Economic Commission for Africa steps up action for african women farmers

Addis Ababa, 13 February 2026 (ECA) - The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), represented by the Director of the Socioeconomic Development Division, Ms Zuzana Schwidrowski, has announced bold new commitments to advance women's leadership and economic empowerment in African agrifood systems during the International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026.

Speaking at the 9th EWA-AWLN High-Level Breakfast Meeting on the margins of the 39th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, ECA pledged to work with the African Union, UN Women, the African Women Leaders Network and the Empowering Women in Agriculture initiative to turn women farmers' contributions into real power, income and voice across the value chain.

ECA underscored that women form a large share of Africa's agrifood workforce yet continue to face systemic barriers to land, finance, technology, markets and decision-making, which depress productivity and earnings and slow progress on food security and inclusive growth. Closing these gaps, ECA stressed, is both a rights and an economic imperative, with equal access to productive resources poised to raise output, strengthen resilience, and accelerate progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Building on its existing work with the African Union on gender-responsive land governance and women's economic empowerment, ECA outlined three priority action areas for collaboration with EWA, AWLN and partners:

• Securing and enforcing women's land and property rights by supporting legal and administrative reforms, scaling up implementation of the AU Guidelines on women's land tenure security, and increasing the share of documented land held by women.

• Closing productivity and earnings gaps by expanding gender-responsive extension and digital advisory services, improving women's access to quality inputs, storage and processing facilities, and addressing care constraints that limit women's time and mobility.

• Unlocking access to finance and markets for women-led cooperatives and agribusinesses, including through innovative financial products, guarantees and partnerships with institutions such as the IFC and other development finance actors.

ECA is committed to using its role as a regional convener and think tank to embed strong gender-disaggregated data on women in agrifood systems into CAADP-aligned plans, national development strategies and financing frameworks, ensuring that policy and investment decisions are driven by evidence rather than assumptions.

ECA also tabled a practical proposal to co-create, with EWA, AWLN, and the Becoming Women in Agriculture programme, an African Women Farmer Leadership and Prosperity Agenda that links secure land rights, care-economy investments, digital and financial inclusion, and entrepreneurship and trade opportunities for women farmers. This agenda will be supported by clear country roadmaps and a simple scorecard aligned with the emerging EWA scorecard initiative, enabling leaders to track progress in narrowing gender gaps in productivity, assets and leadership and to hold themselves accountable for results.

With growing interest from partners including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the World Bank Group's International Finance Corporation, ECA signalled its determination to transform high-level commitments into scalable country-level action in the months ahead. The Commission affirmed that matching women's leadership and innovation with secure rights, enabling policies, skills, finance and supportive social and digital infrastructure can turn the International Year of the Woman Farmer into a genuine turning point, making Africa's agrifood systems engines of dignity, equality and shared prosperity for rural women, youth and their communities.

Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: [email protected]