Two ACDI/VOCA Projects Highlighted in Staff-Authored Report
Released at the start of Feed the Future Week, the “Cultivating Women’s Empowerment: Stories from Feed the Future, 2011-2015” report was developed with funding from the USAID/E3’s Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO) project in collaboration with USAID’s Bureau for Food Security and Feed the Future. It illustrates how Feed the Future (FTF) programs create opportunities for women’s empowerment in agriculture. As FTF await results from the second round of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, this publication highlights case studies and personal stories from a selection of programs.
Each of the stories collected demonstrates how Feed the Future partners are facilitating empowerment in multiple, interconnected ways: from making agricultural markets more inclusive of women as part of value chain development to creating opportunities for women to be leaders of change in their communities and economies.
The stories also illustrate how FTF projects facilitate supportive environments for women to exercise their voice and agency by challenging stereotypes about gender roles and power relations between men and women.
Written by ACDI/VOCA’s own Morgan Mercer (Gender, Youth, and NBD Specialist) and Lindsey Jones-Renaud (Gender and Women’s Empowerment Technical Advisor), the report also contains case studies from two ACDI/VOCA-implemented FTF projects: Zambia PROFIT+ and Ghana ADVANCE II.
