2024

Help women farmers thrive

2024

OUR LEGACY FOUNDATION

Established by gender equality and women empowerment champion Oulimata Sarr, the Legacy Foundation works to accelerate women’s economic and financial inclusion in West Africa, focusing on climate-smart agriculture, including greenhouses, agro-processing, market access and primary production. We’re providing seed funding for the foundation to kick-start its Farm to Fork strategy for equitable and sustainable agricultural systems.

www.our-legacy-foundation.org

CHALLENGE

Across Senegal, women farmers make up 70% of the agricultural workforce and produce 80% of the crops but have little access to land, education and finance compared to men though the latter work on farms two to four hours less on an average day.

ACTION

Building on the work of UN Women in the region, the foundation supports women farmers’ initiatives such as REFAN (the French acronym for Network of Women Farmers in the North of Senegal), a group that now numbers 16,000 women mostly involved in the production and processing of rice, local cereals and vegetables. REFAN provides its members with greenhouses, access to finance, training, and extension services.

Our Legacy Foundation aims to provide technical support to further strengthen farmers’ productivity, encourage the use of technology, such as water drip irrigation systems, and the adoption of improved inputs and climate-smart techniques, as well as improve their access to value-added markets.

IMPACT

19,000

women farmers

empowered by REFAN by the end of 2024

100

hectares of land

allocated to women’s groups by the end of 2024

100M

CFA secured

in additional financing by the end of 2024