The African Continental Free Trade Area presents a ground-breaking opportunity to create a unified continental market, boost Africa’s share of global trade and achieve the goals of Agenda 2063, including the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment. The AfCFTA is expected to change Africa’s trade practices, accelerating economic growth, including that of the agriculture sector where smallholder farmers, processors and informal cross-border traders, especially women, stand to benefit from expanded market access. The AfCFTA thus has the potential to contribute significantly to eliminating poverty, creating jobs, improving food security and promoting gender equality. Many women in agribusiness in Africa are faced by challenges, including those related to working in the informal sector, poor access to market information, finance and training, and weak compliance with trade standards, which limit their opportunities to access markets, particularly for export. Supporting women to overcome these obstacles is a prerequisite for leveraging the opportunities created by the AfCFTA and achieving economic growth. To this end, the subprogramme aimed to enhance the potential competitiveness of women traders and entrepreneurs in the agrifood sector (agripreneurs), through policy advocacy, knowledge generation, capacity development and access to finance.

The outcome of the subprogramme was to facilitate the enhanced competitiveness of women producers, processors and traders through an enabling and inclusive business and policy environment within the AfCFTA. The main beneficiaries were women agripreneurs, traders, cooperatives and business associations. The subprogramme was implemented in six countries (Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and the United Republic of Tanzania), where it provided support to women’s groups and organizations in the negotiations of the AfCFTA protocols, including the Protocol on Women and Youth in Trade. It worked with women traders, agripreneurs and trade associations to enable them to engage successfully in regional value chain development and trade in the AfCFTA. In Senegal and the United Republic of Tanzania, it coordinated policy dialogues and training for women’s organizations, and conducted gender analyses of regional value chains to identify opportunities for women’s participation and empowerment. In Ghana and Nigeria, a pilot component on women’s access to finance was implemented, with support provided to women-led businesses and enterprises to develop sound business plans and improve investment readiness. Meetings between women-led MSEs and financial institutions were held, enabling women agripreneurs to share their business plans and attract the interest of financial institutions. Overall, surpassing its expected target, the subprogramme increased the competitiveness of 641 women by providing knowledge on trade facilitation and access to finance. The subprogramme also pursued FAO’s collaboration with the AU in support of the AfCFTA, promoted collaboration with regional economic communities and strengthened collaboration with ITC and other entities working on gender and trade, both within and beyond the United Nations.

• Five policy briefs were developed.
• Four regional multistakeholder policy dialogues were organized for 491 women traders, business associations, national governments, trade authorities and stakeholders from 62 countries.
• Eleven communication materials (news stories, webpages, videos) were produced and disseminated.
• Two gender training events were delivered to trade policymakers.
• Four technical regional value chain reports were produced.
• 535 women producers, processors and traders were trained to improve their trading skills.
• 70 women agripreneurs were trained to improve their access to finance.
• In Ghana and Nigeria, 20 women-led agrifood enterprises were supported to develop solid business plans.
• The investment readiness of 70 women-led MSEs was improved, paving the way to business models upgrade.

Click here to download the PDF