By Sharon Atieno
Women contribute significantly to production in agri-food systems however, they have little to show for it economically, Elizabeth Nsimadala, President Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF) said.
She was speaking during a side event titled ‘Unpacking the status of women in agrifood systems’ convened by African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) at the inaugural CGIAR Science Week held on 7th- 12th April in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.
Preliminary findings from a report by AWARD on the status of women in agrifood systems in Africa shows that the continent’s agrifood systems depend on women at a rate that is 11% higher than the global average.
Also, women undertake multiple agrifood system activities but are overly represented in the informal, irregular, lower-paid workers and experience poor working conditions compared to their male counterparts.
“Money is not flowing into their pockets…Most of our societies are still living in the patriarchal system, where women are involved in the production, but when it comes to marketing, it’s the men that are taking the produce to the market,” Nsimadala said.
Calling for men’s inclusion as champions to address this issue, she said, “We need to have more men on board to break these barriers. We know that the perpetrators are men and as long as we don’t bring them into the conversation, they really don’t understand us.”
Dr. Annet Mulema, senior program officer, International Development Research Centre (IDRC) underscored that unpaid care work, comprising taking care of the children, the sick and the elderly, fetching water, firewood and others, is a major challenge to women entering the labour market, including agri-food systems.
“Interventions that address women’s economic empowerment need to go beyond getting them into paid employment,” she said. “This is because when women get into employment, the unpaid care load doesn’t reduce and it is not redistributed. Having interventions that really undermine or do not address the care issue can be detrimental to these women because that’s when we talk of the double burden-being in the paid work and unpaid care work.”
She observed that interventions that use a holistic approach, such as bundling different interventions around the spheres that affect a woman’s aspect of life, are more impactful. This includes for instance, putting up interventions that address care and negative masculinity as well as access to water and savings simultaneously.
Catherine Rusagara, Head of Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Youth and Agriculture, Alliance for Green Revolution (AGRA), emphasized the need to consider culture and societal norms when planning and investing in different interventions.
“Some programs do not land because they have not addressed the cultural and societal norms of women in those particular areas,” she noted, adding that behavioural campaigns are impactful to ensure that programs work.
Similarly, Eihleen Nchanji, Gender and Social Inclusion expert, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, noted that in the African context, it is crucial to create awareness and understanding among community leaders before getting to the community. You have to think of all the cultural nuances for the interventions to work.
On her part, Elizabeth Yegon, Head, Gender Unit, Kenya Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, emphasized the importance of putting up policies to increase women’s participation in the agri-food systems and to ensure that they benefit economically.
She mentioned that the Ministry has developed the national agriculture gender policy, which will be implemented by July to address some of the challenges.
“We are looking at participation and leadership of women in the agri-food systems, so that women are not just left at the lowest node of the value chain but we are looking at how we can involve them along the value chain and especially in governance of farm organizations,” Yegon said, adding that they are championing for farm cooperatives where women are encouraged to take up leadership roles based on the two-third gender rule stated in the Constitution.
