International Women's Rights Day 2021

Women still face too many challenges in finding jobs in the formal economy or starting and developing businesses, due to insufficient conducive policies and normslow rates of land ownership, as well as access and control over resources and limited access to credit.

However, women are a significant entrepreneurial force as owners of farms, input supply stores, service delivery businesses, and processing and export firms whose contributions to local, national, and global economies have significant impact on poverty-reduction, employment creation and wellbeing of rural communities and society at large. We need to promote and protect women’s jobs along the food chain, from farm to fork, and advocate for fair wages and better working conditions.

Therefore, supporting women entrepreneurship across the value chain is one of the most powerful routes to promote agriculture, agribusiness and boost sustainable rural development. To respond to highly competitive markets in local, regional and export markets and capture gains in value-addition activities, women entrepreneurs need more training and skills in business management, marketing and digital skills along the value chain with an emphasis on growth sectors, green technologies and safe and sustainable farming and agro-processing practices.

With this background and willing to support farmers’ organisations, cooperatives and SMEs to seize opportunities in new markets and to establish key partnerships to strengthen their competitiveness, PAFO and COLEACP promote Innovations and Successes of African Women led Businesses and showcase entrepreneurs successes.

Halatou Dem, Director General, Les Céréales de TATAM SARL, Mali, produces and processes local cereals with high nutritional content such as fortified millet flour, precooked fonio, monicourou, diouka, etc., healthy and ready to be consumed. It brings delicious traditional food to the consumers across local and Africa markets as well as to Europe and the US. https://www.facebook.com/tatamcereales/

Alice Riouall, Founder and CEO, Mango So, Burkina Faso processes fresh mango and coconut into organic and Fairtrade dried mango and coconut chips, which are mainly exported to international markets, mostly to France and Germany. Mango-So constantly anticipates and develops produces adapted to specific markets, such as mango jam and mango sirop for the local market. Alice provides employment opportunities to more than 500 rural women and youth. www.mango-so.com Affiong Williams, CEO, Reelfruit, Nigeria creates new value chains by processing fresh fruit in value-added convenient produces, like snacks, and by building its own network for distribution. The processed mangoes, pineapples, coconuts, bananas and plantains are distributed in local and export markets, including through Amazon. http://reelfruit.com/ Catherine Krobo Edusei, Managing Director, Eden Tree Limited, Ghana produces, packages and markets high-end fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs, as well as convenient food in order to promotes healthy eating habits. The heathy value-added products are exported within West Africa. https://edentreegh.com/ Bertille Guèdègbé Marcos, CEO, Les Jus Tillou, Benin created in 2000 a family business producing fresh pineapples and processing them into organic juice and dried fruit. These quality products from an environmentally friendly agriculture are exported to Europe. With the recent acquisition of a packaging facility, pineapple juice is also supplied to the local market.

image source: www.mango-so.com