Agricultural and Enterprise Skills for Women Smallholders

Training for Rural Development

Why did CSD do this research?

Aim: to provide practical recommendations for: Enhancing social and economic prosperity by Empowering rural women with Agricultural and enterprise skills to Adapt to changes in market and climate

What did we do?

Literature review: major challenges women face in accessing and applying training

Review of practice: analysed international projects’ strategies to address challenges

Case studies: practical look at how four projects made their strategies work

Six Key Findings

To help women smallholders access appropriate training:

To help women smallholders apply appropriate training:

Enterprise training

- for year round income

Understand women’s situations

e.g. literacy, domestic duties

Engage the whole community in

the training

Deliver training through groups

Use training to help influence available

technology

Reduce risks (e.g. land / capital

ownership, rural infrastructure)

Year round income reduces susceptibility to crisis

Access to market and market linkages key

Training in groups helps women start enterprises

Business management & marketing training linked to production

Enterprise Training

Recommendations

Long-term engagement Using the power of the community Introducing change in manageable steps Working with local government