With more than 60% of women in the Women Creating Wealth (WCW) programme engaged in agriculture, this sector serves as a strategic focus for advancing womenâs economic opportunities. To overcome the critical challenges that women entrepreneurs face in accessing markets and finance, the programme is actively collecting data, documenting lessons learned, and developing targeted interventions to dismantle structural barriers.
Collaborative research with the Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development (CCRED) at the University of Johannesburg has provided valuable insights into market dynamics and challenges within African agricultural value chains. These challenges include the dominance of established agents restricting women’s entry into export markets, limited access to market data, reliance on informal markets, and the underrepresentation of women-owned brands in domestic markets.
To address these barriers, WCW is implementing targeted solutions such as export readiness training, centralised data-sharing platforms, capacity-building for transitioning into formal markets, and marketing initiatives to elevate women-owned brands.
Photo Credit: Evelyn Chama Some of the products by Chama Bwalya.Â
One of the entrepreneurs who exemplifies the early success of these market access interventions is Chama Bwalya from Lusaka, Zambia. With guidance from her coach, Chama developed a market access strategy and is preparing for investment. She expanded her customer base, increased revenue through partnerships with chain stores, and diversified her product portfolio from fresh strawberries to dried fruits, jams, and sauces. Collaborating with a banana plantation helped her to source bananas without cultivation, leveraging WCW-I’s ecosystem.
Photo: Chama (right) shares a light moment with a fellow women entrepreneur during the recent WCW Summit in Johannesburg
Â
“The WCW programme has been helping me develop confidence, refine operations, and expand my market reach.” â Chama Bwalya, WCW Entrepreneur
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting childrenâs rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Childrenâs Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescentsâ health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trustâs goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a motherâs health and social economic conditions, the early years of a childâs life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.