Background
AGRA is a not-for-profit organization working with African governments, other donors, NGOs, the private sector, and farmers to improve the productivity and incomes of resource-poor smallholder farmers in Africa. AGRA aims to catalyze an inclusive agricultural transformation in Africa by increasing incomes and improving food security for millions of smallholder farmers in Africa. For more information about AGRA, please visit www.agra.org.
Founded in 2006, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is an African-led, African-based organization that seeks to catalyze Agriculture Transformation in Africa. In its current strategy (AGRA 3.0, 2023-2027), AGRA intends to influence and leverage its partners to build a robust enabling environment where private sector thrives and all smallholders farmers are empowered to produce sufficient and healthy food. AGRA’s vision is therefore “to contribute to an inclusive agricultural transformation across Africa, to reduce hunger, improve nutrition, and adapt to climate change”. Its mission is “to catalyze the growth of sustainable food systems across Africa, by influencing and leveraging partners to build a robust enabling environment where private sector thrives, and all smallholder farmers are empowered to produce sufficient and healthy food”.
In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the transformative potential of entrepreneurship in driving economic growth and development across Africa. Female entrepreneurs, in particular young females, hold significant promise for revitalizing sectors such as agriculture, which is crucial to the continent’s economy. However, despite the burgeoning interest in agribusiness and the vital role that women play, there remains a critical gap in addressing the specific needs and challenges faced by women agripreneurs. This demographic often encounters systemic barriers that hinder their ability to thrive, including limited access to essential resources, inadequate support structures, and broader socio-economic constraints.
The challenges faced by female entrepreneurs, especially young females in Africa, Mozambique included, are multifaceted, creating substantial barriers to their success. Limited access to capital constrains their ability to implement transformative ideas, hindering the emergence of groundbreaking solutions. Additionally, the scarcity of mentorship opportunities and networking platforms isolates aspiring agripreneurs, impeding the spillover of ideas and collaborative efforts. Unequal access to productive resources, including limited land tenure rights, exacerbates these challenges in the agriculture and agribusiness sectors. The persistence of these obstacles, coupled with the compounding effects of climate change and pandemics like COVID-19, poses insurmountable barriers to the advancement of women-owned/led enterprises in agriculture.
In response to the above challenges, AGRA through its VALUE4HER initiative aims to increase the performance of female-led agribusiness enterprises in Africa by facilitating access to high-value markets and trade opportunities, providing access to finance and investments, building women especially young women’s leadership skills and capacities to grow their businesses and enhance voice and agency through socio and collective capital. These initiatives are built on the rationale and development evidence that women-owned businesses grow when their business development efforts are complemented and linked to national, regional, and global development agendas.
Objectives
AGRA aims to promote VALUE4HER to increase the onboarding of women, particularly young women agripreneurs in Mozambique, with a focus on showcasing value and anchoring their businesses within national networks. Furthermore, the initiative seeks to develop a robust engagement model that incorporates communication in Portuguese and other local languages to ensure inclusivity and relevance. The initiative also aims at scaling VALUE4HER at the national level to facilitate the generation of relevant knowledge and insights tailored to Mozambique. This will enable the scaling of women-led businesses and linkages, amplify women’s voices in advocacy efforts, increase visibility, and enhance participation in national and continental platforms.
In addition, the initiative will mobilize Mozambican agri-preneurs to actively utilize the services offered on the continental platforms. Special emphasis will be placed on supporting entrepreneurs who employ or benefit women, recognizing their critical role in driving socioeconomic development. By fostering an environment where women-centric businesses thrive, we aim to create a ripple effect that empowers more women and strengthens community resilience”
The overall objective of this initiative is to enhance value for women in agribusiness through:
To achieve these strategic objectives, AGRA seeks the services of an experienced consultant to conduct an ecosystem analysis and support efforts to mobilize women/young women agripreneurs across Mozambique to join VALUE4HER platform.
The consultant will also support outreach to partners and develop a roadmap for implementing the VALUE4HER program in Mozambique. The specific objectives of the consultancy are:
Qualifications and Experience
We seek to engage an individual consultant who has a combination of these areas of expertise to deliver on this task:
