Bridging the Gender Gap in Technology and Agriculture
In an increasingly digitized world, the financial barriers preventing women from fully benefiting from digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) have become a significant concern. According to Shobha Shetty, a senior agricultural adviser at the World Bank, addressing these barriers is essential, especially as global crises compound the challenges women face, particularly in agriculture.
The Urgent Need for Investment
Shetty emphasizes that both public and private investments must be redirected toward addressing the financial barriers that limit women’s access to digital technologies. These technologies are essential in enhancing agricultural productivity and ensuring food security. She warns that women are often treated merely as statistics when it comes to digital access, a perspective that can undermine efforts to empower them.
As reported by the CGIAR, women are at risk of being sidelined amidst the converging crises of climate change and food insecurity. These crises disproportionately impact smallholder farmers, who are predominantly women, and require deliberate investments aimed at increasing their rights to land and water.
The Scourge of Rising Costs
Rising fertilizer prices, recently exacerbated by geopolitical tensions in regions like Ukraine and the Middle East, coupled with climate events like El Niño, only heighten the challenges smallholders endure. Nearly 645 million people globally face food and nutrition insecurity, underscoring the considerable stakes at play for women farmers, who often lack the resources to adapt.
Shetty states it is crucial not just to increase the number of women using digital agricultural tools—such as AI-driven climate advisories—but also to ensure that they can access, influence, and reap the benefits these technologies generate.
More Than Just Numbers
The World Bank’s investment in digital agriculture must go beyond counting beneficiaries. Shetty insists on a more nuanced understanding: it’s vital to investigate how these investments translate to women’s skills, income, and decision-making power. Women, making up 38% of the global agricultural labor force and 41% of the off-farm agrifood workforce, face systemic barriers that hold them back.
The CGIAR report titled Advancing Equality, Transforming Futures advocates for co-designed solutions through collaboration with women, ensuring that the initiatives financed reflect their realities.
Rethinking Access to Finance
One innovative approach has emerged from a World Bank-supported experiment in Ethiopia, where psychometric testing was used to assess women entrepreneurs for loans. This method, which relies on assessing potential borrowers’ behavior and mindset rather than collateral, yielded impressive results: 89% of women receiving loans through this method borrowed formally over three years, significantly outperforming a comparison group.
Such access to finance has crucial implications for stability and growth, even in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The potential benefits extend across various contexts, as evidenced by research from Uganda, where women utilizing mobile money loans enjoyed 15% higher profits compared to those receiving cash.
Connecting Information and Affordable Solutions
Shetty emphasizes that for agricultural financing to effectively empower women, it must improve access to quality information coupled with affordable products. This includes creating repayment schedules that align with agricultural income and ensuring that payment channels are within women’s control.
The GAFSP (Global Agriculture and Food Security Program) has begun to measure progress beyond mere beneficiary counts. It focuses on identifying gender gaps and taking concrete actions aimed at addressing them. An initiative in Bangladesh exemplifies this shift: members of a local potato cooperative are gaining financial literacy and managing cooperative accounts through digital tools, empowering them with knowledge and enhancing their roles within the cooperative.
A Financial Lifeline
Since its inception in 2010, GAFSP has invested nearly $2.5 billion in over 300 projects across low-income countries, primarily in Africa and Asia. With 41% of beneficiaries being women, the program’s impact is undeniable. Recent initiatives like the Business Investment Financing Track exemplify how to leverage partnerships to bridge the financing gap, aiming to catalyze significant private-sector lending.
Shetty highlights investment strategies that reduce risks and attract more capital, especially critical in light of recent cuts to overseas development assistance. Effective financial mobilization will be essential in enhancing the livelihoods of countless women and their communities worldwide.
Paving the Way Forward
The ongoing discourse led by experts like Shetty is turning the spotlight on a crucial narrative: empowering women in agriculture and ensuring they can harness digital solutions isn’t merely an option; it’s a necessity. Addressing the multifaceted barriers they face will ultimately create a more resilient and equitable agricultural landscape, benefiting not just women but society as a whole.