Less than a minute's walk off a rural roadway north of Cote d'Ivoire's commercial capital Abidjan, what initially looks like a field of shrubs reveals a pathway to a better future for tens of thousands of women in the agriculture sector.
The field is full of cassava plants, a staple crop in Cote d'Ivoire and a beloved staple carbohydrate in west African cuisine. In this field, a half-dozen women farmers are explaining how they've tried new cultivation methods to cope with limited rainfall to a visiting African Development Bank Group delegation led by Dr. Jemimah Njuki, Bank Director for Gender, Women and Civil Society.
The women farmers are part of a Bank-financed program supporting more than 300 women-led cooperatives to be more competitive in agricultural markets, resilient to the impacts of climate change, and to improve their quality of life.
The project focuses on Toumodi, a city located in central Cote d'Ivoire. Here, access to commercial markets is relatively poor due to farmers facing difficulties in properly storing, processing and transporting their crops - not to mention getting optimal prices once their products reach buyers.
To combat these challenges, the Bank's "Women-led Staple Food Cooperative Advisory Project" targeted 322 women-led cooperatives and has positively impacted more than 21,300 women since its launch in 2022. With skills building as a central component, the program has equipped more than 1,500 women with functional literacy training that has enabled them to better manage their businesses and to be more profitable.
"The project helped us learn to expand our thinking, to know our land better," said Anastasie Kouadio, Chairperson of the Union Vivrière Etraikpa de Toumodi, a participating women-led cooperative. "We know we [can grow the products], but we wanted to learn how to finance [growing more cassava on more land]. What is financial accounting? How do we become financially literate? This project allowed us to reach all the women farmers who couldn't read or write," she added.
The Bank, through its Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), allocated $1.5 million for the program and partnered with UN Women to deliver the access to finance, leadership, value addition and skilling opportunities. That includes specialized training to 200 women in product packaging and labeling, as well as cooperative governance and management coursework for another 400 women. The project is developing an e-commerce digital marketplace for the cooperatives called "Blaatto" - which means "come and buy" in the region's Baoulé language.
With cassava products women's incomes boosted, extra cash for schooling and education
Bank Director Njuki and UN Women Cote d'Ivoire Country Representative Adjaratout "Adji" Fatou Ndiaye sat down with women farmers and cooperative leaders to hear about their program experiences.
The women farmers showcased some of their improved cassava products and said the program that has improved their earnings - helping many of these women to send their children to school.
"You are producing the food that Cote d'Ivoire is eating. You are processing the food that Cote d'Ivoire is eating - and our role at the Bank, in partnership with UN Women, is to support you," Njuki told the gathering.
"We know how important it is to support women. It is through women that our children are educated. It is through women that there is good nutrition. It is through the hard work of women that villages like this one thrive," Njuki said.
The women also said they were eager to see the program expand to bring in machinery to boost productivity and ensure consistency in food processing.
"There's land here. We have the cassava product...we've done the entrepreneurship training, had the coaching," said Rose Jeannette Koffi, of the Les Moissonneuses federation of women-led farming cooperatives. "We are capable of more."
Earlier, during a visit with Touhou Godefroy, a local government Secretary-General of Toumodi Prefecture, Njuki said that the "Women-led Staple Food Cooperative Advisory Project" is a catalyst for inclusive transformation that is fostering sustainable, resilient and gender-sensitive agricultural growth.
