Empower women to help save Africa from climate change

As the world prepares to implement the Paris Agreement on climate change in Katowice, Poland, African delegates want the continent to unlock the power of its women and girls if it is to adapt to climate change, cope with disasters and build its green energy sector.

Research shows that when women are involved in decision making, agreements on the environment are more likely to be ratified and projects around natural resources, such as water, are more likely to succeed.

If given access to education and finance, African women can contribute to finding technological solutions and driving the continent’s renewable energy industry too.

“When you empower women in the context of climate change you empower a family, a community and a country,” says Dana Elhassan, senior gender expert at the African Development Bank, which allocates international funds to development projects.

“You cannot solve a problem with half the team. A lot of the unpaid work that women do, such as collecting firewood and water, and caring for the family, are massively affected by climate change - so we have to make sure adaptation initiatives address their needs, vulnerabilities and potential.”

Women as agents of change

Studies show that when women are part of decision making, ratification of multilateral agreements on the environment are more likely, adds Mafalda Duarte, head of the $8.3 billion Climate Investment Fund, one of the largest climate financing instruments in the world.

There is also strong evidence that women play a vital role in dealing with disasters by mobilising communities - something that will become increasingly important as climate change advances, she says.

“Discourse is quite tilted to considering women as victims of climate change - but we are agents of change and if we are perceived as such this will make a big difference,” says Ms Duarte.

“Our empowerment represents greatly under-utilised opportunities to build our economies and tackle climate change.”

When women are empowered - given access to finance, assets and decision making - there are big impacts across sectors, she adds.

“Renewable energy is traditionally seen as a male sector but if you are deliberate in giving access to women, they become entrepreneurs and help us push forward that agenda,” says Ms Duarte.

Women can drive business and technology solutions

When women are empowered equally to men there is a massive leap forward in economic gains: a recent McKinsey study found that if women were participating economically as much as men, they would be adding 28 trillion dollars to global GDP by 2025.

In Africa, lack of access to finance has resulted in an estimated $42 billion financing gap

for women entrepreneurs across business value chains.

Yet unlocking African women’s ingenuity and giving them access to finance could generate technological advancements that help deal with climate change, believes the African Development Bank.

As mobile phone technology has proven, Africa is capable of leapfrogging into an era of digitisation, which minimises risks and cuts costs of doing business.

African women have shown potential to compete in this digital work-space – Mfarm, AppsTech, JuaKali, Nandimobile, Hehe Ltd, Obami, DotNxt, are only a few of the women-led tech startups in Africa listed by Forbes.

“If we women are given the right platforms, we will achieve the change we wish to see in the world,” says Ms Duarte.

Unlocking investment in African women holds incredible return and transformational impact potential. Women form the backbone of African economies, accounting for a majority of small- and medium-sized businesses and dominating the agriculture sector as primary producers and food processors,

COP24 is the 24th conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This year countries are preparing to implement the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit the world’s global warming to no more than 2C.

Prestigious MILEAD Fellows to be trained in Accra

The 2013 Fellows of the Moremi Initiative Leadership and Empowerment Development (MILEAD) Program will converge in Accra, Ghana later this month to kick-start a three-week intensive training program.

The Program is a long-term leadership development program designed to identify, develop and promote emerging young African women leaders to attain and thrive in leadership in their community and Africa as a whole.

Ghana’s Mawuenana Ami Yomkepe, Founder and CEO of Afro Mod Trends, is among 28 young African women selected for this year’s MILEAD Fellows Program.

The Fellows are women who have shown the promise, courage and commitment to lead and shape the future of Africa. They were chosen through a highly competitive selection process and criteria based on their outstanding leadership promise, community service accomplishments, and commitment to the advancement of women in Africa.

A statement issued by Moremi Initiative for Women’s Leadership in Africa noted that Ms. Ami Yomkepe was selected for her outstanding achievements as an architect and a budding entrepreneur with a vision for societal change through fashion as a medium for impacting lives.

The MILEAD Program equips Fellows with the world class knowledge, skills, values and networks they need to succeed as 21st century women leaders.

Fellows will be empowered to cross-examine concepts of leadership in a broad African context, cultivate the skills and experiences necessary to occupy and excel in leadership positions, and gain knowledge on cutting-edge issues critical to African women and their communities.

In addition to knowledge building lectures, skills-training workshops, teambuilding activities, role plays and other interactive activities, Fellows will be mentored by experienced and accomplished women leaders who are committed to supporting and nurturing the next generation of African women leaders.

Ms. Ami Yomkepe has expressed gratitude to MILEAD for recognizing her efforts. Moved by a “deep passion for entrepreneurship and job creation”, Ms Yomekpe said she made a bold move and launched her clothing line, Afro Mod Trends in September 2011 and has grown it into a recognized brand with clients all over the world.

Not only has Ami turned her passion into profit but she is also committed to helping many others to unlock their full potential.

Afro Mod Trends in partnership with Utopia-Wishlist – a volunteer organization focused on improving the education of poor and less fortunate children in society – is currently on a project dubbed “Reading Club” at Omanjor D/A basic school at Ofankor, a suburb of Accra.

The project aims to improve on the students’ written and spoken English by piquing their interest in reading, providing them with the required resources and organizing assisted reading sessions with members of the organization.

“From every purchase of a product from the clothing line, a contribution is made for the purchase of a book to support the Reading Club project”, said Ms. Ami Yomkepe.

The MILEAD Leadership Institute will be hosted by the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon from July 12 to August 2, 2013.

Ghanaian woman awarded Hilary Clinton’s Vital Voices Fellowship

Executive Director of the Bright Generation Community Foundation, Bernice Dapaah, has been awarded a three year fellowship by Vital Voices, a leading US based non-profit organization founded by Hilary Clinton, the immediate past US Secretary of State and former first lady of the United States.

The Fellowship, which was created in 2012, supports a global network of emerging and established women leaders who provide unusual and sustainable solutions to pressing problems that impede women and girls' progress to participate fully in society and the economy.

Ms Bernice Dapaah a rising social entrepreneur founded the Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative in 2009. 

Under her leadership, Bernice nurtured the Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative from a project idea into an award winning social enterprise that has won several international awards including the World Business and Development Award 2012, GIZ Impact Business Award 2011 and UNEP SEED Initiative Award 2010.

She also doubles as the National Coordinator of the National Free Shoes and Educational Supplies Program which is complementing the government of Ghana’s free school feeding and school uniforms programs.

Hundreds of free brand new shoes and educational supplies have been distributed to needy students in deprived communities nationwide.

Bernice who is a member of the World Entrepreneurship Forum has also been appointed as a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Biodiversity and Natural Capital made up the of the world's foremost intellectual network, convening the most relevant and knowledgeable thought leaders from business, government, academia and civil society to address key global issues.

 

During the three year duration of the fellowship, Bernice will receive vital training and other mentoring opportunities from established women leaders through offerings tailored to meet her needs in advancing her unique social entrepreneurship projects geared towards women’s empowerment.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh

World Bank launches initiatives to spur gender programs in Africa

Gains in the steady economic growth in many African countries over the last few years have not always translated into greater gender equality or poverty reduction, the World Bank has announced.  

To mark International Women’s Day, the World Bank’s Africa region launched two evidence based initiatives to step up its commitment to improve gender programs in Africa. 

First is the Africa Gender Action Plan, a five year blueprint for the Bank’s gender informed activities.   Next is the Gender Innovation Lab that will bring scientific solutions through rigorous impact evaluation that will transform how the World Bank will identify development solutions for some of its poorest clients. 

Combined, the World Bank Africa Gender Action Plan and Gender Innovation Lab will link scientific evidence to guide gender-related lending operations in Africa.

“In the past decade, African countries have made some considerable strides when it comes to gender equality”, says Makhar Diop, World Bank Vice President for Africa. “Today, we have moved from an intuitive understanding of gender programs to add the Gender Innovation Lab that will fill the knowledge gap by providing more qualitative and quantitative evidence than ever about what works and what doesnt in terms of gender equality in sub-Saharan Africa”.

The new Gender Innovation Lab will provide development solutions to countries as it works to keep the momentum toward achieving gender equality in Africa.

The World Bank’s Africa Gender Action Plan, the institutions regional strategy for addressing gender inequality, will advance development for both men and women using the latest technological tools that provide evidence on the effectiveness of gender programs through its funding and operations.

The Gender Innovation Lab, the first at the World Bank, brings science to improve delivery of its programs. The Lab already has over 20 impact evaluations under way, and they are providing clear evidence of what works. 

The Lab has received USD$18 million financial support from the UKs Department for International Development (DFID).

Ghanaian women find new love for sweet potato

Women in parts of the Upper East, Volta and Central regions of Ghana have found new love in sweet potatoes.

They farm a lot of the crop. However, the product is mainly boiled or fried to serve as menu on the local cuisine of households.

But, through the Root and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Programme (RTIMP) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), women’s groups in the local communities have new job opportunities to increase family incomes. Hitherto they were engaged in the production and selling of soymilk and soybean ice cream.

They are now in the business of producing yogurt from sweet potato and helping to train others in the production. The ‘Potaghurt’, is healthy and nutritious.

RTIM identified, supported and trained women’s groups in the business of producing value-added potato products.

“After the training on potaghurt production, we realized that the products that they trained us on were good so we asked for some of the things that we may need to produce the Potaghurt”, said Madam Doris, who belongs to the Wedada group in the Kasena Nankana West District of the Upper East region.

The women receive financial support under the RTIMP’s Micro-Enterprise Fund (MEF), a non-cash commodity chain facility designed to meet the needs of the rural poor. This involves a 10 percent equity contribution from beneficiary groups, 40 percent grant from International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and 50 percent loan component from the Naara Rural Bank in Upper East Region.

The grant size ranges from $US400 for individuals in a group, to US$12,000 for growth oriented enterprises based on bankable business plan.

According to Dr. Oppong Mensah-Aborampah, business development training and marketing specialist in charge of the MEF, 48 enterprises and groups have been trained and supported to access the fund and over Gh¢382,000 total grant have been disbursed since 2007.


The women’s groups in the Potaghurt production have been supported with refrigerators, deep freezers, ice chests, sauce pans, ovens and blenders to prepare the Potaghurt.

They have performed “incredibly well”, says Kambilige Stanley, Project Officer of the Naara Rural Bank at Paga, noting that the women are recording almost 100 percent in loan repayment.

Already the RTIMP is looking forward to scaling up the Potaghurt business to other parts of the country where sweet potato is cultivated.

“All the farmers need to know is that there is market for the produce and they will go into the production of the sweet potato. So if the demand of the Potaghurt goes up, there will be market for the raw material and then farmers will go into production”, observed Veronica Ivy Dzreke, a Capacity Building and Linkages Officer with RTIMP.

She is excited at the demand for Potaghurt and believes building the capacity of the women in food hygiene, quality management and processing systems, business development, record keeping and costing will help sustain their businesses.

Presently, the business support has changed the fortunes of the women – beneficiaries can now further their education as well as support siblings and children’s education.

“It has helped some of us to be able to have market and that is bringing us income into our home… as at now I can use that money to purchase some small items that I need and if my husband gives me some money and it’s not enough I can use some of my profit to take care of the family”, said Madam Doris, who has moved her child from the public to private school because she can afford to pay the school fees from her improved income levels.

“What is left is to scale up and vigorously promote the product. For the start, sale points will be set up at the University of Development Studies whilst the RTIMP is in the process of advertising the product. The Ghana Institute of Packaging has been supported to develop a variety of packaging materials to snip varying products” says Akwasi Adjei Adjekum, the National Programme Coordinator of RTIMP.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh