Her time to grow

Credit: Paul Martens

Since 2022, and with Canada’s support ($7.8 million, 2022 to 2026), the International Development Enterprises (iDE) project has been active across鈥疎thiopia, Ghana and Zambia. It has created income-generating opportunities for at least 25,000 women working in agriculture. The project is not only still bearing fruit but also having a positive effect on these women’s communities.

Small seeds that yield big

Her Time to Grow aims to improve the lives of rural women working in agriculture in Ethiopia, Ghana and Zambia. It supports women so they can fully participate in their local economic life, earn an income, improve their market access, and increase their financial independence.  

Annie is a business owner from a small village in Zambia. Through the Her Time to Grow program, she received training and support to run a successful business.
Credit: Paul Martens

On the surface, the project’s goals seem simple:  

• help women in these regions become more economically empowered,
• improve knowledge-sharing and speed up gender equality by using new ways to finance economic development,
• open new market opportunities鈥痜or women by removing gender-specific barriers, and
• develop skills and shift social norms so women can make the most of existing economic opportunities.

But these simple steps can lead, and have already led, to big changes.  

The Her Time to Grow project is designed to have lasting, far-reaching impacts far beyond the immediate goals. It achieves this by providing training, giving women tools and support and creating partnerships.

Shared growth

Her Time to Grow is creating income opportunities like this for 25,000 women working in agriculture across Ethiopia, Ghana and Zambia. But the impact of these opportunities reaches far beyond the women the project directly helps. The knowledge they gain is then transmitted to others around them. The businesses they build give them more financial independence and a new income stream. These new endeavours can also benefit people in their communities by providing local access to much needed goods and services.

Additional income streams and greater financial independence also helps reduce the stresses of everyday living expenses.

Annie is one of the many female entrepreneurs that serve her community by providing local access to needed goods and services.
Credit: Paul Martens

“It used to be, when school fees came up, I’d start sweating. I had high blood pressure. Now I just ask, ‘how much?’”

This confident quote is from Annie Muleba. She is a business owner from a small village in Zambia.

Before the program, Annie was already an important part of her community’s life. She helped to organize local women’s savings groups and earned a small income selling soya and cooking oil. But it wasn’t enough to pay for her family’s expenses, including school fees for her children.

Leaders in her community connected her with iDE. Through the Her Time to Grow project, she received training that gave her the skills to run a successful business, as well as agriculture training. This enabled her to not only survive but thrive as an entrepreneur.

Annie started a shop selling farm supplies. The income earned from the shop was good enough that she decided to expand and invested in a hammer mill for corn. Through iDE, she was also connected with larger seed companies.

Before she opened her shop and mill, people in her community had to travel for several hours (often leaving home at 5 am) to get these supplies and services. Now, farmers in her community save their precious time and money when getting the supplies they need, and she earns more income for her family. So, these 25,000 women can go on to positively impact an estimated 165,000 more people, including 91,000 youth.

Secure and self-sufficient

The project’s positive effects and the new crop of entrepreneurs and new businesses it generated are not just financial, they are also social. Many of the obstacles facing women are gender-specific. Supporting their participation in a region’s economic growth has the added benefit of slowly changing social norms for the better.

“We have the opportunity to convince men that women can take leadership in business. We can show men that we can contribute to national development. We can fly on our own and still be trusted.”  Annie states.
Credit: Paul Martens

As new opportunities present themselves, knowledge and independence grow. “I didn’t know any of these people before,” she says. “Now I walk into big offices and talk to important people about my business.” Annie’s journey took her from loan advisor to business leader. “We have the opportunity to convince men that women can take leadership in business. We can show men that we can contribute to national development. We can fly on our own and still be trusted.”

Another part of the project aims to help women gain ownership of their own farmland, a radical change in long-standing cultural and social norms.

Having official ownership of their farmland gives women the autonomy to decide what and when to plant, and how to use the harvest and proceeds. This helps them earn more money. Importantly, it also protects them from losing the land, and the revenue stream it generates, if the landowner (generally a male relative or husband) passes away.

Women owning land also increases productivity, changes gender and social norms for the better, and increases a farm’s climate resilience.