Gender Equity

For years, Dora Lisa Carrión Gómez rose early every morning to open Saja, a café in the quiet Andean town of San Ignacio in northern Peru. Saja is owned and operated by members of the women’s group of APROCASSI, a coffee cooperative where, for a time, Dora Lisa also served as president. “Women have always been discriminated against,” says Dora Lisa. “But when I joined APROCASSI in 2006, I saw this new reality: a reality where women could work, could advance. A reality where women could have power.”

Root Capital supports the advancement of rural women, whether they work on the farm or in the boardroom. This report highlights our impact in 2018, during which we reached 246,000 rural women—an all-time high—and expanded our gender-inclusive programming to address new and diverse challenges faced by women farmers, managers, and employees.

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Maria Eufemia Madonado Ocaño holds a small leaf in her hands, mottled yellow where it should be vibrant and green. This leaf represents her livelihood, decimated by la roya—a fungus that develops when conditions are warmer and wetter than usual. The yellow spots are a symptom, but the disease is climate change.

Bertha Nzabanita, Rwandan coffee farmer and long-time member of the Musasa cooperative. One field. That’s all Bertha Nzabanita had left after the devastation of the Rwandan genocide left her a widow. One field, a young son to raise, and few options.

Since launching the Women in Agriculture Initiative (WAI) in 2012, we've seen again and again how gender-inclusive businesses help women grow a better future—for themselves and their communities. We are pleased to share our 2017 WAI annual report, which showcases how Root Capital is impacting the lives of rural women.

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As shifting weather patterns make it harder to grow crops, this Kenyan grain aggregator is ensuring women farmers can adapt and prosper. With rains less predictable and growing seasons in flux, an old agribusiness adage is increasing in relevance for enterprises that work with rural smallholders: What’s good for the farmer is good for the business.  When The Rain…

Rural women often face gendered barriers that limit their ability to be productive, control assets and incomes, and benefit equitably from their hard work. In 2016, Root Capital began disbursing Gender Equity Grants to client agricultural businesses to implement strategies aimed at improving women’s overall quality of life and their representation in the business. In this summary, we present an assessment of these activities and the reported results.

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Driving along the winding dirt roads of Kenya’s central highlands, it doesn’t take long to spot scores of women farming in the mist. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that women perform 75 to 89 percent of the country’s agricultural labor. Yet all too often, this labor goes unrecognized.

This profile is part of a series that captures how Root Capital’s Gender Equity Grants are transforming the lives of rural women. Read more here.

This profile is part of a series that captures how Root Capital’s Gender Equity Grants are transforming the lives of rural women. Read more here.