FANRPAN and Gates Foundation Announce 3-year Project for Rural African Women Farmers
The Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), led by Farming First’s Dr. Lindiwe Sibanda, has announced a three-year pilot project to help women farmers in Southern Africa influence agricultural policy development.
The programme has been funded by a $900,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and will be presented at the annual FANRPAN Regional Policy Dialogue and Annual General Meeting held in Maputo, Mozambique in September 2009.
The pilot projects will be based in Malawi and Mozambique and will help to amplify the voices of women farmers in policy decisions at the national and regional levels. These projects will also then help women access the tools and technologies — such as better seeds, adequate fertilizer, extension services, and access to credit — that these realigned markets will provide.
FANRPAN’s involvement across 13 Southern African countries will help it to partner with other Gates Foundation grantees to create deeper linkages within the communities where their pilot projects will take place. The lessons learned from these pilots will then be incorporated and extended into programmes for other Southern and East African countries.
Tags: Africa, FANRPAN, fertilizers, Gates, Lindiwe Sibanda, market access, principle2, principle3, principle5, women
Aug 11, 2009
A stable policy environment within which farmers can work and invest is essential for ag development. Farmers are at the heart of the solution for a sustainable agricultural system, and farming policies have pretty much neglected the critical role for farmers, especially women farmers, in making sustainable development a reality. The woman’s role on the farm is vital – they are often the primary provider for their families, and their voices need to be heard by policymakers if we’re going to get stable policies that benefit them and enable them to access the resources they need to farm successfully. Projects like the one in this posting are great for establishing open two-way exchanges that capture the voice of the women farmer. Hopefully they’ll help to improve access to the tools and technologies needed, like land (not to mention land rights), water, pesticides, seeds, fertiliser and access to market information and microfinance services. It would be good to see projects like this recognised by other countries and replicated