Story By: Rahamatu-Lahi Zakaria || Sanatu Zambang
As part of the activities to mark International Women’s Day (IWD), MEDA GHANA organised a
community durbar bringing together the GROW2 project beneficiaries and their husbands in
Damango on Wednesday, 8 th March 2023.
The event, which was marked under the theme:” DigitAll: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality” together with the campaign hashtag – #EmbraceEquit#, sought to recognize the contribution of smallholder women farmers (WSHF) in community building.
Considering the theme for this year’s celebration of IWD and the list of interventions being
undertaken under the GROW2 project, the project team saw the need to use this year’s IWD as an
opportunity to celebrate women farmers who amid all these challenges and constraints have
ventured into the use of Technology and innovation in the various agribusinesses.
A drama was staged around the theme showcasing the need for men to support their wives in their
daily activities both at home and on the farm. The script also touched on the impact of technology
and innovation on agricultural productivity, especially by women farmers.
Drama staged at the venue intended to create awareness of how the use of technology and
innovation can reduce drudgery in performing both productive and reproductive roles for men and
women. It also seeks to motivate men and the community to support WSHFs in unpaid care and
domestic work including farming and the use of technology and also WSHFs would be motivated to
venture into the use of technologies and innovations in their agribusinesses, especially the ones to
be promoted under the GROW2 project.
The participants in attendance included well-performing GROW tricycle owners with their
community leaders and husbands – Emelia Nibebiir, Andrews Nibebiir (husband) and Mollee
Thaciano (community leader), Department of Gender – Madam Allijatu Haruna, Community men
and women ( Larabanga, Nabori, Yipala, Sor No.1, Jonokponto, Canteen and Agric Settlement), KFP
Coordinator, Gender Officer, area field officer, GROW2 (SMT, GESI team, and MarCom), Other
Development Projects, MOFA, Assembly Reps, GHS (district-level representatives).
Some of the women beneficiaries of the GROW project who have employed the use of tricycles and
other technologies in their agribusinesses where given the opportunity to share their testimonies to
create awareness of the gender-equitable balance of unpaid care work with households,
communities, and the private sector and its impact on women’s health and productivity.
The project team further seeks to use the celebration to educate communities and not just WSHFs,
about the impact of the use of technology and innovation by WSHFs and highlight the various
technologies and innovations the GROW2 project is bringing on board in a bid to get the buy-in and
support of communities especially male support for women in the acquisition and use of technology.
MEDA’S GROW2 project is focused on greater gender equality and will build on the successes and
learnings of the GAC-funded GROW project, implemented from 2012 to 2019, to improve economic
and social empowerment for women smallholder farmers, entrepreneurs, and agribusinesses in
northern Ghana. GROW2 will increase agricultural productivity for women smallholder farmers and
agribusinesses through broadened access to labour-saving, climate-smart labour-savings, and
productive resources such as land and inputs.
