By Ibrahim Nurudeen
Tamale, March 11, GNA – A women’s agriculture entrepreneurship forum has been held to recognise the efforts of women in national development and honour their remarkable achievements in agribusiness, climate resilience and gender equality.
The event showcased success stories and advocated for greater recognition of women’s roles in agricultural value chains and intensified efforts to advance gender parity and inclusivity in the sector.
The day’s event, held in Tamale, was organised by the Feed the Future (FtF) Ghana Market Systems and Resilience (MSR) Activity in collaboration with the FtF Ghana Policy LINK, FtF Ghana Trade, and Investment (GTI) Activity, Resilience in Northern Ghana Systems Strengthening, and Mobilizing Funds for Agriculture (MFA) Activity.
The event, which was to commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day, was on the theme: “Investing in Women: Accelerating Progress towards Gender Equality and Economic Empowerment.”
Over 200 women from various districts in the northern part of the country, took part in the event, which featured panel discussions and presentations, highlighting the need to address socio-cultural barriers hindering women’s socio-economic development.
As part of the forum, eight women selected from the Upper West, Upper East, North East and Northern Regions were honoured with plaques in recognition of their outstanding contribution to agribusiness and championing the cause of marginalised women in rural communities in the northern part of the country.
Mr Glenn Lines, Chief of Party, MSR Activity, speaking at the forum, said empowering women in agriculture was an important driving force towards inclusive growth and sustainable development.
He said the MSR Activity, supported by the United States Agency for International Development, sought to strengthen the market system in northern Ghana by increasing commercialisation and profitability of agricultural markets, enhancing institutional capacity, improving market access and business services, and creating a conducive environment for local markets.
He said the MSR Activity, therefore, would further enable women to identify and capture market opportunities, negotiate better terms, enhance product quality, and access market intelligence by linking women to the value chains.
Hajia Hawa Musah, Northern Regional Director, Department of Agriculture, said while women contributed largely to the country’s agricultural sector, they reaped minimal benefits from investments in the sector due to their limited capacity to access and adopt crucial agricultural resources, inputs, and improved technologies.
She said: “While it cannot be said that these bottlenecks militating against women’s participation in agriculture have been completely addressed, a number of policy interventions as well as government’s requirement of strict adherence to some gender equality guidelines in the implementation of agricultural programmes and projects have gone a long way to improving women’s participation and reaping the maximum benefit in agriculture.”
She said the Women in Agriculture Development Directorate of the Ministry of the Food and Agriculture had, in recent years, strengthened the provision of support to women in the areas of nutrition, value addition, food safety and gender mainstreaming of all agricultural policies and programmes.
GNA