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Inspiring Agricultural Change 

Sharefair on Rural Women’s Technologies to Improve Food Security,

Nutrion, and Producve Family Farming 

W 

omen play a key role in ensuring family

nutrion and household food security.However, women in agriculture and rural development face

numerous constraints when it comes to accessing labour-

saving technologies and nancial services. There is broad consensus on

the need to invest in women farmers to guarantee their equal access toproducve resources, technical knowledge and viable markets. Despite

this recognion, women have limited exposure to new technologies, lack

opportunies to meet each, and rarely get to interact with entrepreneurs

and nanciers. 

Countless small-scale innovaons are being implemented in the region

that need to be shared, incubated and taken to scale. These innovave,

women-led acvies can inspire change and ulmately contribute to

beer agriculture producvity, enhanced livelihoods and improved

household nutrion. 

Studies have demonstrated that by removing gender-

related barriersand empowering women in agriculture to fully engage in regional

economies would accelerate growth, reduce poverty and improve food

security. Indeed, a recent Internaonal Food Policy Research Instute

(IFPRI) report (2014) noted that agricultural technologies could increase

global crop yield by as much as 67 percent and cut food prices to nearly

half by 2050.

This Sharefair comes at an opportune me. It will boost aenon to

rural women as drivers of rural progress and change in view of the 2015

MDGs, and the post-MDG agenda as well as the 20th anniversary in 2015

of the Beijing Plaorm for Acon adopted at the 4th World Conference

on Women. In addion, 2014 is the Internaonal Year of Family Farming,and the African Union has declared 2014 as the Year of Agriculture and

Food Security .

UN Women’s Regional Oce for Eastern and Southern Africa, 

in partnership with FAO, IFAD and WFP and others will host

Inspiring Agricultural Change:

Sharefair on Rural Women's Technologies to Improve

Food Security, Nutrion and Producve Family Farming ,

an excing regional iniave to coincide with Internaonal

Rural Women’s Day and World Food Day

in Nairobi, Kenya from 15-17 October 2014. 

WFP/Marc Hofer 

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The interagency organizing commiee is acvely seeking funding for the various components of the Sharefair.

We look forward to your support of the eort. To get involved, please contact any of the individuals below. 

Sharefair Organizing Commiee 

Asa Torkelsson, UN Women Regional Oce for Eastern and Southern Africa asa.torkelsson@unwomen.org 

Karine Garnier, FAO Sub-Regional Emergency Oce for Eastern and Central Africa karine.garnier@fao.org 

Elisabeth Ssendiwala, IFAD Regional Oce in Nairobi e.ssendiwala@ifad.org 

Robin Landis, WFP Regional Bureau for East and Central Africa  robin.landis@wfp.org 

See also www.empowerwomen.org/sharefair2014 

The Sharefair on Rural Women’s Technologies to Improve Food

Security, Nutrion, and Producve Family Farming will promote

technologies and innovaons that support rural female smallholder

farmers. There will be a substanve South-South component to the

iniave that will not only bring together rural women innovators from

around the region, but it will also oer a plaorm for policymakers,

academicians, food producers, investors, technology innovators and

others to interact with the women.

To encourage and develop future technologies, a  Young Scienst Award

is will be presented to acknowledge promising students who are

designing technologies that take into consideraon the unique gender

dimensions of rural agriculture, food security and nutrion. 

To kick-o the Sharefair, a high-level roundtable will be held with

regional and naonal government ocials and other selected leaders

to highlight eorts to introduce gender-sensive agricultural and

nutrion policies, idenfy promising technologies, and how to address

the constraints to scaling up. 

This 3-

day event is being priorized as the 2014 agship event for theRegional Network on Gender and Rural Livelihoods for Eastern and

Central Africa and will draw from the collecve experse and acve

Objecves of the Sharefair 

1. Accelerate programmac and policy aenon to

gender and agriculture and praccal ways to

overcome challenges in gender-related technology,

food security, and nutrion. 

2. Generate a permanent technology repository 

of technology opons that meet the needs of

female farmers and that can serve the sector and

the region. 

3. Idenfy new and scale up exisng technologies

by linking farmers to entrepreneurs, investors and

policy makers. 

4. 

Strengthen the Regional Network on Gender and

Rural Livelihoods through deepened collaboraons

on gender and agriculture and food security. 

©FAO/Jon Spaull 

©FAO/H. Wagner 

©FAO/Jose Cendon 

©FAO/Sia Kambou