The problem
Women are the backbone of Africa's farming workforce, but life for rural women isn't easy.
In eastern Africa, women lack equal rights to men and often have to juggle domestic duties with arduous fieldwork.
It can be harder for women to achieve the yields that men do as they often have lower access to land, training, markets and quality seeds.
Women typically have little household decision-making power, few opportunities for community involvement, and are ultimately more likely to live in poverty than men.
The opportunity
Farm Africa works to understand the challenges that women face in their local contexts and adapt our programmes accordingly.
By opening up new opportunities for women, we support them to develop new sources of income and lift themselves out of poverty.
When women prosper, they typically invest more in their homes and families, feeding their children, keeping them healthy and sending them to school.
The outcome
When women have more economic opportunities, it helps the whole community to grow and prosper.
In fact, investing in rural women doesn’t only have the power to transform lives on a community level; it can also boost food security on a global scale.
That’s why supporting female farmers is so important, because equality for women is progress for all.
How we work with women
Supporting female farmers is a central part of Farm Africa’s work. This means:
- Involving women in selling their produce, giving them more financial independence and a better idea of market prices so they can adapt their farming businesses accordingly
- Setting up women’s savings and loans groups, so that women have access to funds to invest in setting up small businesses
- Helping women gain access to land to farm on
- Running training sessions at times when women can attend them and providing crèche facilities
- Supporting women with agricultural projects that they can run from their homes, such as beekeeping and raffia weaving
- Encouraging women to join cooperatives and take up leadership positions within them
The latest on empowering women
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Related resources
Key focus areas
Boost youth employment
Empower women
Country
Tanzania
Key focus areas
Boost youth employment
Empower women
The role of gender in the Tanzanian horticulture sector
In Tanzania, women and youth are active participants in the agriculture sector, making significant contributions to the sector’s growth. However, the country’s progress towards gender parity across critical areas of life is still at the disadvantage of women. This document shares Farm Africa’s learning from its DECIDE horticulture programme, which has been working with 55 small and medium enterprises (56% women-led) in the Tanzanian horticultural sector.
Download (3.25mb)
Country
Tanzania
Key focus areas
Boost youth employment
Empower women
Country
Uganda
Key focus areas
Boost productivity
Connect farmers to markets
Empower women
Women’s economic empowerment in the coffee value chain in Kanungu district, Uganda
In September 2019, Farm Africa launched a project in Kanungu district aimed at empowering women in the coffee value chain. The project worked with communities to increase the incomes of 2,640 women coffee producers, strengthen their household decision-making power and increase access to resources, enhance the capacity of CGCs to ensure women can leverage market opportunities while also engaging local stakeholders to recognise and reward women’s participation within the coffee value chain.
Download (5.91mb)
Country
Uganda
Key focus areas
Boost productivity
Connect farmers to markets
Empower women
Country
Ethiopia
Key focus areas
Boost youth employment
Empower women
Protect ecosystems
Support businesses
Ethiopia Strategy 2021-2025
A five year strategic plan for Farm Africa’s Ethiopia team which contribute to the overall objectives found in Farm Africa’s 2021-2015 strategy.
Download (1.73mb)
Country
Ethiopia
Key focus areas
Boost youth employment
Empower women
Protect ecosystems
Support businesses
Country
Ethiopia
Key focus areas
Empower women
Increase food security and nutrition
Impact of increased women’s incomes on nutrition
Farm Africa’s Livestock for Livelihoods project helped Ugandan and Ethiopian pastoralist women set up sustainable, small-scale goat-rearing enterprises. This booklet highlights how Farm Africa improved 10,000 women’s access to credit facilities and incomes by adding value to livestock products and opening up improved opportunities for sales.
Download (2.29mb)
Country
Ethiopia
Key focus areas
Empower women
Increase food security and nutrition
Country
Ethiopia
Key focus areas
Empower women
Increase food security and nutrition
Increase incomes
Household socioeconomic status and women and children’s dietary diversity
Farm Africa’s Livestock for Livelihoods project helped Ugandan and Ethiopian pastoralist women set up sustainable, small-scale goat-rearing enterprises. This booklet examines the factors that improve dietary diversity in women and children, including women’s economic empowerment, production of food crops and the size of livestock herds.
Download (7.2mb)
Country
Ethiopia
Key focus areas
Empower women
Increase food security and nutrition
Increase incomes
