Investing in Women in South Sudan - African Enterprise Challenge Fund

This project aims to financially empower women working in the agricultural sector as entrepreneurs smallholder farmers producers and employees and address the barriers preventing women from participating in agricultural value chains in South Sudan. This project supports the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund to award competitive performance-based grants and “innovation prize” funding to women entrepreneurs producer groups and small businesses offering employment products and services that benefit women and address barriers to women’s participation in agriculture. Project activities include: (1) supporting smallholder farmers to adopt new technologies to improve productivity and providing training on early hazard warning systems post harvest management and climate smart agriculture; (2) providing financial literacy and business skills training training on land laws and rights and investment advisory services and (3) working with women’s rights organizations and communities to address societal norms that keep women at home and significantly limit their participation in the formal agricultural sector.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) reduced gender-specific barriers for women’s participation in agricultural value chains; (2) increased adoption of gender-sensitive climate smart agricultural practices and (3) improved employment or livelihoods for women in agriculture and food systems.