Women in Agriculture
DATE: Tuesday 23 May 2017
TIME: 15:00 – 16:30
SETTING THE CONTEXT
- Mr. Charles Boamah, Senior Vice-President, AfDB
OPENING REMARKS BY
- H.E. Macky Sall, President of Senegal
PANEL
- Dr. Florence Wambugu, CEO, Africa Harvest
- Ms. Ada Osakwe, CEO, Agrolay Ventures
- Ms. Yana W. Kakar, Global Managing Partner at Dalberg Global Development Advisors
- Ms. Evelyn Ohanwusi, Head, Partnership Advocacy and Resource Mobilization, Youth Agripreneurs, Nigeria
- Ms. Reema Nanavaty, Secretary General of Self Employed Women's Association
MODERATOR
- Ms. Bronwyn Nielsen, Senior Anchor of CNBC Africa
The centrality of women’s role in African agriculture, as well as the importance of agriculture to women’s lives, are widely recognized. About 80 percent of women in the least developed countries who are economically active cite agriculture as their primary economic activity. However, a gender gap persists in the agriculture value chain. Further, given gender disparities in overall access to formal financing, with fewer women meeting lenders’ criteria, less commercial credit goes to women-run enterprises. Moreover, depending on the country, the rural wage gap between men and women in Africa is estimated at between 15 and 60 percent. It is therefore clear that one critical area in which Africa’s agriculture innovation system must go beyond traditional approaches to achieve transformative change is in how it treats issues of gender.
This panel will provide an opportunity to delve into the problem of gender disparities while bringing together a range of stakeholders (African women farmers (organisations) and entrepreneurs, policy-makers, practitioners, researchers and other experts) to exchange views on how agricultural transformation can enhance decent employment opportunities for women in Africa.
The session will discuss how to fully develop the capacity of women working in and around the agricultural sector for higher productivity, increased income and economic empowerment through sustained entrepreneurship. It is expected that the discussion will provide concrete and non-traditional approaches and solutions to the issue of gender in agriculture applicable to African circumstances, and also make suggestions on best practices from around the world.
