The African Development Funder, AECF has launched a $9.4 million women’s agribusinesses in South Sudan.
In a press release seen by Omirangle.com on Thursday, AECF says it is launching a climate-smart agriculture program that seeks to promote innovative commercial business models.
This, it says will increase incomes, diversify livelihoods, and create quality jobs for women leading to effective women’s empowerment, and presenting opportunities for higher involvement, control, and ownership.
ACEF’s Chief Executive Officer, Victoria Sabula says South Sudan has immense agricultural potential; however, female small-scale farmers are still excluded from many agricultural value chains hampering their ability to increase income, reduce risk, and transform their livelihoods.
Therefore, a $9.4 million, the Investing in Women in South Sudan program which is financial support from Global Affairs Canada (GAC), will go a long way in addressing challenges facing women’s businesses, especially the agriculture sector.
Sabula says they hope that the $9.4 million will attract women-owned and women-focused businesses in the Agri-rich Central and Eastern Equatoria States that will directly benefit women and encourage the adoption of climate-smart technologies and practices.
The program seeks to apply a market-based approach, sourcing for business models through an open competition. The competition, runs from June 9, 2022, to August 9, 2022, and is open to women-led businesses or women-focused businesses that are commercially active in the honey, sorghum, sesame, shea nut, and groundnut value chains in South Sudan.
AECF says businesses will be selected based on their sustainability potential and developmental impact on women that guarantee inclusivity, increase incomes, create meaningful jobs, and improve living standards for rural women.
AECF said it will also avail funding to private sector businesses working in different nodes of the identified value chains – from inputs to production, processing, and markets.
Successful applicants will receive between $50,000 and $750,000 in performance-based grants.
The Investing in Women in South Sudan (IIW-SS) is a gender equality and economic inclusion program that responds to the continuing poverty, food insecurity, and climate vulnerability that small-scale farmers in South Sudan face. It is funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and implemented in East and the Central Equatoria States. The program aims to economically empower women through the groundnut, sesame, sorghum, shea nut, and honey value chains and will invest in women-focused businesses and women’s entrepreneur associations to create a climate-smart, gender-sensitive value chain opportunities for rural women and youth from poor and food-insecure households.
