Goal
To empower rural women farmers to actively engage policy spaces in the agricultural and land sectors to enhance their livelihoods through targeted gender responsive advocacy to effect change.
Objectives
- increase women’s knowledge and understanding of legislations, policies and institutional frameworks governing the agricultural sector (with specific focus on the Gender and Agricultural Development Strategy – GADS II); land (land bill and other related guidelines); labour (labour and women’s rights standards); and property/inheritance (spousal and property rights bill);
- strengthen the capacity of women’s rights organisations (WROs) working on agriculture and land issues to track the implementation of GADS II at the district level; monitor gender aspects of the land bill and advocate for the passage of the land and spousal and property rights bills including other pending women’s rights bills;
- raise public awareness and sensitivity to women’s rights and gender equality in the agriculture sector including land tenure and inheritance systems in Ghana;
- strengthen regional women’s rights/gender advocacy platforms to engage policymakers and other critical actors at all levels.
The three-year project (September 2017-November 2020) empowered rural women farmers to actively engage policy spaces in the agricultural and land sectors to enhance their livelihoods through targeted gender responsive advocacy to effect change. In addition, it strengthened the capacity of women’s rights organisations (WROs) working on agriculture and land issues to track the implementation of the Gender and Agricultural Development Strategy (GADS II) Policy at the district level; advocated for the passage of the Land Bill and Spousal Property Rights bills including other pending women’s rights bills; raised public awareness and sensitivity to women’s rights and gender equality in the agriculture sector including land tenure and inheritance systems in Ghana and strengthened regional women’s rights/gender advocacy platforms to engage policymakers and other critical actors at all levels. Aside working with partners, NETRIGHT also collaborated with the National Board for Small Scale Industries to train women on business opportunities that exist in the agricultural sector and to take up alternative sources of livelihoods during off farming seasons. Rural women farmers also benefited from trainings on value-addition (Branding and Marketing, Financial Management and the need to invest through the Village Savings and Loans Scheme) to equip them with knowledge on good practices to enhance their agricultural activities and to add value to their agricultural products as well as promote efficient management of their farming business for improved quality of services delivery. Furthermore, NETRIGHT engaged the Directorate of Agricultural Extension Services (DAES) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) to train voluntary female agricultural extension agents to support women farmers and their groups with extension services. While a core group of media personal were trained on applying gender lens in their reportage. Project supported by the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) under its Leading from the South (LFS) grant for feminist organisations in Africa and the Middle East.
Funders
