International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the African Development Bank (AfDB)’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) have made a move to boost the incomes and access to finance of thousands of women farmers in Ivory Coast.
Through a three-year advisory project – in consultation with the country’s government and financial institutions – the development partners seek to support 200 women-led farmer organisations in the West African nation.
Agriculture accounts for about a quarter of Ivory Coast’s GDP and almost half of its employment. Women farmer cooperatives in the country often lack access to financial training and skills.
Also, women farmers do not have access to market knowledge and the required standards, which limit their incomes and growth opportunity.
The IFC-AfDB Women-led Staple Food Cooperatives Advisory Project aims to assist largely informal organisations and smallholder women farmers with the formalisation process.
‘Working with the government of Ivory Coast to address the bottlenecks facing women cooperatives in staple crops production and improving their enabling business environment will positively impact food production in the country but also enhance women-led cooperatives ability to fully participate in the economic growth of the country’, the AfDB Regional Director for West Africa, Marie Laure Akin-Olugbade, said.
Project support, according to the development partners, will offer training on a variety of professional practices, including technical, business, and financial and contracting skills.
As part of the project, IFC and the bank will work directly with financial institutions in Ivory Coast, helping them better understand and meet women’s financing needs.
In addition, the project will serve as a platform to sustain collaboration with the government to improve the business environment for women-led cooperatives through legal, regulatory, and institutional reforms.
‘This comprehensive project with the African Development Bank is an excellent opportunity for Ivorian women-led farmers to create and develop their businesses’, IFC Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Aliou Maiga, said in the statement.
‘Affordable and sustainable finance for women is a priority for IFC because of its potential to support entrepreneurs and their families, as well as to grow the wider economy’.
The three million dollars project will be implemented with support from the Women Entrepreneurship Finance Initiative (We-Fi), which aims to demonstrate the viability, potential, profitability, and trade capability of women-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging and developing markets.
The project is also supported by the Private Sector Window of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), with dedicated funding from the UK to support synergies between the public and private sector windows.
Source: AfDB
Photo source: ICRISAT
