Female entrepreneurs and small businesses: at the crossroads of agrifood systems transformation and climate action
This week’s Science and Innovation Forum at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) offered an opportunity to showcase innovations and collaborations which have the potential to transform agrifood systems and step up climate action - new technologies, public–private partnerships, knowledge-sharing networks, and capacity building programmes.
Against this backdrop, FAO and the International Agri-Food Network (IAFN), a coalition of international agrifood trade associations and national farmer organizations, welcomed a new cohort of 50 participants to their Accelerator Mentorship Programme for Women-led SMEs in Africa. The programme, in its second year, pairs selected women entrepreneurs from small and medium agrifood enterprises with an experienced business leader from a similar field.
Over the course of nine months, mentees will benefit from one-on-one sessions with their mentors on how to accelerate their professional development and the growth of their businesses. This personalized guidance is complemented by workshops, peer learning and networking opportunities, and coursework developed by FAO’s eLearning Academy.
The selection of mentees for this year's program was supported by the VALUE4HER Women Agripreneurs of the Year Awards (WAYA). The participants hail from 18 countries in Africa - Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. They work in diverse areas along the agrifood value chain, from advanced digital solutions for farming, to value-added processing and packaging, food service and retail, marketing and distribution.
Their businesses offer a range of innovations that combat climate change, reduce food loss and waste, and generate opportunities in the communities they serve. In Tanzania, Adelaide Mwasyoghe’s company turns locally grown avocados rejected by markets into high quality edible and cosmetic oils, tackling post-harvest losses, creating jobs, and promoting sustainable practices in the process. In Kenya, Joyce Waithira’s recycling processors turn household waste into organic fertilizer, giving urban neighborhoods a way to provide farmers with cheap, high-quality fertilizers while improving environmental sustainability and community health.
The food and agriculture sectors remain a major employer of women, with the latest data showing that 36 percent of women globally were working in agrifood systems. In certain areas of the world, this is even higher - in sub-Saharan Africa, agrifood systems accounted for 66 percent of women’s employment. Yet despite high levels of participation, women’s access to land, inputs, services, finance and digital technology - all essential elements needed to succeed - continues to lag behind men’s.
Mentees who spoke at the launch event stressed the importance of knowledge sharing and capacity development as key factors in building a thriving business. Anaporka Adazabra, from Ghana, whose business offers greenhouse farming solutions powered by digital technology, said she was looking forward to the peer-to-peer learning sessions of the accelerator programme to help her scale up her business. Cassandra George, a mentee from Nigeria, agreed that providing farmers with technical know-how was key to their success: in addition to developing climate-smart seeds, her business has focused on providing smallholder farmers - especially those traditionally overlooked by investors, such as women and youth - with access to agricultural inputs, training, weather info, finance and markets. These sentiments were echoed by Anne Ewurabena and Eunice K. Mwongera, who both described their experiences as mentors as a journey where both parties learn from each other.
Investing in women in agrifood systems is not only key to fighting global poverty, food insecurity, and climate change, but also offers measurable benefits for their entire communities. IAFN calculates that last year’s Accelerator Mentorship Programme reached roughly half a million people, by empowering the 45 women entrepreneurs who participated. By providing participants in the programme with the necessary knowledge, advice and resources, FAO and IAFN hope to support entrepreneurs and innovations which can make a difference in building a healthier, sustainable, and climate-resilient future.
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As the programme gets underway, more news and mentee profiles will be available on the CONNECT Portal in a dedicated area for the Accelerator Mentorship Programme.
