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Women Accessing Realigned Markets (WARM) Project
Strengthening the Capacity of Women Farmers to Influence
Agricultural Policy Development in Southern Africa
Thembi Ndema
Purpose of Project
• To increase women farmers’ access to appropriate agricultural inputs by empowering them -
– to express their needs – to generate evidence that is used to align
policy research agendas and service institutions to meet women farmers’ needs.
Project Objectives • To provide a platform for communities to dialogue on
issues that affect women farmers’ access to input markets
• 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 programs to women farmer needs
• To bring women farmer concerns into national and regional policy debates
Why focus on women
• Women in Sub- Sahara African countries constitute 70% of the agricultural workers
• Women provide 60-80% of the labor to produce food for household consumption and sale.
• Women also responsible for:• 100% of the processing of basic foodstuffs• 80% of food storage and transport from field to village• 90% of the hoeing and weeding work• 60% of the harvesting and marketing activities
(FAO Women and Population Division, 2007).
WARM Project Interventions
• Access to services; credit, research
• Agricultural extension – information and knowledge
• Access to appropriate technology
• Access to input and output markets
• Participation in policy processes
Project Outcomes Local Level
• Women farmers and their communities have a better understanding of how input markets can better serve them
• Knowledge and ideas to be incorporated into local development plans
• Women farmers have better access to input and output markets and appropriate support
• Agricultural productivity and livelihoods improve
• Community theater platform continues to serve as a mechanism for aligning service institutions to community needs.
Project Outcomes
National Level• Key research institutions, media, policy makers
and farmer groups become more sensitive to the specific needs of women farmers
• Women’s concerns incorporated into the research and policy agendas.
• Women farmers’ participation in leadership positions and policy discussions solicited.
Project Outcomes
Regional Level
• The WARM project outputs inform continent-wide plans and investments such as CAADP, organisations and programmes
• WARM fosters public / private partnerships and policy harmonization for improving regional procurement and distribution of inputs
Project Design and Implementation Plan
Policy Change
through Theatre for
Policy Advocacy
Rural Women Farmers
Message
Researchers and Policy Analysts
Evidence
Non-governmental Organisations
Development Support
Theatre for Policy Action
• Song, dance, narrative and ceremonial rituals - a part of African tradition and defines a community’s identity
• A powerful medium for communicating ideas by leveling the field, breaking barriers and addressing topics that are deemed taboo
• TPA can stimulate both dialogue and action - a theatrical performance is a major social event in rural Africa
• The holistic enactment of the community's responses to the challenges of daily existence and development • Developed and refined by various development agents, researchers, social scientists and theatre specialists
• Works through community based processes
Theatre for Policy Action
Community entry and mobilization
Engagement of key community stakeholders and development experts
Building local capacity to communicate key messages through theatre
Packaging key policy messages
Community dialogue platform
Identification of champions for community issues
Community Voice
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PROCESS
Proposed Partners• National Policy-Makers
• Development NGOs
• Research Institutions
• Farmer Organizations
Local Level:• Small scale women farmers; National farmer unions; Local
theatre groups; University; Existing rural development programs ( e.g. AGRA, BMG Foundation Grantees such as Ashoka, CLUSA, AWAL-Net)
