Author Description

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Trade Centre have collaborated to support women in overcoming gender-based obstacles in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement. The "Empowering Women and Boosting Livelihoods through Agricultural Trade: Leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area" programme, developed in 2021, aims to promote women’s participation in the agreement and increase their access to capacity-building and higher-productivity activities. This initiative capitalizes on the new opportunities in regional trade created by the agreement.One of the main challenges women face is access to finance. Agriculture is traditionally associated with lower returns and high-risk investments, and women are perceived to be a riskier segment due to discriminatory social and gender norms. These biases affect capital providers’ perceptions of women, as well as women’s financial literacy, bookkeeping skills, and investment readiness. Furthermore, the lack of collateral is a major constraint, largely due to women’s limited ownership and control over land in Africa.The objective of this toolkit is to raise awareness of the business case for financing women in agricultural value chains and to provide financial institutions with practical guidance for advancing gender-inclusive strategies across different parts of their organizations. This toolkit complements a policy brief developed under the same programme, which provides concrete recommendations for financiers and other relevant stakeholders to foster gender-responsive financing. Building on case studies from Ghana and Nigeria, the policy brief offers insights for promoting gender-inclusive financial practices in the agrifinancing ecosystem.