Women represent 52% of Senegal’s 15.4 million people. Agriculture is a key sector of the Senegalese economy, making up approximately 15 percent of the gross domestic product and is a key source of foreign exchange. Agriculture also accounts for nearly two-thirds of the country’s export revenues.
This sector could not function without women. Agriculture employs around 70 percent of the country’s rural workforce; the vast majority of those workers are women. It is estimated that women are responsible for producing 80% of the country’s staple foods.
Women are present in nearly all of the Feed the Future Senegal Program for Increasing Investment in Agriculture in Africa, implemented by Africa Lead, program activities. They are present as participants in the training workshops and meetings, in management roles in the different Ministry departments, and in leadership roles in the various civil society and grassroots organizations.
NAIP 2.0 Institutional Architecture Assessment Workshop, May 2018
In 2014 the Senegalese government adopted the Plan for an Emerging Senegal (PSE) national development economic and social policy –the government’s blueprint for achieving its goal of increasing its annual GDP growth and becoming an emerging market economy country with middle income status by 2035. A key feature of the PSE is to identify opportunities for promoting and improving the productive capacities and potential of young people and women. In the agriculture sector this calls for addressing the factors that hinder women’s full and equal participation in agriculture, such as access to land, inheritance, finances, production and markets, in the different value chain segments.
The Senegal National Agriculture Investment Plan (NAIP) 2.0 Institutional Architecture Assessment (IA) Workshop was held May 29-31, 2018 in Dakar. Senegal was the second country after Kenya to pilot the use of the BFS institutional architecture assessment tool.
UNACOIS Contract Farming Sensitization Workshop
Showcased at the UNACOIS Contract Farming Workshop was the successful farm producers’-private business contract agreement between the rural producers cooperative, the Reseau des Producteurs de Semences et de Cereales (Network of Seed and Grain Producers) of Wack Ngouna and Mamelles Jaboot SARL, a local agri-foods company specializing in dairy and cereal grains processing production.
Strengthening Leadership Capacities through Champions for Change Training
Women members of one of Senegal’s largest farmers’ organizations, the Mouvement Sénégalais pour le Developpement (Movement for Development in Senegal or “MSD”), participated in a “women’s only” C4C leadership training workshop in July 2018.
Promoting Youth Involvement in Agriculture
Building on the successful adoption and integration of the Africa Lead Food Security, Leadership and Change Management (C4C) modules into the core curriculum of the Higher Institute of Agriculture and Entrepreneurship of University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar (ISAE/UCAD) -`which specializes in training agriculturalists and agribusiness students, Africa Lead has supported the development and implementation of an internship program, which is ongoing.