By Buertey Francis BORYOR
Country Director of AGRA Ghana, Dr. Betty Annan, has highlighted the significant impact of the African-led institution’s VALUE4HER initiative, a leading platform supporting women in agribusiness across the continent.
Speaking at this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) event in Accra, she revealed that over 10,000 women from 50 African countries, including 1,500 from Ghana, are now registered on the platform.
“These women are gaining access to training, mentorship, and digital marketplaces, helping them grow their businesses and contribute to their communities, according to her,” she said.
Additionally, Ms. Annan stressed the importance of empowering women in agriculture, stating that: “When we uplift women, we uplift entire households, communities, and nations. VALUE4HER is not just a platform; it is a movement that is changing lives and reshaping futures.”
She also shared inspiring stories of women who have turned small farms into thriving businesses, creating jobs and boosting incomes.
“AGRA is making strides through its Youth Employment for Food and Agriculture (YEFFA) initiative, a partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. This program aims to provide 1.5 million young people, half of whom are women, with skills and opportunities in agriculture. We also launched the Women Agripreneurs of the Year Awards (WAYA), which offers financial prizes and visibility to outstanding female agripreneurs,” she furthermore said.
Despite these successes, Dr. Annan acknowledged ongoing challenges, saying women in sub-Saharan Africa make up nearly half of the agricultural workforce but own less than 15 percent of the land and receive less than 10 percent of agricultural credit.
She called for stronger collaboration among governments, financial institutions, and private sector stakeholders to address these gaps and create more opportunities for women in agriculture.
Dr. Godfrey Jasaw, Chair of the Parliamentary-Select Committee on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs, and Chair of the Africa Food Systems Parliamentary Network (AFSPaN), in remarks at the event, urged women to take advantage of opportunities that pollical policies hold, further calling on government to lower the barriers of intra-trade between countries.
He moreover emphasised the need to create a market driven support to entrepreneurship. “Let us be deliberate about where we support and how we support,” he added.
Meanwhile, Abebe Haile-Gabriel, Assistant Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), highlighted the unbalanced impact of crises on women in agrifood systems.
He cited FAO’s 2024 report, titled, ‘The Unjust Climate’- which shows that extreme weather events like heatwaves and floods widen the income gap between female-headed and male-headed households by billions of dollars annually.
Additionally, he noted that women play a vital role in the continent’s agrifood systems, making up nearly two-thirds of the workforce, but said, they often face barriers such as limited access to finance, restrictive policies, and inadequate infrastructure.
He emphasised that empowering women is not just about fairness but also a smart economic strategy. “FAO’s 2023 report found that closing gender gaps in agriculture could boost global GDP by 1 percent and reduce food insecurity for millions of people,” he said.
To address these challenges, Haile-Gabriel called for targeted financial products, gender-sensitive trade policies, and the use of technology to help women access markets and information.
He also highlighted FAO’s efforts, such as mentorship programs for women-led businesses and initiatives to support women under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
He stressed the need for collective action to empower women in agriculture, urging governments, private sector actors, and development partners to work together to create opportunities for them to enable them contribute fully to the continent’s food system transformation.
This year’s IWD global theme was, “For All women and girls: Rights, Equality, Empowerment”, underscoring the need for every girl and woman to have the opportunity to fully participate in and benefit from society’s economic and social progress.
