Women’s Economic Advancement for Collective Transformation (WeACT)

This project aims to address the gender-specific barriers for women including young women working in agriculture and in the informal economy of the shea and cocoa sectors in the Upper West Upper East Northern and Western Regions of Ghana. The project works to increase women’s agency and leadership to become economically empowered through multiple entry points. The project also aims to bring together many stakeholders working collaboratively and relying on their strengths and areas of influence to shift gender-related attitudes and behaviours across the agricultural sector. Project activities include: (1) increasing the ability of women and young women to individually and collectively overcome legal and social barriers; (2) improving capacity for household members to recognize reduce and redistribute unpaid work; (3) increasing access to innovative and viable gender-responsive business models; and (4) enhancing equal access to productive resources for women including gender-responsive financial products and land ownership and use. The project aims to directly benefit more than 5 400 women (between the ages of 18 and 60) by providing technical and financial support to empower them economically. 955 women will participate in dialogue spaces with traditional and religious leaders. 900 women will receive gender-responsive skills development training and 540 (50%) of them will receive direct technical and financial assistance for the development of alternative livelihoods opportunities.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved enabling environment and reduced gender-specific barriers for women’s participation in economic growth in four regions of Ghana; and 2) increased productivity and revenue of economically active women in cocoa and Shea producing communities in four regions of Ghana.