African women entrepreneurs driving change in agriculture
The 2024 Women’s Investment Forum in Dakar, Senegal was an opportune gathering to showcase, celebrate and support African women entrepreneurs who are making transformative progress in the agriculture sector, including those who have participated in CGIAR accelerator programs such as AICCRA’s Gender-Smart Accelerator Challenge.
In Africa, agriculture is the beating heart of the economy and food security, employing a large portion of the population and significantly contributing to the GDP of countries. Women play a central role, producing up to 80% of foodstuffs for domestic consumption and local markets. They are the guardians of the entire value chain, from production to marketing. However, despite their invaluable contributions, they face major obstacles that hinder their full entrepreneurial potential.
Some of these challenges include limited access to land, financial resources, and markets, as well as a lack of tailored technical assistance and business development services. Additionally, women entrepreneurs often encounter systemic barriers such as gender-based discrimination, unequal access to information, and exclusion from decision-making processes. This lack of access results in women relying on less efficient and outdated traditional practices, preventing them from fully capitalizing on modern advancements. These obstacles are further exacerbated by the impacts of climate change, which disproportionately affect women due to their roles in managing natural resources and ensuring household food security.
Recognizing these challenges, Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) has taken deliberate steps to support women entrepreneurs in agriculture. Through its gender and climate-smart acceleration programs, AICCRA aims to strengthen the capacity of women-led agri-businesses to adopt climate-smart practices, access financing opportunities, and build resilience to climate change. These programs not only provide technical assistance but also create spaces for peer learning and collaboration, fostering a empowering network for women entrepreneurs to share experiences, strategies, and solutions.
In this context, AICCRA, in partnership with the Women’s Investment Club (WIC), organized a series of events on the side of the Women’s Investment Forum (Forum de l'Investissement au Féminin) held in November in Dakar, Senegal. The Forum aims to unite entrepreneurs, investors, support organizations, and the broader public to exchange ideas, share experiences, and collaborate on critical issues related to entrepreneurship and access to funding. The side events organized with AICCRA provided a platform for women entrepreneurs, particularly those who had participated in various CGIAR-led accelerators, to exchange insights on their journey, discuss the challenges they face, and explore strategies for overcoming them.
Integrating gender and social inclusion in agri-SMEs scaling
The journey started at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT Dakar Office with a capacity building session on leveraging the RBET (Reach, Benefit, Empower, Transform) Framework to equip Agri-SMEs with gender-responsive scaling strategies. This workshop was facilitated by Ena Derenoncourt and Katie Tavenner from the CGIAR Hub for Sustainable Finance.
Participants learned to set actionable goals to scale their businesses while tracking progress on gender equality. Feedback from attendees showed that the training was insightful and practical. The feedback also highlighted that participants view gender and social inclusion as highly relevant elements for the development and growth of their agri-SMEs. There was a shared commitment among participants to incorporate the RBET framework into their development plans, with a clear intention to promote gender equality with some participants planning to hire more women, particularly in leadership positions, while also strengthening their capacity to take on managerial roles. Others aim to reach a greater number of women farmers by providing technical training on sustainable practices to boost productivity.
Toward an inclusive transformation of female entrepreneurship in Africa
Women entrepreneurs in Africa are reshaping the agricultural landscape. This was vividly showcased during the 2024 Women’s Investment Forum. This year's conference, under the theme “Women, Innovation, and Technology,” spotlighted inspiring individuals, women and men, who are excelling in impactful sectors, while shedding light on their challenges and successes across various fields.
AICCRA's side event on “My journey as a CGIAR gender and climate accelerator participant” provided a platform to amplify the voices of some of these women and share their entrepreneurial agribusiness journeys.
Snapshot of CGIAR Accelerators
While CGIAR Accelerator programs vary in scope, geography and implementation approaches depending on specific project objectives, they share a common goal: to strengthen the capabilities of agri-SMEs and agritech startups. By leveraging CGIAR research, these programs empower participants to scale sustainable practices, access impactful finance and drive agricultural innovation and sustainability.
- AICCRA’s Gender-Smart Accelerator Challenge is a key initiative, designed to address the structural challenges faced by female entrepreneurs. It provides personalized support in leadership, business management, and market access.
- CGIAR, through its Accelerate for Impact Platform (A4IP), connects scientific research with entrepreneurship by incubating innovations that meet market needs. A4IP specifically supports female entrepreneurs, aiding their agritech projects with training, facilitated access to financing, and networking opportunities.
- CGIAR’s Food Systems Accelerator facilitates the scaling of climate-smart practices by agri-food businesses, where women play a central role.
- Rwanda Adaptation Acceleration Program aims to increase agri-SMEs resilience to climate variability and hazards through adoption of agricultural risk management measures.
Success stories: Inspirations from FIF 2024
Driving Rural Development and Job Creation in Senegal: Hermione Awounou, Managing Director of ACASEN, shared how her business promotes local agricultural products and creates job opportunities for women and youth. As a winner of the AICCRA’s Gender-Smart Accelerator Challenge (2022), she enhanced ACASEN’s sourcing strategies with women-led cooperatives and achieved raising capital from WIC Capital. Hermione’s journey highlights the critical role of financial and technical support in empowering female-led enterprises to thrive.
Championing Food Security in Uganda: Florence Okot, founder of Yellow Star Produce & Food Processors, is on a mission to provide nutritious and affordable food to her community. Through the Food Systems Accelerator, she strengthened her business capabilities, expanded her professional network, and significantly increased Yellow Stars Impact on food security. Her story underscores the importance of adopting climate-smart practices and creating business models with meaningful societal impact.
Innovating for Agri-Food Solutions in Kenya: Florence Mogere, CEO of Nyota Limited, leads a company specializing in innovative and nutritious food products in Kenya. Participating in the second cohort of the Food Systems Accelerator allowed her to enhance operational capacities and establish valuable partnerships. During the forum, Florence highlighted the need for innovation and collaboration to address the pressing challenges facing Africa’s agri-food sector.
Transforming Arid Lands into Oases in Morocco: Doha Zahid, R&D Manager at Moroccan-French startup Sand to Green, highlighted her company’s efforts to transform arid lands into productive agricultural zones using sustainable technologies. As a participant in the Agritech4Morocco Innovation Challenge, Sand to Green refined their solutions to better address the challenges faced by communities in arid areas, emphasizing the power of science-based innovations to drive resilience.
Empowering Female Farmers in Rwanda: Sheila Uwibona, founder of Ubuntu Women Farmers, shared her cooperative’s mission to empower women in agriculture. By promoting sustainable practices and providing leadership opportunities to female farmers, her initiative drives transformation in the sector. Sheila’s participation in the Rwanda Adaptation Acceleration Program enhanced her cooperative’s impact and scope, demonstrating the potential of women-led organizations in agriculture.
These testimonies illustrate the immense potential of female entrepreneurs to contribute to food security, sustainable development, and economic empowerment in Africa.
Shaping the Future of Impact Enterprise
The panel discussion, titled “What’s an Impact Enterprise?”, delved into the critical role of measuring and leveraging the social, environmental, and economic impacts of women-led initiatives. The session explored practical strategies for navigating the challenges of impact financing, including accessing funding, meeting investor expectations, and demonstrating measurable outcomes.
Ena Derenoncourt emphasized the necessity of aligning business objectives with broader societal and environmental benefits, underscoring how this approach not only drives meaningful change but also enhances the credibility and scalability of their enterprises. Participants left inspired and equipped to integrate impact-driven strategies into their growth plans.
The takeaway
The series of engagements around the Women's Investment Forum (FIF 2024) underscored that, despite varying contexts, the challenges faced by agri-SMEs and women agri-entrepreneurs are similar. Participants emphasized that while access to financing is critical, technical assistance is equally important in driving sustainable growth. Additionally, the discussions stressed the importance of policy reform to address systemic barriers, and the implementation of tailored training programs to empower agri-SMEs to play a pivotal role in advancing gender-responsive, climate-smart agriculture.
As an immediate next step, participants were onboarded to the CGIAR Hub for Sustainable Finance Pipeline Platform, a resource designed to engage them in future opportunities including capacity building and connect them with potential investors. By creating these opportunities for knowledge exchange and capacity building, AICCRA and its partners are helping to bridge the gap for women in agriculture, ensuring their active participation in building resilient and inclusive agricultural systems.
In conclusion, with more than 900 participants, 40 speakers and representatives from 11 countries, the FIF 2024 celebrated innovation, leadership, and women's empowerment by showcasing inspiring initiatives, fostering meaningful connections, and highlighting bold projects led by visionary women. It is imperative to continue this momentum, by strengthening support programs and promoting favorable policies. Africa's future rests on the ability to mobilize all its human potential, with female entrepreneurs at the heart of this dynamic.
Authors
This blog is published in partnership with AICCRA, the Women's Investment Club and the CGIAR Hub for Sustainable FInance (Impact Hub SF)
Fatimata Kone (Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT), Marine Atadokpede, Ouma Sani (Women's Investment Club) and Ena Derenoncourt (AICCRA and CGIAR Impact Hub SF)
