17/10/2017. Brussels. Lunchtime Conference External Cooperation Infopoint

1. Putting the spotlight on small-
scale women farmers
How investing in local women will help
end poverty and hunger
17 October 2017
Lunchtime Conference
External Cooperation
Infopoint

2. Page 2
OXFAM IN TANZANIA
• Oxfam has been working in
Tanzania since the 1960s
• The work includes:
• Enhance governance and
transparency
• Women’s economic
empowerment
• Tackling rural poverty
• Embed innovation in youth and
development
• Humanitarian response since
2015: WASH and EFSVL for
approximately 220,000 new
Burundian refugees in
surrounding host communities

3. FEMALE FOOD HERO INITIATIVE IN TANZANIA
http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/03/10/4687171
69/female-farmers-find-fame-and-fortune-on-reality-tv-show

4. Page 4
OXFAM’S FEMALE FOOD HEROES
• Aims at:
• Raising awareness of many
achievements of women food
producers
• Giving female farmers
opportunity to be heard,
recognised and empowered
• Enabling women farmers to
share skills and best practice
• Started in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Nigeria in 2011
• Competition to identify and reward women food
producers who are examples of what millions of
women around the world are doing to ensure food
security
• Targeted support for female farmers

5. Page 5
WHY DID OXFAM INTRODUCE THIS INITIATIVE?
• Female farmers encounter a
number of challenges:
• Lack of voice
• Poor access to land and
water resources
• Limited access to finance,
seeds and other agricultural
inputs
• Poor infrastructure
• Increasingly threatening
effects of climate change
• Women are key to poverty reduction and food security but are
undervalued
• Equalising the gender gap is estimated to boost agricultural
output and decrease global undernourishment by up to 17%

6. Page 6
SUCCESSES
• Local farmers have deeper ties with
regional and national governments
and other key stakeholders.
• The governments and stakeholders
are ascribing increasing value to
agriculture and women small-
holder farmers.
• This change is not limited to
the regional and national level:
increasingly Female Food
Heroes are delivering their
message globally through
media and speaking tours.
• Their voice is capturing the
imaginations and changing
the mindsets of powerful
global agriculture actors.

7. Page 7
FEMALE FOOD HEROES IN TANZANIA
• Redefining what is “celebrity” in Tanzania
• 21-day duration of the show, 15 finalists live together in a
Tanzanian village
• With tasks and visits their lives are filmed, building the
knowledge and skills of participants and viewers
• The women learn from each other; share the knowledge and
skills they have developed over the years
• Alongside the show, Oxfam works on a broader media
strategy to spread messages and create public awareness of
needs of female farmers and wider gender justice issues
• Reaches an average of 10 mio viewers per season

8. Page 8
SPOTLIGHT ON FEMALE FOOD HEROES
• Mary Mbuya, Tanzania - Winner of FFH award 2016
• Evelyn Nwaru, Nigeria - Winner of FFH award 2016

9. Page 9
ROLE OF THE EU AS A DONOR
• FNS and sustainable agriculture are among EU's top
development priorities
o 2010 EU food security policy framework
o 2017 Development Consensus
• Gender action gaining in importance
o Launch of EU GAP 2016-2020

10. Page 10
FROM POLICY TO PRACTICE – EU
• Oxfam research into EU agricultural aid analysing 25 EU-funded
project evaluation documents:
• In planning documents: only 3,5% of projects appear to include
gender equality as a principal or significant objective
# of projects %
Principal objective 1 4%
Significant objective 19 75%
No specific activity 5 20%

11. Page 11
FROM POLICY TO PRACTICE – GLOBAL
• Oxfam analysis in Nigeria,
Tanzania, Ghana, Ethiopia,
Philippines, Pakistan, EU,
The Netherlands
• Various good projects
implemented in partner countries,
yet….
• Nigeria: Allocation of 1.9% of
annual budget to agriculture
(2010-2015 average)
• Tanzania: Of 3,000 farmers
surveyed, about 80 % reported
not receiving extension services
• Tanzania: Between 2007 and
2017, agriculture received an
average of 2.2% of national
budget

12. Page 12
FROM POLICY TO PRACTICE – GLOBAL
• There is little demonstration
that women farmers are
receiving investments for
agriculture and climate
change adaptation
• Resources diverted to
priorities other than
smallholder farmers:
infrastructure, research
institutions, more prosperous
geographic areas, private
sector

13. Page 13
WHAT THE EU CAN DO
• Provide substantial and tailored agricultural support in the
post-2020 MFF to empower small-scale producers
• Put empowerment of women at the heart of agricultural
projects, supporting equal access to resources, and tackling
legal and cultural barriers to gender equality
• Support bottom-up approaches to ensure projects actually
respond to women's needs
• Increase accountability by involving target groups in all stages
of the design, implementation and monitoring of projects;
disaggregate data by gender
• Support the participation of women farmers in local budget
decision making

14. Thank you!
Contact:
Hanna Saarinen, Investment in Agriculture Policy Advisor
hanna.saarinen@oxfam.org