Project profile — Rural Women Cultivating Change in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania

• Ethiopia (33.00%)
• Kenya (34.00%)
• Tanzania (33.00%)

• Human rights:
Human rights (15160) (20.00%)
Women's rights organisations and movements, and government institutions (15170) (15.00%)
Ending violence against women and girls (15180) (10.00%)
• Agricultural development:
Agricultural development (31120) (15.00%)
Agricultural land resources (31130) (10.00%)
Agricultural inputs (31150) (10.00%)
Agricultural education/training (31181) (10.00%)
• General Environmental Protection: Bio-diversity (41030) (10.00%)

• Biodiversity (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (principal objective)
• Climate Change Adaptation (principal objective)
• Nutrition (significant objective)
• Gender equality (principal objective)

The project works at the intersection of women’s rights and climate adaptation. The project aims to empower women and encourage gender-transformative change, through the use of agroecological approaches that encourage equitable production, resource management, and market access. Working in collaboration with women’s rights organizations (WROs) and agricultural-based organizations, support is provided to advance climate adaptation, increase food security, enhance gender equality, reduce sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and improve livelihoods for rural women. The project targets remote rural regions of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, where farming is the primary occupation and principal use of women’s labour. The specific geographic areas that the project will target include North Wollo Zone of Amhara Region in Ethiopia; Baringo, Nakuru, Kakamega, Laikipia and Kitui counties in Kenya; and Morogoro and Gairo District Councils of Morogoro, Babati and Mbulu District Councils of Manyara and Mwanga and Same District Councils of Kilimanjaro Regions in Tanzania. These regions are adversely impacted by climate change; food insecurity; patriarchal norms and practices; and high rates of SGBV that severely limit women’s household and community leadership roles and affect their agricultural practices. This project contributes to Canada’s commitments to climate adaptation, gender equality, women’s empowerment, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and sub-Saharan Africa. SeedChange is working with local agricultural organizations, local women’s rights organizations for exchanging methodologies and operations support in all three countries. In Ethiopia, they are working in partnership with Women Empowerment Action (WE-Action) and the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD). In Kenya, with Grass Roots Organizations Operating Together in Sisterhood (GROOTS), Hivos East Africa and Seed Savers Network (SSN). In Tanzania, with Participatory Ecological Land Use Management Tanzania (PELUM) and Tanzania Gender Networking Program (TGNP). The Coady International Institute is supporting operations in all three countries, bringing expertise and training in their gender transformative Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) methodology.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) enhanced and more systematic engagement of and by diverse young and adult rural women from Female-headed households and Male-headed households in public leadership and gender-transformative decision-making processes, including women’s and farmers’ rights and climate adaptation; (2) strengthened prevention of and response to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), including traditional harmful practices (THPs), by individuals (f/m) and state/civil society actors; and (3) enhanced benefit for young and adult women, particularly from FHHs, in climate-resilient and local food systems including income-generation.

Results achieved as of March 2025 include: (1) supported more than 4,700 women leaders. The project unravelled social norms that restricted women’s voices in public. Over the 3 countries,154 women ran for various local government positions (21% of the total 725 candidates); (2) increased to 57 the number of duty-bearer institutions working with the project who improved their implementation of linkages, policies and strategies for prevention and response to SGBV. This helped to meet the annual targets of 4 in Ethiopia, 18 in Tanzania, and greatly exceeding the Kenyan target of 4, with 29 improving their policies and strategies. In all the 3 countries, significant improvements in implementing linkages, policies, and strategies for SGBV prevention and response occurred, including inter-agency collaboration, referral pathways, integration of survivor-centered approaches into local response plans, and strengthened alignment with national SGBV policies and frameworks; and (3) directly engaged 13,342 participants, including 3,695 young women, 974 young men, 6,304 adult women, and 2,369 adult men, reaching a total of 71,223 direct beneficiaries. Both men and women farmers exceeded project targets for “practicing 4 or more of the following sustainable utilization of agricultural biodiversity resources, including on-farm and community seed bank conservation systems, seed multiplication, agroforestry, selection and breeding of locally adapted crop varieties”. This ranges from a low of 66% of women farmers in target areas in Kenya (relative to a baseline of 24% and a target for end of project of 65%) to a high of 97% of men Ethiopian farmers (baseline 45%, target 60%). The project also influenced the development of agricultural policies such as the Nakuru Agroecology Policy and the National Agroecology Strategy for Food System Transformation 2024-2033 in Kenya, and the Tanzania National Ecological Organic Agriculture Strategy (NEOAS).

• Proactive disclosure