The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the civil society organization, Solidaridad West Africa, kicked off a training programme targeting rural women and their organizations in the districts of Bo, Bombali, Kenema and Port Loko. This programme aims at promoting women’s participation and fostering gender-inclusive policy-making processes in the context of responsible investment in agriculture (RAI) .

The programme started on Monday 17 with a 4-day Training of Trainers (ToT) for 21 representatives of key organizations playing a strategic role in rural women’s empowerment. The cohort of trainees were selected among the 170 applications received, which shows the interest that the programme spurred.

This ToT aims at equipping future trainers with knowledge, skills and an innovative training methodology tailored to rural women’s needs and constraints. Through the training approach, using mostly audio-visual material, scenarios and drama play, the ToT’s participants learnt how to support rural women in the identification of their challenges to engage in RAI and potential solutions to address them. They looked in particular at the national policy framework, the key actors involved and the participation of women in decision-making processes related to RAI.

Representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) and Ministry of Gender and Children Affairs (MGCA) highlighted that the ToT was very timely and in line with the country’s priority as the new Customary Land Act has recently been signed in July 2022 to improve rural women’s access, ownership and control over land. Indeed, the issue of access to land was also highlighted by Isatu Seisay, a member of the National association of farmers of Sierra Leone and a trainee in the ToT: “Land is capital, women need to be able to own land so they can invest in responsible agriculture.“

Several representatives of government institutions and Non-governmental organizations, also participated in the ToT sharing information and knwoledge about current initiatives to empower women to engage in RAI. This participation included the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Ms. Jenaba Alhazarin), Sierra Leone’s Investment and Export Promotion Agency, SLIEPA (Mr. Victor Bangura); Human Right Commission (Mr. Abdoulaye Yollah Bangura), Namati (Mr. Daniel Sesay), Miro Forestry (Mr. Aruna Bangura) and FAO (Ms. Kadija Jalloh). They recognized the trainees as new ambassadors of RAI and invited them to disseminate the new knowledge and methodology acquired in their respective districts.

After the ToT, a series of training events targeting rural women will be delivered in four pilot districts (Bo, Bombali, Kenema and Port Loko) using the same training approach. Back-to-back constructive dialogue events will be facilitated with local authorities to formulate concrete recommendations to empower women to engage better in RAI in each pilot district.

The training programme: a result of a multi-stakeholder engagement process

This ctraining programme is the outcome of a multi-stakeholder process initiated in 2020, where representatives of key institutions and organizations collaborated to draft a roadmap establishing concrete actions for more agricultural investments in Sierra Leone that empower women and promote gender equality.

In 2022, a new partnership with Solidaridad was forged to implement two priority actions of the roadmap. The first is strengthening the leadership, coordination and advocacy capacity of rural women in relation to agricultural investments, and the second, promoting women’s participation in the definition of by-laws, chieftaincy and decision-making processes by strengthening gender awareness of local men leaders and authorities in relation to agricultural investments.More information about the roadmap can be found here.

In this context, FAO and Solidaridad designed the learning programme conducting a learning needs assessment to identify rural women’s needs, and then developing the training content and methodology  based on the needs identified.

Women and food security in Sierra Leone

Rural women are at the backbone of food security in Sierra Leone, comprising 70% of the agricultural labor force. Despite their key role, women are often disadvantaged and do not benefit from the same opportunities as men regarding agricultural activities. This unequal situation is due to multiple factors including gender biases in access to productive resources, labour and services; lack of gender-sensitive policy and legal frameworks and deeply rooted discriminatory social norms.

Responsible investments in agriculture and food systems (RAI) contribute to reducing poverty, enhancing food security and nutrition and fostering sustainable development and thus can be considered a major driver for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the SDGs can be achieved only if both men and women can equally engage in these investments. Hence, the pivotal importance of empowering women and stepping up efforts towards achieving gender equality.