Agriterra trained 14 strong willed female (future) leaders in the first ever ‘Female Leadership in Agricultural Cooperatives Masterclass’, held in Kenya. The group is composed of Zambian, Ugandese and Kenyan participants, representing organisations that are active in coffee, dairy, sunflower or credit and saving.
Main purpose of the masterclass is to strengthen the leadership skills of these women. These highly motivated cooperative leaders return full of energy and ambitions back to their respective cooperatives, better equipped to take up their leadership roles and make a change contributing to closing the gender gap in agricultural cooperatives.
Sarah is a secondary school teacher in Kibaale, South West Uganda. She is a mother of five Kand owner of a coffee farm together with her husband. To Sarah’s father education was very important for both his sons and daughters. Therefore, his daughters got equal access to education, despite the cultural beliefs as for example in the African proverb: “Women should not be more educated than men”.
Sarah started taking on a leadership role in primary school. After primary school, she went to college to study for a teaching certificate, where she met her future husband who also studied to become a teacher. Her husband even encouraged Sarah to get further education and continues to be supportive by taking care of the children and creating a good environment for her to study and work.
When Sarah and her husband started their teaching career, they also set up their own farm. On the farm they grow coffee as a cash crop, which they supply to the Kasaali Farmers’ Cooperative Society. Sarah’s husband is a board member of the cooperative. Sarah is a lead farmer of the cooperative, where she motivates and encourages other women to learn from her, focusing on increasing their production. She leads a campaign that encourages men to work with women on the coffee shambas and promotes an inclusive family business allowing women to get a fair share of the coffee income. After following the Agriterra Female Leadership Training in August 2019, Sarah felt more empowered to create awareness among women and men about the gender inequality in her culture and how to overcome this. She became more determined in her opinion that more women should join the cooperative as full-fledged members.
Sarah started joining her husband in group meetings (Agalya Awamu group in Kiswaga), where she talked to the members (men and women) about their role in the cooperative and in their farms. “Men talk ill about women and see them as thieves”, she says. Sarah discovered that some women were secretly selling the coffee outside of the cooperative because they were angry they didn’t get any income from the coffee production. Sarah discussed this issue with various families, in a mediating role but also pointing out that women who do a lot of the work on the farm but cannot benefit from the income (may) turn against the business.
Sarah promotes farming as an activity of the entire family. If young girls see their mothers steal coffee or damage the farms,, they may also do this in the future. Therefore, Sarah, together with some other members of the cooperative, came up with the proposition that women can also buy shares and become full-fledged members of the cooperative.
I encourage women to take on leadership positions at all levels because we are capable.
Sarah proudly shares that the Board of Directors has approved of her proposition to recruit more female members and to appoint a woman as the next chairperson. As a result, Kasaali Cooperative has expanded its membership base from 2018 to 2019 with 100 new members, whereof 50% of the new members are women, increasing the female membership from 23 to 26%.
On March 14, the Annual General Meeting of the Kasaali Cooperative elected its first ever female chairperson Madam Kigundu Lovence.
Sarah is a strong willed and analytical leader. She is not (yet) on the forefront, but her long term goal is to become a Kasaali board member. She is an active and influential member, accepted and respected by members, leading by example. The collaboration with her husband and the mutual support of the couple gives her the space she needs to further develop her leadership skills. She participated in the Female Leadership Masterclass in Nairobi and this was a great experience: travelling internationally for the first time and sharing experiences with other female leaders.
Personally I wasn't very good in convincing when I needed something to be done. Since the Masterclass training I have learnt to influence people and know who to approach. I can now achieve something.