The CAA Women Empowerment project started in December 2017, in collaboration with the UTZ Sector Partnership Programme. At first, 20% to 23% of our registered members were women, which was already very encouraging. In 2019, this leapt to 29%, thanks through various initiatives. We aim to empower female farmers by facilitating their access to the CAA.

Female leadership

We endorse female leadership within the CAA and have developed a capacity-building and coaching programme, adapted to the (training) needs of women who want to become leaders. Furthermore, we have reviewed our systems to boost women’s involvement in our decision-making processes, especially in the Council.

The following five long-term targets were defined for this project:

1. Fair access to all of our services for current and potential CAA female farmers
2. Improved land tenure security for CAA female farmers
3. Improved participation of female farmers in our association
4. Improved productivity, livelihood, and income for all our female members
5. Improved leadership and decision-making power for our female members