Collaboration is key! Different organisations have different strengths and we need to bring together partnerships to build on those to achieve best possible impact. And of course ensure that as part of any partnership the voices of women in the smallholder communities are heard
Great points Stephanie.
This is my experience too. We have developed some excellent corporate partnerships that source from smallholder communities (mainly women producers) and these projects are genuinely improving the sustainability of the supply chains in a way that is enhancing the long-term livelihoods of the women smallholders, as well as the buyer
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Suzanne, absolutely - at Symrise we do NOT see ourselves as “donors” we are way more actively engaged than that “partners in progress” would be an apt description and in some instances we know the situation on the ground as well as (if not better) than the NGO implementation partner.
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Ulrike, it’s true. It was a shift for us internally to realize it’s a completely different type of partnership. A lot more “work” but worth it.
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@sandrasanchez connectivity can be an issue, but most of our systems allow for offline registration, with auto-update when the person is in connectivity. We actually have a few different digital tools: some, like Olam Farmer Information System are in the hands of our field staff, for registering our farmers, keeping track of our service etc. Others are in the hands of our farmers, for learning local market prices, weather etc. Whichever way, we’re able to send SMS messages out to farmers through these systems.
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As Barak Obama once said when he visited Kenya,
‘If we educate a girl we educate the society’
Hannah, to be 100% candid we are experiencing real challenges with directly reaching women in farming households (they rarely self-identify as women farmers) in the Uttar Pradesh state where we are working - so digital connectivity I am afraid is heavily skewed through male farmers. We neither apologise nor hide from this, it is a fact and one that we are working to change without being overly disruptive to societal norms.
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Danica in a recent SAI Platform Annual Event it was described as “collective therapy” generating a genuine “feel good” factor in that realisation that we are not battling the “impossible challenges” alone!
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That’s really interesting- as well as disheartening. If you ever want to talk about radio and its ability to reach women, excluded groups and isolated communities- let me know! www.farmersvoiceradio.org
That draws the live portion of this discussion to a close. What a brilliant conversation and so much insight shared and appetite to keep collaborating. You can further add your comments and insights here at any time.
Thank you so much for joining us.
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Yes responded separately on that to @Danica - real issue in reaching women digitally in India - the ownership of the phone is still heavily skewed to the men, however what we found in Indonesia was that the Facebook mechanism (NILAMPEDIA it’s called) gave us much more access to women because it could be off-line and accessible at different times of the day. If it’s SMS message, the phone is most likely to be with the man, however FACEBOOK channels are much more gender-neutral, in fact potentially skewed towards women and definitely skewed to younger participants.
Hannah please also see my other response - our Facebook based NILAMPEDIA channel in Indonesia (patchouli farmers) has been much more successful at reaching women. It seems that the off-line reach when the “status symbol” of the phone does not have to be in the man’s hand or shirt pocket is a factor that needs to be actively considered and designed for.
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Do you also source cocoa from Ghana, if yes Cocoa Mmaa, women in cocoa production would like you to buy their cocoa. We are located in Dunkwa -On -Offin in the central region of Ghana.
Thank you @Leticiayankey Sadly we are not a buyer of cocoa, or any product. We work with cooperatives, NGOs, agri-businesses to produce participatory radio programmes that engage with smallholder farmers on the issues that matter to them. We would love to do a cocoa project in Ghana! We currently are developing programmes focused on shea in the north. Take a look here www.farmersvoiceradio.org