When asked to write a piece for Women’s History Month, it caused me to quickly reflect over 28 years of working in women’s economic empowerment and perhaps some advances for women I have experienced while working in other countries and cultures. I have just returned from Senegal, where I have spent the last month completing two assignments for the Farmer-to-Farmer Program, working with three cooperatives, teaching them natural soap manufacturing, and assisting one cooperative, in particular, to add three additional body care products (lip balm, hair & scalp oil and body balm) to an existing soap range that I have helped them to develop over the years. With around 14 volunteer assignments done for Winrock and Farmer-to-Farmer since 2011 (six alone in the country of Senegal), my journey started many years ago as a business college graduate who joined the Peace Corps and served in Guatemala (1995-97), where I was blessed with the rich experience of living in the beautiful indigenous Mayan village of San Miguel Chicaj in the Department of Baja Verapaz. Working primarily with female textile artisans helping them to obtain income-generating loans and access to fair trade markets, providing them with technical assistance and oversight, as well as teaching local youth in the schools’ entrepreneurship, the experience was life-changing for me, and I have been passionately doing this kind of work ever since.

My work takes me primarily to the African continent, where I teach mostly farmers in all aspects of business management and cooperative development. However, having also owned and operated a fair trade natural bath and body care company for 10 years, soapmaking is the perfect income-generating activity where people can incorporate many agricultural inputs as well as support a circular economy. It is still an extremely viable business model in many parts of the world, particularly for women, with locally available, economical, and abundant raw materials. It provides a relatively quick access-to-market for entrepreneurs as they don’t necessarily need to invest in expensive equipment and machinery nor do they need to have access to electricity in order to get started. Beautiful, natural ingredients such as shea butter, red palm, palm kernel, peanut, castor, beeswax, honey, and coconut oil are just a few that are perfect for soapmaking. Fortunately, increased awareness and appreciation for the natural product market across Africa provide groups with lots of business opportunities for the foreseeable future. Then when you add in plants such as peppermint leaf, turmeric, ground cinnamon, hibiscus flower, dried orange peel, tamarind, black pepper, moringa, neem, eucalyptus leaf, coffee (to name a brief few) that can serve as wonderful natural colorants and exfoliants, there exists a vast potential for supporting local farmers, who also most often end up being other women. It can also mean being the stimulus needed to give farmers the courage to diversify away from pesticide-laden crops (i.e., tobacco) that big corporations control the global prices of and keep people in poverty. Soapmaking is an ideal, low-impact business activity producing a staple product that fights germs and disease, aids with sanitation and hygiene, can be used for laundry, bathing, and household cleaning purposes, and is a great skill that can lift people and communities. Just on the African continent alone, my work has so far taken me to Liberia, Ghana, Uganda (check out www.mamamzungu.co), a social enterprise I have founded creating jobs for marginalized women affected by Albinism), Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Malawi. I also did remote assignments in Benin, Ghana, and Senegal during the coronavirus pandemic and am currently working on an exciting circular economy project combining women’s economic empowerment and primate habitat (www.bonobo.org) in the DRC as well as being a consultant to onboard projects protecting forests and wildlife for a carbon credit start-up called One Tribe Global (www.ontribeglobal.com). 

Sometimes when I go on these assignments, I stare out the car window as I am driven through city streets or rural communities, and it is not always so evident to me that change is actually happening for the better. I will honestly admit to feeling and thinking that at times. But I have distinctly noticed in the classroom over the years a definite shift in women speaking up and not being as shy at using their voices. Their growth in confidence is abundantly apparent and happening in increasing numbers. More and more women are stepping out into society and grabbing entrepreneurial opportunities by the reins and taking charge, bartering, and purchasing and selling their goods as opposed to the men always doing it. And yes, more and more men in these societies are supporting these women’s education, business pursuits, dreams, and opportunities to generate an income for their households, which I see as progress. After all, there is no sense in any society holding back 50% of their population’s economic and development potential simply based on gender! I remember years ago walking into meetings with groups of women, and the silence was absolutely deafening. It was like pulling teeth to get women to speak up, not be so meek or scared, even to ask a question or share an opinion. In mixed groups especially, they would most often sit quietly while the men took charge. This has persisted for many years during my time working in women’s economic empowerment. But this isn’t necessarily the case anymore, especially with the younger generations of women I now find in some of my workshops. They speak up, defend their positions on topics, come forward excitedly when I ask for volunteers, and offer their knowledge, and there are many more women as leaders of these cooperatives than I have ever experienced before. They are utilizing mobile technologies and social media and often have their phones at the ready to research and probe further. So I see a definite shift.   

A favorite phrase I often refer to is ‘Empowered Women Empower Women’; the perfect example is the women of AMIDEF in Senegal. I have worked with them since 2017 and have done a total of four assignments with them (three in person and one remote during COVID-19). So I was thrilled at the prospect of being invited back to work with them now in 2023 and to help them expand their product range. What impressed me most about these women is that since 2017, they have expanded their soap manufacturing in seven regions outside of Dakar (where they are based). They have taken the knowledge I shared with them years ago and have shown their commitment to empowering other women by teaching hundreds of others this skill. With a burgeoning overall membership of 29,000 members countrywide (participating in various income-generating activities – cereals, grains and flour, food preservation, etc.), they assembled 45 regional leaders for our time together on this last trip. What an exuberant, motivated, excitable, and dedicated group of women they remain to be! After our week together developing new products for them, I traveled across the country to a place called Bakel, where I trained another 20 women in soapmaking, and then to Kaolack, where there was another group of approximately 25. What became evident to me is that there is a strong business case for these two groups of women to join forces with AMIDEF, unify themselves in this industry, and position themselves commercially to not only establish a recognizable brand presence in Senegal and across West Africa but also to realize the real potential of exporting in time. They have specifically asked me to return to Senegal in perhaps a month or two to help them with this unifying process, and I very much look forward to that! This women’s cooperative’s history and development is just one brilliant case study and a shining example of the merits of the Farmer-to-Farmer program and Winrock’s targeted efforts over the past ten years, particularly when it comes to empowering and skilling women.   

Over the years, Winrock International’s Farmer-to-Farmer Program has worked with numerous women’s organizations that have shown incredible resilience and determination to succeed. Women like Fatou Titine Cissoko founded Enterprise Fatou et Kadija, a Guinean agribusiness specializing in the solar drying of fruits and producing exotic Guinean drinks. With the help of Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteers, Fatou received training in financial literacy, food processing, and food preservation, which enabled her to expand her product offerings and increase her profits by 40% to 50%. Fatou’s success is just one example of how women in agriculture drive innovation and growth in their communities. Through the Farmer-to-Farmer Program, women gain confidence and become leaders in their fields. We have also witnessed the positive impact women’s participation in agriculture can have on their families and the broader community. 

The Prefecture of Kindia, commonly called the capital of citrus fruits due to its abundance of a variety of tropical fruits, is full of young entrepreneurs who process fruits and produce local drinks. Under-equipped and lacking knowledge of good manufacturing techniques and hygiene standards, these entrepreneurs flood the market with lower-quality products. Thanks to the support of F2F volunteers, one youth-led enterprise is rising above its peers. Enterprise Fatou et Kadija (EFK), a startup company led by a young woman named Fatou Titine Cissoko, is gaining success by providing juice and jam products that meet market demand and quality standards.  

EFK is a Guinean agribusiness processing company specializing in the solar drying of fruits (pineapple and mango) and the production of exotic Guinean drinks. The founder and owner, Ms. Cissoko, was trained in entrepreneurship topics by prior USAID-funded Associate Awards implemented by Winrock International and CNFA. As part of her participation in entrepreneurship training, Ms. Cissoko created a business plan and received a grant of US$ 900 (8,134,500 GNF) to start her fruit-drying business, EFK.  Since starting the business in 2019, she has added the production of drinks and jams made from fruits such as ginger, pineapple, mango, etc. 

Recognizing that she needed further technical and organizational capacity-building skills to grow her business, Ms. Cissoko reached out to the Guinea Farmer-to-Farmer program to receive training in financial literacy and food processing and preservation to better produce tropical fruit drinks.  

“During the financial literacy training, I learned how to approach financial institutions with my business plan. I admit that I was afraid because these institutions are very demanding, and as a young entrepreneur, I have no guarantees to offer. Nevertheless, following my meeting with them, two of the most important banks in the area came back to me and offered me credit opportunities…” explains Ms. Cissoko.

She plans to utilize a finance option soon to invest in expanding her production and feels that the banks’ willingness to offer her credit options offers an opportunity to prove that young entrepreneurs are solid investments. The F2F technical training focused on processing techniques followed the financial literacy capacity building and has led to additional product offerings for EFK. Prior to receiving training, EFK was unable to produce quality ginger juice and jams. Since receiving training, EFK now produces and sells quality ginger juice, jams, and monkey bread juice, resulting in a 40 to 50% increase in profits. EFK has sold more than 300 bottles of monkey juice alone within a few months after learning of this new product from the Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer. Ms. Cissoko and EFK’s goals are to continue to expand product offerings that meet quality standards and hope as the business grows that, they will be able to employ more young staff in the future.

Investing in women’s leadership means prioritizing and centering women’s perspectives and their lived experiences of the kinds of gender bias and discrimination that drive exploitation. Women’s perspectives and profound personal knowledge of such gendered power structures are the keys to fully understanding vulnerability, preventing exploitation, and advancing sustainable change. Even more importantly, we need to promote diverse forms of leadership of women who can authentically speak with and for those most directly affected. We asked several women from across Winrock to answer in their own words why they think women’s leadership is essential in their respective areas of expertise.

Every year in March, we celebrate women, their achievements, and their tremendous contributions to our society, and what better way to celebrate than by highlighting a woman who is making a significant impact in her field? Mina H. Lassey, Winrock International’s Farmer-to-Farmer Country Director, is one such woman dedicated to empowering women in the agricultural sector in Ghana. Mina Lassey boasts over two decades of experience in the development sector, with a particular focus on managing projects to improve the lives of individuals and communities. She has held various roles during her career, including serving as the F2F Program Manager for nine years. Mina’s expertise lies in project management, monitoring and evaluation, agribusiness, and natural resource management, which she has leveraged to implement impactful development projects. Presently, Mina is the Country Director of The Farmer to Farmer Program in Ghana, where she continues to make significant contributions towards empowering local communities and promoting sustainable development.

According to studies, 62% of economically active women in Africa work in agriculture as producers, traders, and processors. Unfortunately, despite their high representation in the sector, rural women still lag behind men in terms of productivity and earnings. Mina recognized this problem and has worked tirelessly to empower women to thrive in the agricultural sector. Mina leads the West Africa F2F Country Project, which supports post-harvest, predominantly female-dominated areas. Through this project, Mina aims to empower women-owned agribusinesses with technical support, business training, and access to high-value markets and resources. She believes empowering these women will transform Ghana’s agricultural sector’s productivity and prosperity.

Mina’s work has already yielded positive results. For example, Meannan Foods, a woman-led agribusiness, received an award for being the best agribusiness in which the owners are under 40 years old. The F2F project provided support in online marketing skills to help increase sales and access international markets. Another success story is Hendy Farms, another woman-led agribusiness that received support from F2F to build a processing facility and diversify its product lines. Hendy Farms was also awarded during a Hortifresh Fair for having the best-packaged products.
These organizations are a testament to the power of women’s leadership in the agricultural sector. With the proper support, women-led businesses can thrive, impacting their livelihoods and the agricultural sector as a whole. Mina’s work gives us hope for the future and inspires us to support women’s leadership in our respective fields. Mina’s dedication to empowering women in the agricultural sector exemplifies what can be achieved when women are given the support they need to succeed. Her work inspires us all, and we can learn from her example to empower more women in our communities and fields of work.

As we end the day of celebrating International Women’s Day, we are reminded of the countless women worldwide who work tirelessly to support their families, improve their communities, and build more equitable societies. In rural areas of many developing countries, women face numerous challenges in accessing education, resources, and economic opportunities. However, they are often the driving force behind innovative solutions to these challenges, working together to create positive change. One example is the women of the Bakel Horticulture Producers Union in Eastern Senegal, who are collaborating to improve their postharvest processing techniques and expand their market reach. With the help of the West Africa Farmer-to-Farmer program and volunteer Pamela Karg, these women are transforming their harvests into high-quality products that are attracting local and international attention. Their story is a powerful reminder of women’s resilience, creativity, and potential of women worldwide and a testament to the importance of investing in women’s success. Read more about their story below. 

In the Senegalese language Pulaar, “Debbo Galle” means a group of women who work together to improve their homes and their communities by raising incomes and expanding women’s access to business. The Bakel Horticulture Producers Union (BAKHPU) draw members from local Debbo Galle to make positive changes in their small community in Eastern Senegal, near the border with Mauritania. A remote location distant from major markets, BAKHPU and its women members were struggling with postharvest losses due to the inability to process fruits and vegetables and thereby increase their shelf life. BAKHPU members were producing 30 tons of vegetables, peppers, onions, and sweet potatoes, but would lose over 30% of the harvest due to poor processing and preserving techniques.  

Seeking a new way to do business, the women sought help from American expert, Pamela Karg, through the West Africa Farmer-to-Farmer program in Senegal. Karg traveled to Senegal in February 2020 to train women fruit and vegetable producers how to best process their products while ensuring flavor, durability, and maintaining food safety. Karg worked hand-in-hand with local members of BAKHPU to demonstrate techniques such as sun drying, development of jams and jellies, and creation of new product lines for the market.Aita Ndao, secretary of a Debbo Galle, reflected on the impact of the training by discussing the group’s plan to develop new and unique products: “‘We continue to see spice advertising on TV and almost every week with a new product, but we are not interested anymore.’ We have learned to make our own spices for our families and our communities.’’ Now their plan, with the help of the Union, is to work with the local agriculture services to find the means to scale up and expand their business. Following Pamela Karg’s training with BAKHPU members, participants are sharing lessons learned throughout their cooperative. Women in Eastern Senegal are learning from one another, growing their businesses, and building stronger communities.