VALUE4HER : Strengthening Women’s Agribusiness Enterprises in Africa

Women are actors in numerous agricultural value chains, offering huge potential for their participation in markets, but few are involved in the business end of the chain. Women often lack access to competitive markets; they lack the technical, leadership and management capacities to lead agribusiness for growth and are often limited in accessing business intelligence necessary to prosper in a market place. Women also experience other gender-related barriers, including access to finance, to help grow their businesses and enable them to compete more effectively in the market.

#VALUE4HER, launched on 5^th July 2018,  is a programme founded on the rationale and development evidence that women-owned businesses grow when the businesses’ front-end linkages with national, regional and global markets and end-line linkages with women supplier businesses are created and strengthened.  Additionally, the project aims to facilitate smart skills transfer in business leadership and managerial skills; and guide women business leaders to manage business for growth through targeted skills building.

The overall objective of #VALUE4HER is to enhance value for women in agribusiness through:

• Access to high value global markets by women agribusinesses
• Improved leadership skills and capacity for/by women agribusiness leaders
• Increased advocacy and knowledge networking (including digitalization & use of ICTs) to unlock economic barriers affecting women in agribusiness.

The programme is funded by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA),  a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU), and is implemented in partnership with African Women Agribusiness Network (AWAN).