News

The world is about to celebrate women in all their diversity. CORAF pays tribute to women, particularly those working in Agricultural Research and Development, and those working in all agricultural value chains to feed the region.

This commemorative day provides CORAF with a pleasant opportunity to take stock of the implementation of its Gender Policy, which has achieved significant results in favor of gender equality in its projects and programs, its procedures and its system of governance:

In terms of access to agricultural production resources such as technologies and innovations, extension services, agricultural infrastructure and agricultural training:

• Implementation of the West African Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP) has recorded 49% female beneficiaries, i.e. 4,536,562 women out of 9,246,489 beneficiaries, with 28% of women having benefited from Master's and PhD training in agricultural sciences;
• The Capacity for Agricultural Research for Development (C4R4D) project, which aims to increase human capital in order to achieve a critical mass for agricultural research in WCA, has contributed enormously to building the capacity and skills of women scientists: 43% of scholarships have been awarded to women. Of the 28 students, 12 women (5 MSc and 7 PhD) have already graduated.
• The MDTF completion report, drawn up by the World Bank, described the program's approach to gender mainstreaming, implemented through 17 regional projects in West and Central Africa, as highly satisfactory. Overall, the project has reached around 100,000 people in the implementing countries, against a target of 82,000. According to the report, "The 123% over-achievement of the target is entirely due to the growing number of women involved in the innovation platforms";
• The regional initiative to respond to the impact of the EBOLA epidemic on the agricultural sector and food supply in the countries affected by the epidemic, namely Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, led by CORAF in collaboration with its partners, has indeed marked the history of the region and that of CORAF. The Post-Ebola Initiative for the Reconstruction of the Agricultural Sector recorded 45% female beneficiaries. According to the project completion report, this significant rate of female beneficiaries proves that the project was sufficiently gender-sensitive, in terms of women's access to seeds, and the involvement of women entrepreneurs in the seed sector;
• CORAF has succeeded in making gender equality an integral part of its governance system. Indeed, for the first time in its history, (i) a woman has been elected Chairwoman of the Board of Directors; (ii) the Scientific and Technical Committee, which has had only one woman since 2012, now has parity, with 6 women out of 12 members; the CORAF staff, for its part, has gone from 33% women in 2012, to 46% women in 2019;
• Since August 2018, CORAF's gender advisor has been a member of the Independent Advisory Committee, and the Research Management Committee of the Dryland Legume and Cereal Sector Development (GLDC) program, an ICRISAT program, which covers Africa and Asia in its implementation, with the role of facilitating the effective consideration of gender issues, as well as youth employability, in this program.
• In line with its mandate to coordinate the development policies and initiatives of the agricultural research and development system in West and Central Africa, CORAF has shown its solidarity by agreeing to place its gender expertise at the service of CILSS, to facilitate the effective inclusion of gender dimensions in the implementation of the Projet Régional d'Appui au Pastoralisme au Sahel (PRAPS), implemented in Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.
• In collaboration with the AWARD program, CORAF has provided scholarships to several women researchers. CORAF's women researchers, who have benefited from the AWARD program thanks to WAAPP funding, have all reached decision-making positions in the Agricultural Research and Development Systems of their respective countries, namely Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali and Cameroon. A source of pride for CORAF.