SOO Annex D - GWE to Food Security and Youth Assessment.pdf

GHANA WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT TO FOOD

SECURITY AND YOUTH ASSESSMENT

FEED THE FUTURE ADVANCING WOMEN’S

EMPOWERMENT ACTIVITY

Final Report, Public Version

May 2020

PHOTO: USAID/LOUIS STIPPEL

This publication was made possible through support provided by the Bureau for Food Security, U.S. Agency for

International Development (USAID), under the terms of Contract No. 7200AA19F50009. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the U.S. Government.

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CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................................... II

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................... III

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................IV

Key Findings and Recommendations ................................................................................................................. iv

INTRODUCTION

METHODOLOGY

Literature Review

Primary Data Collection

CONTEXT

National Context

FINDINGS

Behavior 1: Women use finance to start/grow agricultural businesses (MSMEs)

Behavior 2: Youth participate in and benefit from agribusiness development

Behavior 3: Women access more “beyond production” work/enterprise opportunities

Behavior 4: Women and youth make effective use of technologies to increase production qualities and yields

Behavior 5: Women effectively influence use of improved fishery management and practices

Behavior 6: Women and youth make decisions to increase dietary diversity of household foods available for consumption

CONCLUSIONS

RECOMMENDATIONS

Access to Finance

Agribusiness Development

Beyond Production

Technology

Improved Fishery Management

Nutrition

Cross-Behavioral Recommendation

ANNEXES

Annex A: Documents Reviewed

Annex B: Best Practices that Support Recommendations

Annex C: Youth Experiences and Livelihood Aspirations

Annex D: Word clouds and trees

Annex E: Matrix of Call Order Key Questions

Annex F: Research Questions by Behavior

Annex G: Data Collection Tools ii | GHANA WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT TO FOOD SECURITY AND YOUTH ASSESSMENT WWW.FEEDTHEFUTURE.GOV

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This report was prepared by the Feed the Future Advancing Women’s Empowerment activity. We would like to thank Susan Bonney, William Benjamin, and Grace Sebugah from the USAID/Ghana

Mission, and Krista Jacobs from the Bureau for Food Security for their contributions and guidance in preparing this document. Meghan Bolden at MarketShare Associates and Sahar Alnouri at EnCompass

LLC led the report development, with significant data coding and analysis support from Zenebech Mesfin and Priya Dhanani at EnCompass LLC. We would also like to thank Abdul-Ghaffar Adam and the

DevtPlan Consult data collection team for their great data collection efforts.

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ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

ADS Automated Directives System

ADVANCE Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement (program)

AWE Advancing Women’s Empowerment (activity)

BIG Behavior Integration Guidance

DHS Demographic and Health Survey

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization

FASDEP II Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy II

FGD Focus group discussion

FinGAP Financing Ghanaian Agriculture Project

GDP Gross domestic product

GFSS Global Food Security Strategy

GROW Greater Rural Opportunities for Women

GSGDA II Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda II

IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute

KII Key informant interview

MEDA Mennonite Economic Development Associates

METASIP II Medium-Term Agricultural Sector Investment Plan II

MFI Microfinance institution

MOFA Ministry of Food and Agriculture

MSME Micro, small, and medium enterprise

NGO Nongovernmental organization

SACCO Savings and Credit Cooperative Society

SFMP Sustainable Fisheries Management Project

SPRING Strengthening Partnerships, Results, and Innovations in Nutrition Globally

UCC University of Cape Coast

USAID United States Agency for International Development

VSLA Village savings and loans association

YPARD Youth Professionals for Agricultural Development iv | GHANA WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT TO FOOD SECURITY AND YOUTH ASSESSMENT WWW.FEEDTHEFUTURE.GOV

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PURPOSE. This assessment report identifies and prioritizes behaviors that hinder women’s and youth’s engagement and empowerment in food security, agriculture, and nutrition-sensitive programming. The report aims to inform the behaviors, approaches, and actions necessary for the United States Agency for

International Development mission to Ghana (USAID/Ghana) and its partners to support and enable women, men, and youth to fully participate in food security sectors.

METHODOLOGY. The assessment used a literature review and primary data collection to explore the roles, responsibilities, and dynamics in households and communities that prevent youth, men, and women from participating in activities and behaviors requisite for household food security, increased productivity, and individual empowerment. Six core behaviors (see Exhibit 1) were identified through the literature review and explored in detail through primary data collection.

Exhibit 1: Target Behaviors Identified

KEY FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Women and female youth fear social censure from their communities and challenges in their marriages if they earn more money than their husbands. Invest in social norm research to better understand these earnings thresholds, and identify ways to encourage agribusiness growth for women and men without placing women in harmful situations.

2. Older generations perceive youth as not adding value to agricultural work. Male and female youth in all regions are more interested in post-production aspects of agribusiness (processing and retail) than agricultural production labor. Youth are curious about using technologies for agricultural work, but lack access to information about technology and cannot afford to purchase technologies on the market. To promote adoption of technology, enhance youth’s ability to acquire it by improving access to finance interventions like Saving and Credit Cooperative v | GHANA WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT TO FOOD SECURITY AND YOUTH ASSESSMENT WWW.FEEDTHEFUTURE.GOV

Societies (SACCOS), tech-oriented financial products, and financial leasing. Combine social media technology highlights with in-person demonstrations to increase uptake.

3. Village savings and loan associations (VSLAs) fill basic business credit and family safety net needs for women across the regions. However, the amount that can be borrowed from VLSAs is small.

To promote the growth of women’s agribusinesses in beyond production, increase their access to financial services through SACCOS, and work with formal financial institutions to develop products designed for women with smaller loan amounts, flexible payment plans, and limited or no collateral requirements.

4. The marine fishery value chain is plagued with unsustainable practices and unhealthy processing techniques. To address these issues, effectively engage the private sector in environmental and health compliance concerns, especially in fisheries, emphasizing the value of traceability and supply chain quality. Continue investing in women’s agricultural groups and other reporting mechanisms to supplement and build the capacity of marine fishery regulatory bodies (e.g., Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate, Global

Seafood Assurances, Food and Drug Administration) to monitor, regulate, and enforce market standards by incentivizing compliance and penalizing violators.

5. Across assessment areas, husbands heavily influence the foods purchased and eaten at the household level, but rarely receive targeted messaging about family dietary diversity and nutrition.

To promote family consumption of more diverse diets, introduce nutrition-focused education and behavior change programming that targets husbands. Another way to boost dietary diversity is to encourage women to invest in low-cost post-harvest and storage technologies, which can minimize female traders’ loss and improve availability of fruits and vegetables for household consumption.

6. Illiteracy and innumeracy, including financial and technology illiteracy, are significant barriers to women and youth, but especially women and female youth’s ability to grow businesses and earn income in northern Ghana. Feed the Future should incorporate literacy and numeracy components into all future interventions in northern Ghana, and also explore ways to circumvent limitations related to illiteracy—for example, by using voice recordings to share weather information with farmers.

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INTRODUCTION

Agriculture represents nearly 20 percent of the Ghanaian gross domestic product (GDP) (Ministry of

Food and Agriculture [MOFA] 2017a) and employs more than 40 percent of the local workforce (Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO] 2017). As the country’s economy continues to grow, finding ways to introduce new technologies to improve agricultural practices; entice Ghanaian youth into production and post-production opportunities; and continue to empower women as farmers, entrepreneurs, and leaders is the priority for the government of Ghana and the United States Agency for International

Development (USAID).

This assessment report presents findings, conclusions, and recommendations in response to the following objectives USAID/Ghana mission outlined:

1. Identify key behaviors hindering participation of women and youth in food security, agriculture, and nutrition programming.

2. Identify best practices from USAID and other donors that can inform mission’s approaches to address selected key behaviors that hinder women’s and youth’s participation in food security, agriculture, and nutrition programming in a 5-year period.

3. Identify behavioral approaches to increasing women’s and youth’s access to productive resources

(including but not limited to land, finance, and technology).

4. Make recommendations for short-, medium-, and long-term actions to address identified challenges to women, men, and youth.

METHODOLOGY

The assessment used a literature review and primary data collection to explore the roles, responsibilities, and dynamics in households and communities that prevent youth, men, and women from participating in activities and behaviors necessary for household food security, increased productivity, and individual empowerment.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review used a comparative review matrix based on the

Automated Directives System (ADS) 205 domains, the Feed the

Future Gender Integration Framework outcomes, and research questions outlined in the call order to identify information gaps and emergent themes. The review examined 27 documents

USAID/Ghana provided, including a mixture of gender analyses and strategies, USAID implementing partners’ activity reports, poverty maps, and youth data, as well as 29 documents the Advancing

Women’s Empowerment activity (AWE) team identified.

The literature review also considered key behavioral outcomes related to agriculture and food security identified by USAID/Ghana. The findings from the literature review and information provided by the

Mission on desired behavioral outcomes provided a foundation to prioritize behaviors for further

2 | GHANA WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT TO FOOD SECURITY AND YOUTH ASSESSMENT WWW.FEEDTHEFUTURE.GOV exploration in the primary data collection. For each behavior identified in the literature review, five to seven specific research questions were developed to guide the development of the primary data collection tools (see Annex F).

Exhibit 2: Target behaviors identified

PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION

Primary data was collected using focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews (KIIs) in five different regions in Ghana.1 The purposive sampling targeted one district within each region for efficiency and to comply with the established parameters in terms of geographies in USAID’s Feed the

Future’s zone of influence, ethnicities, agricultural livelihoods, and timelines. The only exceptions were

KIIs with select USAID implementing partners and key contacts, which were conducted in Accra.

Exhibit 3: Summary of data collected by location

LOCATION KIIS FGDS

Western Region, Shama District, Aboadze Community 4 2

Central Region, KEEA District, Elmina Community 4 2

Upper East Region, Garu District, Gbantarago and Kpatia Communities 8 4

Northern Region, Mion District, Sanzei and Nagbali Communities 8 4

North East Region, East Mamprusi District, Nagboo and Gbangu Communities 8 4

Accra Key Stakeholders 8 N/A

Total 40 16

FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS WITH MALE AND FEMALE YOUTH

The AWE team used FGDs with youth aged 18 to 24 to elicit information on clearly defined topics on youth participation in agribusiness, finance, diet, fisheries, and “beyond production” roles in agriculture.

1 While the assessment covered five different administrative regions in Ghana, the AWE team treated the regions as four (with

Central and Western Regions combined as Fante fishing areas, and splitting the sample across the contiguous border).

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The FGDs, held separately with females and males, helped to understand various perspectives in response to vignettes that presented the target behaviors. The FGD guides are presented in Annex G.

KEY INFORMANT INTERVIEWS WITH KEY ACTORS

The AWE team used interviews to get in-depth information from four types of key actors:

1. Socially connected, economically active women to understand how their networks and relationships affected their opportunities for empowerment in the agricultural market system.

2. Economically successful agribusiness men to understand what challenges and opportunities they faced, how they prospered, and advice they had for male and female youth.

3. Regional key stakeholders to understand their insights on the barriers and motivators for the target behaviors in the territory, and for the focus ethnic groups or livelihood activities.

4. Accra-based key stakeholders to understand their insights on the barriers and motivators for the target behaviors based on their policy and implementation experience in Ghana.

The interview guides are presented in Annex G.

ANALYSIS

The assessment team analyzed qualitative transcript data in Dedoose Version 8.2.14, a web-based application for managing, analyzing, and presenting qualitative and mixed-methods research data. A team of four reviewed the data, identified and coded themes from the data, and jointly developed findings and conclusions during a data analysis and interpretation session held on July 8, 2019. On August 6, 2019, the AWE team presented and discussed emerging themes, conclusions, and early recommendations with

USAID/Ghana.

Exhibit 4: Data analysis process

LIMITATIONS

The assessment team encountered the following limitations during the assessment:

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• The duration for data collection limited the depth of exploration with target groups. Typically, assessments that explore social norms require multiple rounds of data collection to first focus on identification of barriers and motivators, then determine their strength and prevalence, and gauge responses to prototypes or other approaches.

• The team invited 12 individuals to participate in KIIs in Accra, but only eight interviews were completed. The response rate was likely influenced by the short period of time remaining (less than

10 days) between when the AWE team received the list of KIIs from the client and field data collection activities ended.

• The assessment focused primarily on the capacities, interests, and preferences of women and male and female youth living in communities and on interviews with local authorities and contacts identified as successful in agribusiness or well-connected in the society. While key agribusiness men and women in each region were identified and interviewed, additional data from other actors along the target value chains could prove beneficial, especially from larger scale firms higher up the value chain beyond the regions and those involved in selling agricultural technologies.

• Due to the AWE team’s intentional protection of personal, identifiable information of FGD participants, we are unable to attribute statements to individuals.

CONTEXT

NATIONAL CONTEXT

SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS

Ghana has experienced impressive economic growth in recent years. Per capita GDP was $1,641 in

2017, making it one of the wealthiest countries in Africa. However, high incidence of poverty still exists, especially in the three regions of the north that have between 44.4- and 50.4-percent poverty rates

(MOFA 2017a). Of the 28.8 million people who live in Ghana, 43 percent (12.5 million) live in rural areas

(FAO 2017). Agriculture plays a vital role in Ghana’s economy and has a great impact on poverty reduction, accounting for 18 percent of the national GDP (MOFA 2017a).

Approximately 69 percent of the country’s land is devoted to agriculture, which currently provides employment for about 41 percent of the total workforce in the formal and informal sectors (FAO

2017). It is estimated that 52 percent of households in Ghana own or operate a farm. Farming is predominantly rural—82 percent of rural households are involved in farming (Ghana Statistical Service

2014). Agriculture in Ghana is mainly a smallholder activity—about 90 percent of farm holdings are less than 2 hectares in size; however, there are some relatively large farms and plantations, particularly for rubber, oil palm, banana, pineapple, and coconut and to a lesser extent, rice, maize, and cocoa.

Within the Feed the Future’s zone of influence, common crops include cereals, legumes, yam, maize, rice, cassava, tree crops (mango), and cashews. Livestock are cattle, small ruminants, and guinea fowl

(Brene 2017). Communities in the Western Region depend on agriculture and the marine fishery value chain for food and income.

Women in Agriculture and Fisheries. Women are key actors in Ghana's agriculture—the proportion of females involved in agriculture (41.2 percent) is about the same in both urban and rural

5 | GHANA WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT TO FOOD SECURITY AND YOUTH ASSESSMENT WWW.FEEDTHEFUTURE.GOV areas across the country (Ghana Statistical Service 2014). In Ghana, crops usually attributed to men are the main staples or those grown for local or international markets, such as cocoa, yam, millet, or sorghum. Women operate small farms and plots of land, and often grow less lucrative but more nutritious legumes and vegetables and soybean crops, and raise small livestock. Women often grow crops for family sustenance and then sell excess produce in the market. Limited access to productive resources, such as land, credit, and extension services, combined with household labor responsibilities greatly limit women’s productivity.

Fishing is a highly gender-segregated occupation with fishermen catching and landing the fresh fish, and women taking responsibility for processing and marketing. When the boats land, these “queens”2 are the ones who bargain with the fishermen, mediate conflicts over pricing and processing, and serve as the mouthpiece for local women involved in the industry. Women add significant value to fresh fish through processing, distributing, and preserving fish to ensure its availability long after the peak season, and allowing it to reach consumers far from the landing beach.

Youth. Ghana’s population is young, with 57 percent of the population under 25. Despite impressive economic growth, Ghana faces a significant youth under- and unemployment challenge. Unemployment among the youth (15–24 years) is 13.7 percent (World Bank 2017). In urban areas, unemployment rates are significantly higher than in rural areas because young people are often attracted to the cities in search of jobs. Young women face higher unemployment rates than their male counterparts. The youth unemployment rate is higher among the educated than the less educated, underscoring the lack of a robust job market for those with advanced skills (Ghana Statistical Service 2014).

Young people do not regard agriculture as a viable job option. Agriculture, in particular farming, is perceived as an occupation for aged, illiterate, and rural people. In a recent survey that asked Ghanaian youth about their priorities for government action, agriculture ranked the lowest (Center for

International Private Enterprise 2017). The literature review noted that even when youth are engaged in agriculture, income is poor and their work focuses on consumption, not profit (Mastercard 2017).

Human Capital.3 There is a difference in male and female literacy in rural areas, with the greatest gap in the Northern Region—male literacy rate is 45 percent and female 27.4 percent (Demographic and

Health Survey [DHS] Program 2015). Among rural populations, only 29 percent of women are literate, compared to 52 percent of men (FAO 2012). Female farmers are less likely to have access to public or private extension services; when they access them, the services do not meet their needs (ACDI/VOCA

2014). Women make up only 27 percent of extension workers (Cultural Practice 2011); very few extension workers, regardless of sex, have received gender training (International Food Policy Research

Institute [IFPRI] 2017).

Social Capital.4 Both men and women engage in community groups; however, men generally hold leadership roles due to lower literacy levels among women, lower confidence in women’s leadership

2 In Ghana’s small-scale fisheries, terms like the fish queen or fish mommy are used to refer to the female local authority on post-harvest operations who sets the prevailing market price at the beginning of each market day by examining the first few landings and determining the day’s standard. (World Bank 2015, see http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/729941468036266852/pdf/955570WP0P12480y00WEB004015020150V2.pdf) 3 “Human capital is the intangible collective resources possessed by individuals and groups within a given population. These resources include all knowledge, talent, skills, abilities, experience, intelligence, training.” (Encyclopedia Britannica) 4 “Social Capital… involves the potential of individuals to secure benefits and invent solutions to problems through membership in social networks.” (Encyclopedia Britannica) http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/729941468036266852/pdf/955570WP0P12480y00WEB004015020150V2.pdf

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2014). Women also often lack the resources needed to build large social networks and influence

(Cultural Practice 2011). An exception to this are village savings and loan associations (VSLAs), where women obtain increased social status and respect through their participation (Patel 2015).

Gender-Based Violence. Conditional intimate-partner violence is perceived as acceptable in Ghana—

37 percent of women and 22 percent of men believe a man is justified in beating his wife under certain circumstances (e.g., if a wife burns food or argues with her husband). Women interviewed noted that increased economic security decreases conflict with spouses (ACDI/VOCA 2014). Child labor, early marriage, and female genital mutilation are also present in the zone of influence; child labor is particularly prevalent in the marine fishery value chain (Ritualo 2012).

POLICY AND REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT

Major Policies and Regulations. The national economic plan, known as Ghana Vision 2020, launched in 1995. The plan envisions Ghana as the first African nation to become a developed country between

2020 and 2029, and a newly industrialized country between 2030 and 2039, through the integration of science and technology in governmental programs, including in the agricultural sector.

The Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda II (GSGDA) is the country’s overarching national medium-term development policy framework and poverty reduction strategy, with the main target to achieve an annual per capita income of least $3,000 by 2020. The emphasis on agriculture in the GSGDA

II is promoting gender equity in land reforms and land use planning and management; intensifying the incorporation of age/gender analysis into agriculture; and mainstreaming gender issues into agricultural mechanization (MOFA 2018).

Ghana’s policy framework regulating agricultural investment is underpinned by the Food and Agriculture

Sector Development Policy II (FASDEP II) and Medium-Term Agricultural Sector Investment Plan (METASIP II).

FASDEP II states the government’s long-term policy objectives in relation to the development of the agriculture sector, while METASIP II serves as the investment plan to implement the medium-term programs of the FASDEP II. METASIP II’s unique feature is that it seeks to leverage private-sector investments in agriculture and pursue the value chain approach (MOFA 2018).

The MOFA is currently implementing the Planting for Food and Jobs Campaign to increase productivity and production of selected value chains, and create jobs in the agriculture and related sectors. The campaign focuses on five value chains: maize, rice, soybean, sorghum, and vegetables. It has five pillars: (1) improving access to seeds, (2) improving access to fertilizers, (3) extension services, (4) marketing, and

(5) an e-Agriculture platform.

Land Ownership. The majority of land in Ghana, nearly 80 percent, falls under customary tenure. This means that land is held by an extended family, referred to as a “stool” or “skin” (the term used depends on the region and ethnic group—in the Northern Region “skin” is the common term, but the laws frequently use the term “stool land” to refer to all forms of customary land), but controlled by the family head or chief on behalf of their subjects (MOFA 2018).

Leaders assign access to land; the length of land tenure and scope of rights (e.g., ability to borrow against or rent) are variable. Generally, once land is assigned to them, individuals are able to control

7 | GHANA WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT TO FOOD SECURITY AND YOUTH ASSESSMENT WWW.FEEDTHEFUTURE.GOV planting, harvest, and income-generation decisions (Lambrecht 2016). In practice, intergenerational land transfers are traditionally patrilineal and great inequalities persist (Danyi Kuusaana and Kidido 2013).

With the exception of some cocoa-growing regions, where land inheritance is matrilineal and women own 30 percent of land, male heads of household across Ghana own most rural farming land, making all decisions about land tenure and leaving women with less access to land. In most cases, men own land or are given permission to use land by family heads or chiefs. Those men decide how much land will be dedicated to commercial crops versus how much will be used for family consumption. Women mostly access land through their families (parents) or husbands. Wives are required to work on the men’s commercial plots in addition to working their own, smaller plots. There were some references to families out-migrating from northern Ghana in search of agricultural opportunities. When women do own land, they most often have smaller plots than their male counterparts (Lambrecht 2016).

Finance. Historically, Ghanaian financial institutions have been reluctant to lend to agribusinesses due to perceived risk in the sector. This creates challenges for those working in the sector, and women’s lack of land collateral places them at an even greater disadvantage (Cultural Practice 2011). This lack of access to credit has implications for the adoption of improved seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and other technologies (Coastal Resource Center 2018).

NORTHERN GHANA

Sociocultural Situation of Women and Youth. The Upper East, Northern, and Upper West

Regions compose northern Ghana. In part due to colonial legacies, less favorable climatic conditions, distance from the sea, and lack of infrastructure, the north of Ghana has remained the least developed part of the country. Women have difficulty obtaining information outside the home and participating as members in farming cooperatives that would put them on an equal footing with men. Additionally, according to the most recent DHS Program data, the prevalence of polygyny is very high in northern

Ghana—42 percent of married women are in polygynous unions (DHS Program 2015).

Agriculture in the area is particularly male-dominated, while marketing is female-dominated. Women typically have access to smaller plots (Asare 2017), and their ability to generate income from these plots is limited because they are required to cultivate them for household consumption, as well as contribute labor to the plots of male heads of households (Lambrecht 2016).

SOUTHERN GHANA

Sociocultural Situation of Women and Youth. In part due to historical concentration of industrial development, favorable climatic conditions, proximity to the sea, and better infrastructure, southern

Ghana is wealthier, and has better social and health outcomes. The fishing industry employs close to 10 percent of Ghana’s population (Coastal Resources Center 2013); in coastal villages, it is a source of income for some 200,000 fishers and their 2 million dependents. Still, these communities remain poor due to severe marine degradation and artisanal fishers’ low use of technology (Nunoo et al. 2014).

Tradition strongly defines the roles of women and men in the marine fisheries value chain. In the Central and Greater Accra Regions, men primarily catch fish with assistance from young men and boys, while women and girls are more involved in post-harvest value-added activities, such as cleaning and preserving fish, smoking fish, and retail. Older women tend to own fish-processing businesses, and young women and girls assist in these activities. Sometimes they are paid for their work and other times their

8 | GHANA WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT TO FOOD SECURITY AND YOUTH ASSESSMENT WWW.FEEDTHEFUTURE.GOV labor is considered part of their household responsibilities. Women who are involved in a fishing role primarily fish oysters and crabs found in smaller bodies of water, such as estuaries and lagoons. Women are often excluded from capacity-building initiatives, community consultations, and fisheries management decision-making processes (Environmental Justice Foundation 2019).

FINDINGS

BEHAVIOR 1: WOMEN USE FINANCE TO START/GROW

AGRICULTURAL BUSINESSES (MSMEs)

The literature review identified multiple barriers to women’s access to financial services in the agriculture sector, including: (1) low levels of literacy and financial literacy; (2) lack of access to private savings products; and (3) inability to obtain credit to start, maintain, or grow businesses. KIIs and FGDs largely supported these findings, and identified VSLAs and social norms as influencers.

FINDING 1: VSLAs are the primary source of financial services for women and female youth’s businesses, and also serve as social safety nets.

Women and female youth repeatedly expressed preference for VSLAs as the main source of financing for their businesses, followed by using personal resources and earnings, or loans from family and friends.

When asked why they preferred VSLAs, respondents said:

I have not gone for a loan from the bank because my superiors taught me that there are rules that govern taking loans from a bank and you can be arrested if you flout them… I save a portion of whatever I earn. – Agribusiness man, 25+, Western Region

Women and female youth also frequently mentioned that VSLAs met their agribusiness finance needs and served as a social safety net when they needed funds to cover school fees, household food purchases, unexpected health expenses, and even funerals.

… [W]hen you [are] finished selling your crop yields at the end of the raining season and the matter of the child school fees comes up… if you go to the group that you want 10 million (old currency), they will not ask you the reason for the money and they will give it to you to go and pay your child school fees… And [also if there is something] like an accident in terms of your health and you don’t have money. – Agribusiness woman, 25+, Upper East Region

I get financial benefit from the village savings association. I may need chop money5 and request, so they would help me with some money. – Young woman, 18–24, Northern Region

The literature review also revealed that VSLAs were the preferred source of financial services. They had proven effective at raising capital and creating cultures of saving (Coastal Resources Center 2018).

VSLAs loans are typically very small.

However, during focus groups young men said to be successful, you should save money in banks like Akatakyiman rural bank, GN Bank or Shako Bank FGD – Young man, 18–24, Central Region

5 In Ghana, chop money is a colloquial term that refers to money for the daily provision of food, which the husband traditionally gives to the wife. Sometimes it is also used to refer to the payment of utility bills (water, electricity, phone). See:

https://www.modernghana.com/news/102737/chop-money-wahala.html https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Ghana https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=the%20daily https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=provision https://www.modernghana.com/news/102737/chop-money-wahala.html

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FINDING 2: VSLAs and commodity groups promote women’s voice and ability to access community decision makers.

Respondents also said that VSLA’s and commodity groups provided fora for voicing their opinions and discussing business challenges.

First, some of us did not have voices but now, because of the good works of the group, we do. Now, we can go and have discussions with the minister and other top officials when we have [business] problems. They have taught us advocacy and how to interact with people when you have a problem.

– Key stakeholder, female, 25+, Greater Accra

They [women under 24] can talk. If you raise your hand at the box meeting, you have the right to talk. – Agribusiness woman, 25+, Upper East Region

FINDING 3: Women’s and youth’s lack of collateral hinders their ability to access financial services for agricultural businesses.

Respondents said that women and youth had difficulty accessing financial services due to a lack of land and fixed collateral. They said this resulted in women’s agribusiness remaining small.

Small-scale nature of women agribusinesses is a result of access and control of production resources. – Key stakeholder, female, 25+, Greater Accra

Products and services of financial institutions mostly do not consider the needs of women. [There are] not enough innovative financing systems for farmers, particularly women and the youth. – Key stakeholder, female, 25+, Greater Accra

Male youth FGD participants indicated that some financing for agribusiness was available through nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that would fund their wives, but not target men, unless they were farmers.

[A young man] would have more access to finance if only he [stayed] in farming because… often… NGOs come in to help farmers rather than businessmen… there are some NGOs that give money to women to aid them in their businesses… so [typically women] would always be the right person [to obtain finance for agribusiness]. – Young men, 18–24, North East Region

The literature review also found that few financial institutions offered products designed to meet women’s needs in rural areas, such as savings products or rural credit services that waive collateral requirements. This lack of access to credit directly affects the types and amounts of inputs women are able to purchase for their farms and businesses (ACDI/VOCA 2014). It also has implications for the adoption of improved seeds, fertilizers, and other technologies (Coastal Resources Center 2018).

FINDING 4: Women and female youth could face social censure for using formal financial services and exercising financial privacy.

Both women and men acknowledged that financial privacy was risky for women. Women mentioned that even if a young woman had a successful business, she would not be able to obtain financial privacy without backlash from her family and the community. Male respondents said that sometimes women had privacy, but this would become a problem if they were more successful than their husbands. The community might say the husband could not take care of his family or the household. When asked what

10 | GHANA WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT TO FOOD SECURITY AND YOUTH ASSESSMENT WWW.FEEDTHEFUTURE.GOV consequences a woman would face for maintaining financial privacy and independently making decisions about how to spend a portion of her earnings, respondents said:

The people won’t be happy. At least some should also get small help from her… they [the community] will say you had the money through rituals [black magic witchcraft]. – Key stakeholder, female, 25+, Greater Accra

It wouldn’t speak well of her. Because she doesn’t consult anyone and spends her money at her own will. If someone behaves this way, they call her as a disrespectful person. – Young women, 18–24, Northern Region

One FGD participant from the Western Region expressed a different view. She said:

When I work and give the money to my husband and the time comes for me to use the money, I realize the money is never intact, leading to confusion between us. Because I want to avoid all these things, I have opened my own account where I save my money. They [community members] will think the man is the one funding my business, which is not so… Also, when you keep your money with your husband, he tends to think you have money and so neglect[s] his responsibilities. That is why it is good for the woman to save on her own. – Young women, 18–24, Western Region

FINDING 5: Married couples consult each other on business and productive resource decisions; however, men can make decisions independently.

The majority of young female FGD respondents noted that most men would share resources and make decisions about assets in consultation with their wives. In turn, female youth consulted their husbands before seeking formal financial services. However, when probed, female youth said men had the power to make decisions about assets and productive resources without input from their wives.

The woman who is more involved in decision making in the house will be a woman who has got some money... because [if] the woman has money, she is able to get involved. – Young men, 18–24, Western Region

There is a local proverb that “two heads are better than one…” I will discuss with [my wife] to ensure everything goes well. This is because “one finger cannot pick a stone,” unless [there are] two fingers.

If you discuss with [your wife], it would be more beneficial than thinking alone. – Young men, 18–24, Northern Region

Similarly, young men in East Mamprusi expressed that men sometimes informed the women on the ownership of assets; however, they mainly decided on family expenditures because “he is the head of the household” and “brings the money.” Exhibit 5 shows how respondents in northern Ghana described decision making across a variety of topics.

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Exhibit 5: Decision making roles in northern Ghana

BEHAVIOR 2: YOUTH PARTICIPATE IN AND BENEFIT FROM

AGRIBUSINESS DEVELOPMENT6

The literature review identified multiple challenges for youth to participate in and benefit from agribusiness, including lack of: (1) access to financial services; (2) collateral; and (3) ability to obtain skills and technologies. Young women face additional challenges of early marriage and pregnancy, and less schooling and social networking, which make it even harder for them to benefit from agribusiness participation. In response to these challenges, youth tend to engage in a mix of informal and self-employment opportunities along with household-level agricultural activities.

FINDING 6: Youth do not necessarily want to follow their parents’ farming footsteps.

Across the regions, male and female stakeholders said youth were not interested in agricultural production due to the long hours, high risks of farming, hard manual labor, and lack of opportunity.

Instead, youth preferred white-collar jobs they perceived to offer more economic benefit. Men and women stakeholder respondents also believed youth avoided farming because they were lazy and not business savvy.

Due to the perception and stereotyping about the business, youth feel that such [agri-] business belongs to the non-literates. They are in search of white colored jobs, which are non-existing. – Key stakeholder, male, 25+ Greater Accra

They are not working. These young ones between the ages of 18 to 24 are eager to work, but here in Komenda, there is no job opportunities for them, so some help their mothers smoke the fish.

Others go to Tarkwa and Takoradi to sell bread to earn a living to cater for themselves. – Agribusiness women, 25+, Central Region

6 In this sub-section, we explore “agribusiness”—the business ownership or operations linked with “agriculture,” which refers to the art of production, processing, marketing, and use of foods, fibers, and byproducts from plants, crops, and animals (see

Quora.com).

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They [youth] are not hard working... Some are lazy. – Key stakeholder, male, 25+ Northern Region

Young women would love to do more corn flour grinding, to go [to] southern part of the country for sale. – Key stakeholder, female, 25+ Upper East Region

Most of the boys are running to the southern part of Ghana. Just because they think they can better their lives from that place. – Key stakeholder, male, 25+, Northern Region

When youth participate in agribusiness, they often learn their parents’ trade; however, they are less interested in primary production and prefer roles in processing, input, sales, and services. Young men are interested in agricultural production of value chains that generate more income, such as onions, yams, and fisheries. See Annex C for a list of experiences and interests of youth.

This business has a lot of stress in it… youth have diverted towards education; they do not want to suffer. Also, they say the fishes are finishing so… So, parents are sending their wards to school. – Key stakeholder, female, 25+, Greater Accra

FINDING 7: Networks increase information sharing, but do not always include youth.

Male and female youth receive information about agribusiness development through group participation or word-of-mouth from family or friends (see the graphic of sources of information for youth in Exhibit

6). Marine fisheries groups do not usually have female youth members. Female youth in the fisheries value chain typically work with their parents. When asked how youth receive information about agribusiness participation, one respondent said:

All the information is available in the groups that we join. You may not be in the group, but can get information from friends and relatives who are in these groups. – Key stakeholder, female, 25+, Greater Accra

Associations and savings groups, also called the “box,” can include youth, depending on the flexibility of their rules. Rules are not usually focused on age; however, they do require that members are able to financially contribute and have the time to attend meetings. Even when allowed, youth rarely participate and only do so with a parent.

Those in that category [age 24 and below] work with their parents... but at a point in time, they can decide to be independent and work on their own. – Key stakeholder, female, 25+, Greater Accra

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Exhibit 6: Influencers of male and female youth (all regions)

FINDING 8: There is inequitable training and support for agribusiness based on sex and age.

Men in the Northern and Upper East Regions reported having access to extension services and training;

however, financial constraints often limited their adoption of improved agricultural practices. In the

Upper East Region, the lack of training on how to use insecticides and herbicides was also listed as a key constraint, in addition to poor access to finance. When asked about training, a respondent said:

ESOKO trained us some time back at Yendi [community center]. They educated us on how to market our products. They even gave us a phone contact and if you call them now, they’ll give you the prices of every commodity in various markets… [Females] were [there], but they weren’t many.

– Agribusiness man, 25+, Northern Region

Ultimately, young women said they received informal training from other women.

She can go to someone who is already in the business to be taught how to smoke fish, gutting and filleting so she will also know how it is done. – Young women, 18–24, Central Region

Women within the group, [we] advise and teach ourselves on a regular basis. For instance, a lady came to me this morning [and said] that she wanted… to seek advice on what to do to be able to sell water and I told her what to do. So, we learn from each other. – Key stakeholder, female, 25+, Greater Accra

Female and male youth faced challenges in accessing training or equipment outside their families.

Agribusiness people gave young men advice different from young women on how to start a business and find success. This advice was often based on gender roles and responsibilities. See the word tree in

Annex D, which shows agribusiness men advise young men to get technology (e.g., tractors) and access loans, while for women they suggest to consider the amount of work farming entails.

BEHAVIOR 3: WOMEN ACCESS MORE “BEYOND

PRODUCTION” WORK/ENTERPRISE OPPORTUNITIES

Ghanaian women traditionally engage in agriculture by growing food for their households and selling surplus. The literature review found that these types of activities have not afforded women substantial

14 | GHANA WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT TO FOOD SECURITY AND YOUTH ASSESSMENT WWW.FEEDTHEFUTURE.GOV income (ACDI/VOCA 2014). Additionally, the

USAID/Ghana BIG profile, EGO 09, stated that “The

Government of Ghana (GOG) does not improve private sector enabling environment for women because they lack policies to foster inclusion and recognize gender limitations.”

Through primary data collection, the AWE team targeted female role models and positive deviants who could work in “beyond production” (see text box) to learn how they accessed opportunities and whether they considered themselves empowered. Of the role models interviewed, 13 were self-employed and one worked for an organization.7

FINDING 9: Work opportunities tend to be segregated by gender and age.

Respondents discussed their aspirations and the prevalence of women in aggregation and processing roles in select value chains. These “beyond production” roles were particularly noticeable in aggregation of shea, yam, and groundnut in the North (Mion district); processing of shea into butter in the Northern

Region; and processing of maize flour, and preserving fish in the Central and Western Regions. In nearly all the cases, women who participated in these activities belonged to groups dedicated to providing access to finance, improving productivity, or benefiting women. Socially connected and economically active respondents explained:

They [the organization] taught us [women] how to process shea butter. – Agribusiness women, 25+, North East Region

We [the Central and Western Fishmongers Improvement Association group] have the dressing room, portable water, a processing shed where you can go and then process your fish. If you want to dry your fish, we have erected structures where you can salt your fish and then dry them and salting and drying structures… – Agribusiness woman, 18–24, Central Region

Q: Is there any economic activity that you will be interested in in the future?

R: Yes, gari processing. I have vast land for a gari processing factory.

– Agribusiness woman, 18–24, Central Region

Young women in focus groups, in contrast, mentioned more agricultural production opportunities or non-agricultural aspirations.

[A typical young woman here] would like to enter into crop production… groundnut, soybean… yes… it [is] good for a woman. – Young women, 18–24, North East Region

[A typical young woman here would aspire to] fish mongering… [or] she probably might like to learn a trade… Dressmaking or hairdressing. – Young women, 18–24, Western Region

7 The socially connected, economically active women worked in various sectors and roles, including: fish mongers, retail of groundnuts, shea nuts, maize, soybeans, and rice, which in some cases, they also helped farm. One woman sold fertilizer.

Additionally, one woman had a physical store, where she also warehoused the Agric officers’ equipment and supplies.

Agricultural “Beyond Production” Roles

Roles for women outside of production, including in agricultural inputs and services, processing, marketing, and retail sales could offer women better economic empowerment opportunities.

Source: Women’s Economic Empowerment: Pushing the

Frontiers of Inclusive Market Development. USAID. 2015

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FINDING 10: Women and men reported women engaged frequently in retail sales.

Across the regions, women play a significant role in retail, especially selling food commodities at the markets.