National Women Farmers' Association (NAWFA)
The National Women’s Farmers Association is a gender focused organisation which seeks to attain economic empowerment for women farmers by increasing their productivity through education, skills development, capacity training and campaigning for their rights. To economically and socially empower women farmers through the production, processing and marketing of crops and livestock, and through the strengthening of our Sesame Growers’ Associations. |
The membership based, National Women’s Farmers Association (NAWFA) was established in April 1999 by the Catholic Relief Service (CRS). The organisation evolved from a CRS funded feeding programme for pregnant and nursing mothers to whom sesame was introduced to supplement the oil for food programme. The primary motivation for setting up NAWFA is to provide the women farmers with better bargaining power for the marketing of their produce. |
NAWFA is dedicated to improving the economic position of women in The Gambia through capacity building and campaigning for women’s rights. Here are some examples of the successful projects we have implemented and campaigns we have mounted. Literacy for Self-Management Project: This project, funded by the World Bank through the Ministry of Education has been running since 2009 and is being implemented in the Lower River Region and the Central River Region – South. The project has 20 classes of 30 adult students, 80% of which are women. The women are being taught basic numeracy and literacy in their own languages to enable them to successfully manage their own enterprises in agriculture. Food Right’s Campaign: This project had been funded by the CRS up until 2007 and is now currently being funded by ActionAID. The project stems from the recognition that women are the main producers of food, yet they own less than 10% of the land. The campaign involves lobbying the government to enforce the Women’s Bill of 2009 which grants women more land ownership. NAWFA has targeted 12,000 hectares of land for women’s ownership and has to date successfully claimed 3,000 hectares. Our campaign is multimedia and seeks to involve local authorities, National Assembly Members and governors in sensitisations, meetings and workshops concerning women’s land ownership. Sesame Value Change Promotion: Since 2001 NAWFA is the only organisation that has been promoting sesame as a cash crop. We enacted a multimedia campaign and conducted trainings with the Ministry of Agriculture and local councils to highlight the importance of sesame as a means to boost both the economic improvement of The Gambia and the economic empowerment of women. In 2001 The Gambia produced less than 2 tonnes and now produces 1000 tons thanks to NAWFA’s intervention. We train women farmers on sesame production, processing, marketing and value addition to improve their economic conditions. |
NAWFA is a three tiered organisation with kafoos at the village level, 74 women producer associations called Sesame Growers’ Associations (SGA’s) at the regional level and a national executive committee formed by representatives from the SGA’s. The SGA’s are spread throughout The Gambia. The associations are clusters of 10 to 15 villages with grassroots membership based on traditional village groups called kafoos. Our total membership is 48,000 women nationwide. Our Strategic Objectives: • Develop the Economic and managerial capacities of women • Increase women’s production of crops and livestock • Enhance women’s access to reliable market outlets with guaranteed market prices • Improve women’s ability to mobilise and manage savings and credit • Provide women with skills, knowledge and technologies to add value to their produce We look after our funds by using the Excel accounting system, producing quarterly financial report and conducting annual auditing. We are organised: • We have a 14 member board who are elected at our Annual General Meeting to serve a two year term • We conduct meetings of the SGA’s at least every two months • We practise monthly report writing from extension workers • We compile quarterly narrative reports from project coordinators • We produce an annual report We belong to the Network for Food Security in Africa, National Alliance for Food Security, Social Forum, and NCOFAG the Gambian chapter of ROPA. Our donors have been VECO, LLEIDA (Spanish council), ActionAID International, World Bank and IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development). |
National Women’s Farmers Association
98 Kairaba Avenue
Serekunda
Tel: 994 8312
Email: [email protected]