The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) hosted leading African women, to explore how their unique platforms could help amplify the needs of women in agriculture across the continent.

Commissioner for Rural Economy & Agriculture, African Union (AU) Commission, Josefa Sacko joined President at AGRA, Dr Agnes Kalibata and other African women leaders from various fields to discuss how women could bring change to Africa’s agricultural and food systems.

The discussions also explored how to inspire a groundswell of successful women agribusinesses in the continent.

The discussions were in line with this year’s International Women’s Day theme - Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 world.

Delivering the keynote address, Ambassador Sacko reiterated African Union’s goal of gender equality as a fundamental human right and an integral part of regional integration, economic growth and social development.

She highlighted the AU's strategy for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (GEWE) to ensure the inclusion of women in Africa's development agenda.

Participants echoed that women are key players in the sector, amplifying the need for exploring how their organizations can not only help amplify the needs of women in agriculture and women across the continent, but also finding solutions to endemic inequalities in the sector that continue to undermine women’s capacity to respond and recover from the impact of Covid-19.

To meet some of these challenges, AGRA kicked off the Resilience Investment Series for Women Executives (ARISE) program.

The program seeks to equip women-owned and women-led SMEs with the necessary tools and practical management skills, needed to recover from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking at a fireside chat at the event, Dr Kalibata stressed the effects of the climate change coupled with inequalities in accessing land and other agricultural resources that undermine women’s capacity to respond and recover from the impact of this pandemic.

Furthermore, the gendered access to opportunities means that women and men have different resources available to them to prepare for, cope with, and recover from the crisis. 

The event was sponsored by AGRA’s VALUE4HER program, a platform whose aim is to increase incomes and employment opportunities for women by linking women-led agribusinesses with competitive high value regional and global markets, and improving women business leader’s technical and managerial skills, with training on market dynamics, to grow their agribusinesses further.

Join the VALUE4HER digital platform – https://value4her.hivebrite.com/