations are celebrating the day.

I will also be sending updates from the UN conference next week so please do keep visiting our website and social media pages