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.
Ruth Banda is a 64 year old woman from Eastern Zambia. She is currently the chairperson of the Chadiza District Farmers Association. For 21 years she was a teacher and raised her family. After retiring in 1995, she decided to start farming. In 1998, she established a small farmer group, and joined as a board member. This group joined the CDFA and Ruth became an active member.
“The training was very educative, inspiring and exciting.”
Since then, she sat in several district committees and boards. She also held several leadership positions in other Community Based Organisations. She was appointed as manager for the Food Reserve Agency Marketing contract from 2009 to 2012. In 2014, she was elected as National Vice Chairperson for the Women Farmers’ Forum at the Zambia National Farmers Union and was elected Chairperson in 2017. She is now a board member of ZNFU representing the Women Farmers.
In November 2018, Ruth joined the female leadership training organised by Agriterra and this reconfirmed and consolidated her desire and commitment to be a female leader. She did not hesitate anymore and put herself forward as a candidate for the chairperson position of CDFA. She was elected by the members, leaving 3 men behind her, and is now heading the Board of Directors.
Her experiences in Zambia are:
• Little support from fellow women.
• “Let’s wait and see” attitude from the opposite sex.
• Low participation of female members and high illiteracy level of the women.
The female leadership training has resulted in remarkable changes in CDFA:
• Amendment of the constitution to allow more than 30% of female representation at board level and implementation hereof (currently 40%)
• More participation of female members during the meetings
• Establishment of women and youth council at district level
• More women in leadership positions at zone/group level
• More women willing to take up leadership positions and more networking and collaboration with stakeholders.
Ruth participated in the Masterclass female leadership. Her story and experiences are an example for the other participants, but she also learned a lot, which will help her to be a good leader.
