NGO focused on empowering women through agriculture

The Zuuri Organic Vegetable Farmers Association (ZOVFA) is collaborating with stakeholders in Agriculture to empower women to improve on gender equity through agriculture.

The stakeholders are the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and its allied institutions and the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE)among others.

The Association would support the district gender activist teams to develop their gender strategies for improving women’s participation in active agriculture, which would strengthen them to contribute meaningfully to the development of their communities.

Mr Philip Ayamba, the Programmes Director of ZOVFA, said this at the district Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) phase two project inception meeting organised by ZOVFA at Bawku in the Upper East Region and sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

He said CHRAJ, MOFA and the NCCE would organise District-level Sensitisation and Education on the Civic Rights and Responsibilities of women, children and persons with disabilities.

The Association, ZOVFA is aimed at Improving livelihoods and empowering women farmers in Advocacy, Business Development and Climate Resilience so as to create an environmental friendly society for their development.

In a presentation on the Key FFF project objectives, Mr Ayamba said it was focused on developing programmes that would promote production and marketing of sustainable forest and agricultural activities.

He said it would provide appropriate capacity for members who were mostly women, towards increased income and employment for Non-Traditional Forest Products (NTFP), producers as well as facilitate Village Savings and Loans (VSL) activities for members.

The phase two initiative of the project is being championed by ZOVFA and its sister organisations in three ecological zones of the country and is focused on strengthening Forest and Farm Producer Organizations (FFPOs) as primary agents of change for resilient landscapes and improve livelihoods.

It would be working to Organise District Summits on Policy and Implementation Strategies, to bring clarity on the policies of the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to enable the various Forest and Farm Producer Groups (FFPGs) to identify Local Policy and Legal reform processes that were starting, have started and are on-going and have direct effect on the interests of members of the Association.

Mr Ayamba said ZOVFA would facilitate dialogue with the relevant policy reform platforms and processes such as the Planting for Food & Jobs (PFJ), planting for Export & Rural Development (PERD) and Youth in Afforestation (YA)for members to patronize existing opportunities.