Strengthening the Capacity of Women Farmers to Influence Agricultural Policy Development in Southern Africa

Women farmers are the pillars of African agriculture. Women produce over 50% of all food grown worldwide.

• In sub-Saharan Africa, women grow 80%-90% of the food.
• Women carry out essential work such as hoeing, planting, weeding and harvesting with simple tools and little outside assistance.

This project contributes to:

• CAADP II: rural infrastructure and trade related capacities for market access; and
• CAADP Pillar III: food and nutrition security

About WARM

The WARM project seeks to strengthen women farmers’ ability to advocate for appropriate agricultural policies and programmes.

Project goal is for women farmers to have access to assets such as knowledge, technology, credit and better seeds, fertilizer and other inputs by ensuring that local and national policies and services address their needs.

Project Objectives:

•  To provide a platform for communities to dialogue on issues that affect women farmers’ access to input and output markets
• To empower women farmers to play a more active role in driving the development agenda
• To align development research agenda to women farmers’ issues
• Align input supply institutions and programmes to women farmer needs
• To bring women farmer concerns into national and regional policy debates

Empowering Women Farmers Through Theatre

The WARM project mobilises and empowers women farmers to express their needs through a culturally appropriate medium – Theatre for Policy Advocacy (TPA), a form of participatory theatre that allows women to engage their communities in developing solutions to their problems.

Implementing Countries: Malawi & Mozambique