Women in Agribusiness Leadership Network (WALN) Celebrates Growth and Innovation
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, January 21- 22, 2014 – As part of the ongoing strategy to empower women in agribusiness and leverage women’s mentorship and networks, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Agribusiness Market Development (AGP-AMDe) and the Agricultural Growth Program-Livestock Market Development (AGP-LMD) projects celebrated the graduation of over 100 women entrepreneurs from the Women in Agribusiness Leadership Network (WALN).
U.S. Ambassador Patricia Haslach and Ethiopia’s First Lady, Roman Tesfaye, opened the event that recognizes the women leaders for their outstanding improvements in agribusinesses and to recognize farmers’ cooperatives and unions for promoting gender equity among members.
Women leaders come from Addis Ababa, Amhara, Oromia, SNNP and Tigray Regional States and were trained in agribusiness, leadership, business mentoring and networking. In addition, the project awarded 17 farmer cooperatives and unions for the successful facilitation and promotion of women membership.
The conference provided an opportunity for the women leaders to share their experiences in agribusiness, increase their visibility in the local economy and to make business linkages.
At the event, five women entrepreneurs received small grant awards for scaling up their businesses and initiating new innovative businesses. USAID AGP-AMDe also awarded walking tractors and motor bikes to 16 farmer cooperatives as well as the opportunity to participate in an international trade fair to one farmer union that registered over 38,600 new women members among member cooperatives.
The competition—which USAID AGP-AMDe organized between March and December 2014—included 42 farmer cooperatives unions and almost 1,700 primary cooperatives in Amhara, Oromia, SNNP and Tigray.
Although women in Ethiopia make up half of the agriculture work force, they represent less than 20% of members of agricultural marketing cooperatives. As a result, they have less access to resources, financial services and markets than their male counterparts. USAID AGP-AMDe launched the Women in Agribusiness Leadership Network (WALN) in May 2014 to provide members with support and resources needed to better plan and manage their businesses as well as information on savings and loan services.
“WALN’s growing success proves the importance of the woman’s role in agribusiness in Ethiopia. The business plans competition has shown that the training alongside the network empowered these women to innovate in business and agriculture,” explained Cullen Hughes from USAID.
Conference participants—including government ministries, federal and regional cooperative agencies among others—discussed best practices and strategies that have allowed women entrepreneurs to advance in the agriculture sector and microfinance opportunities for women-led small businesses. In addition, Oromia Cooperative Bank and Enat Bank made presentations to members about finance opportunities for women-led small businesses.
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USAID funded Agribusiness Market Development (AMDe) and Livestock Market Development (LMD) are the Feed-the-Future initiative’s flagship programs in Ethiopia and represent USAID’s largest contributions to the Government of Ethiopia‘s Agricultural Growth Program. The $3.5bn global hunger and food security initiative was created by President Obama and sustains the U.S. Government´s commitment as one of Ethiopia’s largest partners in developing the agriculture sector, which is a fundamental cornerstone of the Ethiopian economy.
