The Women Advancing Agriculture (WAA) Initiative builds on Farmerline’s existing technology and business model to effectively advocate for increased gender equality and access to information for women in Ghana.
More than half of the Ghanaian population is involved in agriculture. Yet many female agricultural workers lack sufficient access to work opportunities, modern farming techniques, land ownership and formal financing due to the disparity between gender roles in the household.
As only 29% of women living in the Northern rural regions of Ghana are literate, Farmerline has recently launched the Women Advancing Agriculture (WAA) Initiative, which will send educational voice messages in local languages directly to the mobile phones of female agricultural workers. Audio content will be location-specific and provide actionable information on best farming practices, regional market prices, weather forecasts, maternal health and financial literacy. The goal is to ultimately improve the yields and incomes of female agricultural workers by providing convenient access to education on agronomy, how to gain formal financing, and relevant family planning methods.
On 16-17 February, #TeamFarmerline travelled to the Upper West region of Ghana in order to host three educational workshops for women in agriculture. Farmerline, along with participating speakers from MEDA, Tigo and DKT International, visited the villages of Loogu, Grupie and Nyoli with a vision of effectively advocating the benefits of locally available services for women in Ghana such as mobile money payments, family planning and Farmerline’s educational voice messages on agronomy, health and finance.
180 women participated in the WAA workshops over the course of two days.
Farmerline is anticipating a fast-growing network of female farmers across Ghana this year. To maximize outreach and the number of women receiving educational content, we invite potential partners to contact jessica@farmerline.org
To see the full WAA photo album, click here.
Farmerline was selected to showcase the WAA Initiative at UNESCO’s 2015 Mobile Learning Week in Paris, France on 25 February 2015.
To learn more about Farmerline, visit us at www.farmerline.org or follow us on social media @Farmerline
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