Why supporting rural women is vital this International Women’s Day

The world is facing escalating crises, from conflict to the climate emergency, making the need to support rural women this International Women’s Day more crucial than ever.

Conflict often pushes farming families to flee their homes, leaving women and girls vulnerable to violence and exploitation. As resources become scarcer due to climate extremes, women in eastern Africa are forced to travel further to access water, food and land, while juggling the demands of home and family life.

Women can become trapped in cycles of poverty. Investing in rural women is vital to building stronger, more resilient communities.

Farm Africa works to foster women’s equality and empowerment across our projects.

Access to land

Women in eastern Africa face significant barriers in owning land. In rural areas, where land is a vital asset for farming and economic stability, men are often favoured in inheritance and ownership.

Farm Africa helps women to gain access to land to farm on. In the Ikungi District of Tanzania we trained men in the benefits of giving land to women to help close the gender gap in the sunflower sector.

At first, the men only gave women small plots. But after seeing how much the family could earn from increased sunflower production, they recognised the benefits of giving more land to women.

Farm Africa’s gender specialist Helena Lawi (right) with Mary Temu (left), a farmer taking part in our sunflower project. Photo: Side_ent.

Equality

In sub-Saharan Africa only 37% of women have a bank account. In rural areas, women’s lack of financial resources limits their potential, preventing them from buying the seeds or fertiliser needed for a successful harvest.

Improving women’s access to financial services builds their economic independence and creates opportunities for them to invest in their next harvest, their families and themselves. What’s more, a financial buffer ensures female farmers have something to fall back on when extreme weather such as droughts hit.

In Ethiopia’s Central Rift Valley, we helped to set up the Megerisa VSLA. Comprised of 18 women, the group saved 77,725 Ethiopian Birr (£1,085) in their first year and issued 30 loans to the women.

Megerisa VSLA in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia.

With easy access to fair finance, these women can now invest in small businesses to boost their incomes. Member, Jemanesh Merga used her loan to buy seven goats. After fattening the goats for four months, she sold them on and made a 40% profit.

Empowerment

Across eastern Africa, women contribute the bulk of the farming labour but have little decision-making power in the field, or the home. Farm Africa challenges this norm by supporting female farmers to take on leadership positions and build profitable agribusinesses to cultivate their empowerment.

In one of our projects in Uganda we are helping to improve women’s job opportunities and incomes by training women and young people to become self-employed local business agents in the coffee, honey, poultry and horticulture value chains.

Meanwhile, as part of our regenerative agriculture project in Kenya, we are training farmers to take on leadership positions as village-based advisors (VBAs). VBAs become catalysts for lasting change as they share their training in regenerative agriculture with other farmers.

Photo: Farm Africa / Arete

Smallholder farmer, Juliet Muthoni, stepped into this role as a VBA with Farm Africa’s support. Aside from improving her own life, Juliet now empowers over 200 other farmers with regenerative practices so they can improve their soil fertility, protect their land and their food security.

Find out more about how Farm Africa supported Juliet’s path to economic empowerment by tuning in to our appeal on BBC Radio 4, presented by Minette Batters, on Sunday 13 April at 7.54am and 9.25pm GMT and Thursday 17 April at 3.27pm GMT.

Find out more: www.farmafrica.org/radio4appeal