Rural Women Cultivating Change (RWCC) – SeedChange

Project Description

 East Africa is negatively impacted by climate change, food insecurity, patriarchal norms and practices, and high rates of SGBV that severely limit women’s household and community leadership roles in agriculture. In response to these realities and needs, the Project will strengthen leadership of smallholder farm women and their participation in decision-making processes, including women’s and farmers’ rights and climate adaptation, and enhance benefits for rural women in climate resilient and local food systems. It will focus on investments that improve women’s access and control over productive resources (land, capital, inputs, infrastructure) and promote agroecological approaches to achieving food security and improved livelihoods.

The Project will target remote rural regions of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania where farming is the primary occupation and principal use of women’s labor, to undertake work at the intersection of women’s rights and climate adaptation. The Project will target a number of areas, including North Wollo Zone of Amhara Region in Ethiopia; Baringo, Nakuru, Kakamega, Laikipia and Kitui counties in Kenya; and Morogoro and Gairo District Councils of Morogoro, Babati and Mbulu District Councils of Manyara and Mwanga and Same District Councils of Kilimanjaro Regions in Tanzania. The Project will work in collaboration with women’s rights organizations (WROs) and agriculturally based organizations to support climate adaptation, increase food security, enhance gender equality, reduce sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and improve livelihoods for rural women.

The project will invest in women’s economic productivity, which will lead to enhanced ecosystem resilience, household food and livelihood security, and economic opportunity. It will build the knowledge, skills and confidence of rural women farmers, and assist them to identify and make linkages to value chain opportunities. The Project will empower women and encourage gender-transformative change, through the use of agroecological approaches that encourage equitable production, resource management, and market access. Agroecological practices are central to the climate adaptation strategy that the project will adopt to address climate change and advance women’s rights. Activities will include the promotion of community-based water conservation, on-farm crop diversification, tree planting, soil conservation, women-led participatory crop diversity development, the use of local designs, skills and materials for construction of small physical structures, and community seed banking.

The participatory practices inherent to agroecology build on the knowledge of small-scale farmers, particularly women, and result in healthy soil and improved biodiversity, which leads to increased productivity and reduced crop failure. These practices are suited towards addressing the needs and priorities of women farmers, ultimately contributing to increased household food security and income. The Project recognizes the advantages that agroecological practices afford women’s empowerment and capitalizes on environmental opportunities offered by agroecology, climate-resilient agricultural practices and crop diversification. Another key Project component focuses on enhanced gender transformative decision making including on women’s and farmers’ rights and climate adaptation. The project will promote community resilience and environmental sustainability by intentionally strengthening partner staff and organizational capacity through training and learning exchanges.

The Project will strengthen the capacities of rural organizations that promote women’s rights and inclusive development, and build linkages between these organizations and agroecological organizations. It will improve women’s access to and control over productive resources and other assets, including pressing for dedicated credit funds; support efforts to advocate for women’s voice and leadership in household and community decision-making; and support efforts to shift cultural patriarchal gender relations and structures

The Project will use a rights-based framework with key attention to equality and, non-discrimination, participation and inclusion, transparency and accountability, and developing the human rights capacity of key stakeholders. Young and adult women in all their diversity in the targeted areas will be made aware of their rights and the obligations of duty bearers. Transparency and accountability will receive attention through the work with and capacity building of duty-bearers and responsibility holders. Women rights-holders will be encouraged to hold others accountable by taking up leadership roles and women and men will reflect on women’s rights and masculinities. SGBV survivor sensitivity will be a key element of capacity building. Diverse women and men and local community-based organizations, women’s rights organizations and movements will be trained in advocacy to influence local government implementation of women’s and farmers’ rights and promote women’s control over resources.

The Project will engage 24,077 diverse young and adult rural women, and 8,151 diverse young and adult rural men, with a particular focus on young and adult rural women farmers with varied intersectional aspects of identity (including the poorest of the poor, female heads of households, single teenage and never-married mothers, widows, divorced rural women, pastoralists, and survivors of SGBV) and young and adult rural men. Ultimately, the Project will directly benefit 93,070 rural people in 16,639 households.

The Project’s key target group are marginalized young and adult women in all their diversity from female and male-headed households (MHH). Women from female headed households (FHHs), including single teenage and never-married mothers, widows, and divorced rural women, many of whom are SGBV survivors, are the primary marginalized group because of their limited land ownership and related limited access to resources from government and financial institutions (such as inputs, training, and credit). Women from MHH, particularly young married women, also lack decision making power, credit, and often do not control their own

incomes. Specific marginalized target groups have been identified by region, including teenage mothers, SGBV-survivors, pastoralists, disabled women, and marginalized women’s joint seed enterprises. Seed Change will develop strategies to integrate and report on outcomes/benefits accrued to populations in project target areas that self-identify as “indigenous” groups.