Women And Climate-Smart Agriculture: A Programming Guide For Eastern And Southern Africa
UN Women East and Southern Africa Regional Office
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Abstract: This programming guide by UN Women offers a practical roadmap for mainstreaming gender-responsive climate-smart agriculture (CSA) across Eastern and Southern Africa. It identifies intersecting climate, gender, and agriculture vulnerabilities and provides strategic interventions across CSA subsectors including soil and water management, crops, livestock, aquaculture, post-harvest handling, and value addition. Four core outcome areas anchor the strategy: increased land tenure security, access to information, finance, and higher-value markets for women farmers. The guide promotes the use of ICT tools, like the Buy from Women (BfW) platform, as levers for digital empowerment, market access, and data-driven service delivery. Institutional guidance includes financing strategies, programmatic tools, and gender metrics. It integrates evidence from CSA practices, regional productivity studies, and social barrier analyses to support gender equality and food system resilience. It also highlights partnerships with governments, research institutions, and UN agencies to bridge technology, policy, and empowerment gaps.