Scaling up Women's Agripreneurship Through Public-private Linkages in Rural Ghana

Over one-third of rural Ghanaians live below the poverty line and women and children living in poverty are at the highest risk of poor nutrition and health. Sustained integrated approaches that increase agricultural productivity and value addition, diversify incomes, and enhance knowledge and skills among all stakeholders are required to improve the well-being of rural communities. There exists a unique opportunity, building on the results of the Nutrition Links (NL) project, to test sustainable district-level approaches that support women agripreneurs and address existing gender inequities in rural Ghana. This project will test different approaches to enhance the sustainability of activities that will (i) increase access to resources and services for agricultural production and, where relevant, value addition for women, (ii) facilitate access to markets that will enhance women's entrepreneurship, and (iii) help district partners integrate targets and activities to meet a common goal. The 3-y project will include quantitative and qualitative data collection to implement a trial to test a sustainable approach for engaging female agripreneurs in farmers' associations and improving their business successes, with different approaches to integrate new activities in district institutions' programs. The project will be guided by the team of institutions working together with district stakeholders to improve the quality of life of rural Ghanaian women agripreneurs and their families.