Submitted by Faustina Boakye on Mon, 10/07/2017 - 17:41 Permalink
How can the AfDB promote public-private partnerships that will mostly benefit women in agribusiness, agro-processing and agro-industries? Women manually exert a lot of metabolic energy processing food crops for sale or family consumption. The use of crude processing equipment like the use of grinding stones and pounding of maize, millet or grating cassava, the use of hot smoky fires affect their bodies and health and that of their children. Most of the products are lost during processing as a result of poor handling, spoilage of fresh crops, mostly vegetables and production costs grow high.
The AFDB can partner with appropriate technology and improved energy stoves companies to provide the needed capital or guarantees to support projects and initiatives that address these gaps. Clean energy, grating and dehusking machinery are locally available to relief women of gruelling exertion of energy for food process.
How could the ENABLE (Empowering Novel Agri-Business-Led Employment) Youth initiative, be used to empower young women in agribusiness?
Intentionally providing Seed money, capacity building and educational and business skills initiatives can enable young women lead their own innovative projects for economic empowerment. Women are behind in education and many sectors of life due to cultural and traditional barriers that prevent them from acquiring and exploiting existing opportunities in business. With a little push, women are known to become better agents of change, adopting, demonstrating and promoting activities that could lead to income generation. These opportunities in accessing micro-finance, training and empowerment should enable women to undertake income generating activities and enterprises in agribusiness, industries, markets and entrepreneurships.
Submitted by Faustina Boakye on Mon, 14/11/2016 - 10:48 Permalink
There is so much inequality and inequity already existing in the energy sector. There's inequality in the leadership, governance and economic systems in the energy sector. No wonder this has trickled down to production and distribution. Very few women make up the top of the ladder, even in companies where they are workers or staff. Because women do not have capital to start big businesses, or to scale up even when they start one, women have many challenges along the way. Women small scale farmers do not have capital or credit to produce, process and market their produce. They use inefficient energy resources that affect the quality of their produce and therefore marketing. Patriarchy, entrenched stereotyping and negative and harmful cultural practices that assume only men as having the knowledge and expertise and strong muscles, have contributed to inequality in women's access to resources that enable them to explore the potentials they have in contributing to the energy sector. To address these challenges, women will have to be intentionally supported to address their strategic needs of acquiring education, business skills, credit and capacity building to enable them produce, transport and market energy technologies and resources.
Submitted by Faustina Boakye on Mon, 24/10/2016 - 21:20 Permalink
I'm grateful for the invitation to join all this important discussion.
This first phase outlines the fundamental basis for any work on energy poverty. With women, men, youth, boys and girls, no amount of advocacy or interventions would work. It's important to include all genders (male and female) in finding solutions to energy poverty and resolving the gender inequality that has affected and tilted the responsibility of the provision of energy on women and girls.
When everybody in the community gets an understanding and given the opportunity to contribute to reducing energy poverty, the burden on women is reduced. Men can be good supporters of women when they get an understanding of the immense role they can play in supporting women in purchasing clean cooking energy and technologies to address all the problems associated with energy poverty. In Africa, men wield great authority in households and communities. Engaging and winning them over provides a lot of avenues for addressing energy poverty and barriers to energy access. Sensitization and strategic engagement is important to achieving this.
Gender Equality in Agriculture Finance
Submitted by Faustina Boakye on Mon, 24/07/2017 - 11:39 Permalink
Which financing mechanisms could be used to improve women’s access to agriculture finance?
The use of soft loans and credit have helped many women expand their farms by buying approprite equipment, hiring labour and transporting farm or processed produce to markets. Women involved in cash-crops like cashew, coacoa, coffee, rice and maize cultivation need enough capital to rent farm land, during the preparation and planting seasons and enough to transport produce to amrkets. Without this, they just involve themselves in subsitence agriculture to feed the family and sell enough to buy fish or meat for meals. Below are examples of financing mechanisms that could support women in agriculture business.