The gender dimension in building climate resilience

By Charles Mkoka

In the beginning, Bertha Maloya was able to buy better varieties of rice seeds which boosted her harvest. She sold that extra rice to buy iron sheets to help protect her home. Then she bought cement to further improve her house. Bertha’s most recent purchase was a bicycle.

This has all happened since 2012, when Bertha decided to join her local village savings and loan group (VSL) in Group Village Headman Vethiwa, Machinga district in Malawi.
VSL groups, where villagers start their own small bank, saving and lending to members with interest, has helped mitigate the impact of tough times, brought about by floods and other disasters. But people can also use the money to improve their homes, buy essentials and invest in business ideas.

For many people in Malawi, it is difficult to open an account with a commercial bank. And base lending rates are high for borrowers such as farmers. This has long been a challenge to many who wanted to start or invest in small businesses but lacked the necessary capital.

With interest rates between 15 and 20 percent, VSL enables financial empowerment and liberation for poorer people. Women in particular have embraced the groups.

Through the Enhancing Community Resilience Programme (ECRP) more than 50,000 households now participate in VSL groups across seven districts, including Machinga and Chikwawa. This programme blends well with the Gender, Climate Change and Agriculture Support Programme (GCCASP) implemented by the New Partnership for African Development  where women and other vulnerable farming groups are dealing with the effects of climate on agriculture.

The vision is to see farming women empowered for effectiveness and efficiency in dealing with the vagaries of climate change through policy changes and access to climate smart agriculture technologies.

During the second conference for women in agribusiness 2015 held from 3 - 5 November under the theme, “Women in entrepreneurial development:  A must for success on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in Africa” New Partnership for African Development, Director of Programmes Estherine Fotabong in her speech told delegates that women being key producers of food it was time to take action and realise their dreams. As such without VSL, Bertha said, it would have been impossible to make progress as she has.

GCCASP aims to integrate gender issues and concerns of women scale farmers   in responding to climate change in agriculture. This is in recognition of the insurmountable role women play in African agriculture.

In Jacob village, Group Village Headman Fombe, Chikwawa district, the Chitsanzo VSL group has received support from ECRP partner Eagles Relief to build the capacity of members in financial procedures and management. Members have been able to buy iron sheets, bicycles and livestock.

‘This has strengthened us in the face of climate change,’ said Zefa George, a single mother of five who chairs the Chitsanzo group, whose membership has now grown to 27. ‘More new participants have now joined us after seeing the benefits from the group.’
‘Women have now broadened their understanding and knowledge of climate change resilience. They have been trained in various interventions such as conservation agriculture, livestock rearing and seed systems.’

Chitsanzo member Doris Kamoto explained how VSL returns helped her start a bicycle taxi business. The money she earns from hiring out the bike to fellow villagers and people with small businesses has enabled her to invest in improved drought-tolerant seeds that grow better in the climatic conditions.

‘VSL provides this financial support base in a rural setting,’ Doris said.‘To buy improved seed you need money. VSL is the foundation for all these initiatives.’
Doris added that ECRP encourages farmers to grow different crops, such as cow peas, pigeon peas, soya beans, millet and sorghum which improve diet diversity, nutrition and food security. If one crop fails another may do better, and can be sold to buy food for the family in leaner times.

Joyce Amos, of Group Village Headman Khungubwe, Chikwawa district, has been a VSL member since 2011. She initially invested in a small business and bought a cow. ‘Today, I have four cattle. My son is now in Standard 8 and I am capable of paying fees on my own.’
Eneless Madi, from Vethiwa VSL, said savings and loans were used during times of disaster, after the loss of livestock. It also helps to pay school fees and hospital bills. ‘This is the reason we have maintained the group – it provides the needed support.’

Fellow member Loness Mussa added: ‘Initially, when ECRP brought the VSL idea I was hesitant. After seeing the benefits, the members were able to gain I changed my mind and joined. So far, I have managed to mould bricks and burnt them to construct a house after receiving my earnings. Later, I bought goats and the droppings are used as manure in my conservation agriculture initiatives.’

It is onwards and upwards for the VSL groups supported by ECRP. Members realise that for the idea to continue to grow and develop they must save larger amounts. This, in turn, will allow those wanting to embark on bigger business ventures to borrow higher amounts from the VSL too.

Greater investment should result in higher returns, so even when loans have been repaid members will have more in their pockets to improve their lives and livelihoods. Ultimately, this will help ensure food security and mitigate the crises – such as droughts and floods – that many communities and families face in these vulnerable districts of Malawi.

Bee - Keeping : Africa potential in honey industry high

By Charles Mkoka

The just ended Gender Climate Change and Agriculture Support Programme (GCCASP) second conference held from the 3 – 5 in Durban, South Africa created a platform for women to showcase diverse agribusiness initiatives from their respective countries across the continent.

Edna Kalima, Programme Officer, New Partnership for African Development said climate change is causing significant damage to economies and environment resulting in Africa being greatly affected as exposure is increasingly high while its capacity to respond is very low. As such agriculture diversification is critical to build climate change resilience and mitigate the effects.

Kalima added that smallholder agriculture is the most vulnerable sector dominated by women farmers who account for over 80 percent of the continent food production. Women and youth are highly vulnerable and are most likely to be disproportionately affected by the adverse effects of climate.

GCCASP entailed the design process of a detailed situation analysis of smallholder women farmers through case studies and consultations in five African countries namely; Cameroon, Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger and Rwanda. The five countries represent the eight Regional Economic Communities of the African Union.

Harriet Manduwa, a woman entrepreneur from Tithandize Cooperative located on the outskirts of Lilongwe said she started beekeeping in 2011 and owns an apiary with a number of hives.  Manduwa brought bottled honey which she displayed on the sidelines of the conference at the Durban International Convention Centre.

How much honey is produced per hive? Manduwa said that a single hive produce up to 15 kilograms of honey. She added that within the cooperative some members own over 100 bee hives. This means more honey, when the total bee hive harvests are combined.
But how did Manduwa venture in the enterprise?  The cooperative was trained by a Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resource student who had the technical know how. Manduwa got encouraged to be a self starter, reliant and embrace bee-keeping as a worthwhile enterprise.

“I have built a house, own cattle from the benefits that I have been able to accrue from my apiary harvests since embarking in bee-keeping as a business,” said Manduwa in an interview on the sidelines of the event.

At continental level African Union - Inter African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) recently held training in Lilongwe which offered theory and practical to enhance the capacity of beekeepers association members and extension workers to acquire information on beehive products, post-harvest handling, utilized improved bee health, pollination services technologies and innovations.

During the meeting it transpired from AU experts that beekeeping can play a significant role in contributing to food and production of bee products for the market, as well as fostering sustainable environment practices.

“Global business of honey industry contributes to over US$ 200 billion to the global economy through crop pollination. It is estimated that 71 percent of crops that provide 90 percent of the world’s food requirements are pollinated by bees, production of honey beeswax and other bee hives products. However, Africa only gets a teaspoon of less than 10 percent while the potential of the sector is huge," A top Malawian government official said during the opening session.

A communiqué signed after the training exercise expressed regret that Africa has failed to tap on this opportunity and strategic industry to generate food, employment, environment conservation and diversification.

A least three representatives comprising of one woman from each country were trained to be in charge of rolling out the training at country level to other nation’s association’s representatives.

The training on beekeeping complimented the Vet-Gov Project in rolling out the AU-IBAR data base through which information on honey production, bee health and pollination services will be reported on the bee reference data base portal.