With support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Solidaridad West Africa, has completed four-day capacity training on Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI) targeting rural women and their organizations in Kambia district, North of Sierra Leone.
The trainings, which started on12th June and ended on 5th June at the Kambai Resource Centre, is part of the activities under the RAI capacity development programme, a one year project which Solidaridad is implementing in the districts of Kambia, Koinadugu, Kono, Moyamba and Pujehun districts between May to July 2023.
Programme Coordinator at Solidaridad, Lahai Tucker said the process is aimed at empowering women so they can actively participate in policy-making related to responsible investment in agriculture, and by doing so raise their concerns, needs and proposals.
“Through this training approach, we are using mostly audio-visual material, scenarios and drama play; the rural women will learn how to identify their challenges to engage in RAI and potential solutions to address them. They will look in particular at the national policy framework, the key actors involved in decision-making processes related to RAI,” Tucker said.
He said the training was facilitated by Solidaridad with support from selected representatives from organizations supporting women in Kambia district, that have been trained by FAO and Solidaridad early in June 2023, to replicate the training in districts of Kambai, Koinadugu, Kono, Moyamba and Pujehun in Sierra Leone, using different methodologies.
Lahai Tucker said the training will empower women to actively participate in policy-making related to responsible investment in agriculture, and by doing so raise their concerns, needs and proposals.
The training climaxed with the engagement of key stakeholders in the district by the rural women, presenting their challenges and recommendations to address the challenges presented, and presentation of certification to the 29 participants, from different farmers groups and women organizations.
Memeunatu Queen Bangura, a women’s leader of Queen Poultry, one of the beneficiaries of the training, thanked FAO and Solidaridad, for the knowledge that she has acquired through the training.
She said the training has capacitated her and other women farmers with skills to engage their stakeholders on the challenges that they are facing to invest in agriculture, so that those challenges will be addressed.
The women also identified access to land, finance, agricultural tools, inputs and lack of education as major challenges affecting rural women to to invest in agriculture, therefore they also recommended that the Ministry of Agriculture and its partners, support women through capacity building, agricultural tools
Paramount Chief Alusine Alimamy Sorie (II), of Gbineh Chiefdom, in Kambia District said, he is happy that rural women are being trained to advocate for their right to access land and finance to invest in Agriculture.
“We; the entire National Council of Paramount Chiefs in Sierra Leone, in consultation with the government, have enacted the Customary Act of 2022. And provision in the law has ensured that all women will have access to farming land without discrimination,” PC Alimamy (II) said.
He assured the rural women, especially farmers that want to invest in agriculture, that there will be undeniable access to farming land to invest in agriculture.
” Nearly 70% of the women in Kambia district are engaged in agricultural activities,” PC Alimamy (II) said ,thus, he encouraged paramount chiefs in other Chiefdoms across the country, to ensure that more women have access to land to invest in agriculture.
He also encouraged the Ministry of Agriculture to support women with farming tools and fertilizers and other materials, so that the women will invest in agriculture.
Through the RAI programme, Solidaridad and FAO are contributing to reducing poverty, enhancing food security and nutrition and fostering sustainable