Levelling the Field report calls for African governments to help empower women farmers

On June 5, in Berlin, Markus Goldstein and Malcolm Ehrenpreis from the World Bank’s Africa Gender Team presented Levelling the Field: Improving Opportunities for Women Farmers in Africa, published jointly by the World Bank Group and the ONE Campaign. The report, the first of its kind, with access to better data and new approaches to analyzing gender gaps, reveals deep rooted inequalities in African agriculture, identifies factors holding back women farmers, and sets out concrete actions that policy makers can take to reduce inequality. 

Following the presentation, two discussants, Martina Padmanabhan of the University of Passau and Stefan Schmitz, head of rural development and food security at BMZ, commented on the report . The event closed with a Q&A session with the audience. Ministry and bilateral development agency representatives, German MPs, members of the diplomatic community, German CSO representatives, and members of the academic community were among those that attended the launch.