On Wednesday 27th June the GSMA mAgri team organised a webinar on the subject of Designing & Marketing Mobile Information & Advisory Services for Women Smallholder Farmers. The purpose of the webinar was to share practical and actionable lessons which can be applied to the design and marketing of mobile information and advisory services for women smallholders.
Half of all farmers in the developing world are women and in some countries such as Rwanda, women account for 70% of the agricultural workforce. Women farmers are often less productive than men but if they had equal access to resources, including quality and actionable information, it is estimated that women farmers could grow 30% more food.
Concentrating on service design and marketing, the webinar focused on how mobile operators, VAS providers and agricultural NGOs can provide women farmers more equal access to mobile information and advisory services. Subject matter experts in gender and agriculture (listed below) shared their insight and experience from the field, as well as best practice from closely related programmes and initiatives.
- Amol Jadhav, mAgri Project Manager, GSMA Development Fund
- Haven Ley, Senior Program Officer, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Per Helmersen, Research Manager, GSMA mWomen Programme
- Sophia Huyer, Executive Director, WISAT -Women in Global Science & Technology
- Jemimah Njuki, Global Team Lead, Women in Agriculture (Pathways), CARE