Smallholder farmers are the backbone of rural communities. Yet, they often lack access to land, inputs, credit or markets where they can sell their produce. Women farmers struggle most to gain access to these resources. In developing countries, where two in three women are engaged in farming, only 15 per cent are landowners and the vast majority lack access to financial services. These “unbanked” women exemplify a gender gap that has remained unchanged since 2011.
In June 2022, in partnership with the Government of Tunisia and the Ministry of Agriculture, Hydraulic Resources and Fisheries, IDLO hosted a two-day national multistakeholder dialogue, Renforcement de capacités pour la mise en place d’un cadre procédural et organisationnel du financement des activités agricoles et gestion des risques en Tunisie. Participants explored how natural disasters can adversely impact food security and discussed how to overcome the legal barriers that farmers, especially women, face in accessing credit and markets.
They also examined how institutions such as Tunisia’s Fond d’Indemnisation des Dégâts Agricoles Causés par les Catastrophes Naturelles can help safeguard small-scale businesses and identified institutional and regulatory fixes to ensure efficient risk management.
The workshop included 15 territorial institutions from 12 of the country’s provinces along with development partners and financial and agricultural institutions.