Outcome RWA_D_2.3

Women farmers and cooperatives’ engagement in higher segments of the food and agricultural value chains is increased

UN Women Rwanda made significant strides in empowering women, particularly in agriculture and business ensuring that women farmers and cooperatives’ engagement in higher segments of the food and agricultural value chains is increased. UN Women’s successful integration of gender perspectives into the 2024-2030 Strategic Plan for Agriculture Transformation (PSTA-5) ensured that women’s access to land, resources, and decision-making are prioritized in national policies and strategies. Through advocacy and multi-stakeholder dialogues during key celebrations like International Women’s Day and World Food Day, UN Women and its partners continued to promote gender-responsive policies, strengthening women’s role in driving economic growth and sustainable development. The CO partnership with ActionAid Rwanda, FAO, WFP, IFAD, Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA), Private Sector Federation (PSF), and Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA), addressed key barriers such as the burden of unpaid care work and limited access to essential resources. Notably, the Fifth Integrated Household Living Survey (EICV 2017) revealed that only 7% of female-headed households had access to piped water in their dwellings, compared to 10% of male-headed households. In rural areas, households often travel long distances to access improved drinking water sources, with 16% located within 0–200 meters and 34% within 0–500 meters of such sources. UN Women Rwanda made significant strides in empowering women, particularly in agriculture and business ensuring that women farmers and cooperatives’ engagement in higher segments of the food and agricultural value chains is increased. In 2024, UN Women’s ongoing advocacy efforts led to the integration of cross-cutting key GEWE priorities into Rwanda’s Strategic Plan for Agriculture Transformation (PSTA-5) for the 2024-2030 period. In collaboration with Rwanda's Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), UN Women contributed to the formulation and integration of gender perspectives within the PSTA-5. This further positioned UN Women as a strategic actor for shaping policies that support women’s participation beyond primary production into processing, marketing, and trade. During the Forward-Looking High-Level Agriculture Joint Sector Review and in the different technical consultations of Agriculture Sector Working Group (ASWG), UN Women's contribution resulted in the integration of GEWE principles into national agricultural sector strategy that will mobilise, among others, government and private sector stakeholders to prioritize women’s economic empowerment in the agricultural value chain through financial inclusion, and market linkages and access to resouces and technologies. The adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices through the Farmer Field and Life Schools (FFLS) approach and the establishment of 113 demonstration plots has further empowered rural women. Over 8,000 farmers, 79% of whom were women (6,297), gained skills in sustainable farming techniques such as mulching, minimum tillage, crop rotation, and organic manure application. These practices not only improved crop yields and reduced costs but also enhanced resilience to climate change, significantly benefiting livelihoods. UN Women in partnership with FAO, WFP, and IFAD, convened a high-level advocacy platform that resulted in the adoption of actionable strategies to enhance women’s participation in agrifood systems for the inclusive implementation of PSTA 5. Held at the occasion of the Pan-African Women’s Day celebration, stakeholders identified persistent challenges, such as limited land ownership by women and restricted decision-making power in agricultural activities. This disparity underscores the need for continued and concerted efforts to ensure women’s equitable access to land and resources. Additionally, the event fostered multi-sectoral collaboration and developed recommendations to promote gender-transformative agrifood systems. This advocacy highlighted the critical link between gender equality, food security, and climate resilience. UN Women’s leadership and collaboration with partners contributed to the establishment of strategic partnerships, such as with the Rwanda Cooperative Agency, to enhance stakeholders’ capacity to create conducive policy and operational environment for the engagement of women in more profitable and value-added activities within the food and agricultural chain. They were also supported to develop and implement robust feedback mechanisms to align program interventions with beneficiaries' needs for impact on rural women’s livelihoods and community resilience.

Women farmers and cooperatives’ engagement in higher segments of the food and agricultural value chains is increased

In this reporting year, UN Women in Rwanda is on track in increasing Women farmers’ and cooperatives’ engagement in higher segments of the food and agricultural value chains. With UN Women’s collaboration with Nile Basin Club, Rwanda Development Organization (RDO), INADES Formation Rwanda, 2,772 women agripreneurs with timesaving, productive, and transformative technologies. In an effort to strengthen women’s access to transformative technologies, the agripreneurs received cooking kits such as improved cooking stoves and wonder boxes that helped women to save up to 80% of energy normally used for cooking and promotion of the use of climate-smart technologies. Time-saving technology and equipment such as water tanks, Tri-motorcycles, harvest crates, grain silos, sprayers, and wheelbarrows were provided to women agripreneurs which helped to reduce and redistribute the care burden and allowed for more productive dedicated time to income-generating activities. Furthermore, tools and guidelines on the use of timesaving and climate-resilient equipment were developed by UN Women in partnership with INADES Formation Rwanda to provide regular guidance to women beneficiaries on how to properly maintain and sustain the time-saving technologies. https://africa.unwomen.org/en/stories/news/2022/09/un-women-provides-time-saving-energy-efficient-kits-to-reduce-domestic-care-work-for-rural-women-in-four-districts-of-rwanda Additionally, UN Women collaborated with the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM), New Faces New Voices (NFNV) and Hexakomb to develop the e-commerce platform “buyfromwomen e-commerce platform” for women entrepreneurs to undertake the advantage of new technologies through buying and selling their products and services online, access to business opportunities information and market linkages including in the context of AfCFTA. In this context, the “buyfromwomen” platform was upgraded with e-commerce functionalities/features informed by women entrepreneurs’ needs represented by selected 25 women entrepreneurs who also piloted the testing phase to improve its functionality. The e-commerce platform when operational, promises to be effective in supporting women-led businesses and contributing to the government of Rwanda’s GEF commitments. Efforts to bring in many stakeholders and harmonize with existing similar interventions in the country are being discussed in collaboration with the Ministry of trade and industry, FAO, and UNCDF which will also assure the platform’s sustainability.

Women farmers and cooperatives’ engagement in higher segments of the food and agricultural value chains is increased

The fifth Integrated Household Living Survey 2017 (EICV) shows that only 7 percent of female headed households had access to piped water into their dwelling compared to 10 percent of male headed households. In rural areas, people are required to walk long distances in order to reach an improved drinking water source, with 16 percent of households living within 0-200 meters and 34 percent living within 0-500 meters. UN Women provided 100 water Tanks and 360 energy cooking stoves that helps women to save up to 80% of energy normally used for cooking. Time-saving technology and equipment helped to reduce and redistribute the care burden and allowed for more productive dedicated time to income-generating activities. This intervention is in line with UN Women’s Transformative Approaches to Recognize, Reduce, and Redistribute Unpaid Care Work in Women Economic Empowerment Programming in Rwanda (3R Programme) in order to address the inequities in unpaid care. Women beneficiaries follow tools and guidelines on the use of timesaving and climate-resilient equipment that were developed by UN Women in partnership with INADES Formation Rwanda and provide guidance on how to properly maintain and sustain the time-saving technologies. Link https://africa.unwomen.org/en/stories/news/2022/09/un-women-provides-time-saving-energy-efficient-kits-to-reduce-domestic-care-work-for-rural-women-in-four-districts-of-rwanda

Women farmers and cooperatives’ engagement in higher segments of the food and agricultural value chains is increased

Women farmers and cooperatives engaged in value chains of vegetables, fruits and cereals are benefitting from increased harvest and incomes, access to markets and food security as a result of targeted interventions. The women farmers have improved their knowledge and skills on agricultural extension services including on good farming practices, post-harvest handling techniques and access to quality agriculture inputs and climate smart technology to improve their productivity and quality of harvest. This has led to increase incomes, reduced post-harvest losses, and increased food security. In addition, UN Women initiated the process of enhancing women's opportunities to market their products and access national, regional and international supply chain and to receive payments through the e-commerce platforms. This will avail the technology skills among women who will benefit through exchange learning and linkages to service providers. The development of the e-commerce platform has taken an inclusive approach through the establishment of focus/testing groups of women. The groups have navigated the system, provided feedback on the system, proposed new features and procedures to ensure it is user-friendly. This approach has led to a system that is gender-responsive, meeting the needs and expectation of women entrepreneurs. The system is pending a few features including on international shipping possibilities. Once it is launched, trainings will be held for women to increase their ICT skills and how to successfully utilize the systems and its feature for their businesses.