By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
The UNDP is set to support 200 women-owned or led very small enterprises and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) whose income has increased with a total budget of 2.7 million United States Dollars.
The fund will be disbursed through the Empowering West African Women Small and Medium Enterprises (EWASME) Project and is set to create 2,000 (two thousand) direct jobs and 10,000 (ten thousand) indirect jobs.
Giving an overview of the EWASME project, the Coordinator Enapha Ouensu noted that the project aims to support at least 1,000 (one thousand) enterprises managed or owned by women in the past production phase of the rice value chain.
She said that women in Sub-Saharan Africa play a pivotal role in the rice value chain but face several challenges that not only limit their effectiveness and that of the rice value chain but also their ability to generate income through their activities.
“Women producers face difficulties in accessing adequate productive resources such as land, credit, agricultural inputs, education, extension services, and sufficient quantity of paddy rice. They therefore receive lower income than men,” she said.
She pointed out that in the retail sector, women are confined to peripheral roles, making it difficult for them to access the central positions that generate the most wealth and allow them to connect with central players to expand their business opportunities. She confirmed that the EWASME project has a total budget of 11.2 million U.S dollars which will be implemented by the UNDP over 5 years.
UNDP Team Lead for Sustainability and Local Economic Development Cluster, Tanzila Watta Sankoh on behalf of the Resident Representative of UNDP said that rice remains an important crop and plays a strategic role in food security in Sierra Leone as well as other countries in the sub-region. She added that due to the challenges in this sector, “we continue to heavily rely on rice imports to meet the rising consumption demands.”
She referenced several studies that suggest that the major constraints in the rice value chain in Sierra Leone (like in other West African countries) include low productivity, high costs of rice production and processing, and limited access to markets. These value chains she said are characterized by a lack of organization among actors, a lack of finance, and poor access to mechanization and post-harvest services especially in rain-fed areas.
The UNDP Team Lead also pointed to evidence she said suggests that women cooperatives and entrepreneurship involved in rice production and processing are generally restrained by the lack of capital, difficulties in accessing agricultural inputs, lack of access to basic production and processing technologies, poor access to input and output markets and meager availability of targeted capacity development programs.
“It is within this context that the EWASME project was conceived by the IsDB, and UNDP to be implemented in four participating West African Countries (Senegal, Niger, Guinea, and Sierra Leone), funded by the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), ISDB and UNDP,” she said.
The Deputy Minister1 of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Theresa Tenneh Dick in her statement said the project is crucial towards addressing the many challenges faced by women in the agricultural sector, particularly in the rice value chain in Sierra Leone.
She said women constitute 70% of the labor force in agriculture, yet their potential is undermined by a multitude of challenges which include limited access to finance, inadequate training, insufficient market linkages, and restricted land ownership due to the patriarchal nature of the country’s land tenure systems. She further said the challenges not only impact women's productivity but also the overall growth and sustainability of the agricultural sector.
“However, despite these challenges lie immense opportunities. The EWASME Project is a beacon of hope in this regard,” she said.
Minister of Gender and Children’s Affairs, Dr. Isata Mahoi was of the view that if the government and partners provide women with the necessary support, including farm inputs, financial support, and machinery, they can significantly increase their yields and contribute meaningfully to the value addition chains and productivity.
The EWASME Project aims to enhance the post-production capacity of at least 1,000 (one thousand) Women-owned or led 500 SMEs and 500 Very Small Enterprises (VSEs) in selected areas of Guinea, Niger, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.
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