Together we are nourishing school communities, building climate-smart livelihoods, improving resilience to climate shocks, and leading the future of sustainable growth
Despite contributing negligibly to greenhouse emissions, they are the first to feel the impact of climate change as they struggle to feed their families. Increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather, such as droughts and floods, is already threatening the livelihoods of farming communities. It particularly affects women, who grow much of the continent’s food, and compounds the “resource gap” they face compared to male farmers in terms of access to land, training, advisory services and finance.
Climate disasters and drops in agricultural production linked to climate change make women and girls particularly vulnerable to hunger and exploitation, including early marriage as a negative coping mechanism for poor families. Climate change pushes girls out of schools, destroys school infrastructure, and accelerates the cycle of poverty.
Investing in female farmers increases resilience to climate shocks, nourishing school communities, protecting food supplies, and lowering carbon emissions.
Educated women can help their communities to cope with the effects of climate change, and lead on climate-smart agriculture, tackling hunger while protecting our planet, and keeping children in school.
They can launch sustainable food businesses, become role models for change, and – as local, national and global activists and policymakers – make the world a better place for everyone.
CAMFED’s Agriculture Guide program was recognized with the 2019 UN Global Climate Action Award. It highlights the leadership of members of our CAMFED Association, our powerful peer support network of young women who are spearheading action on climate change in Africa.
Using a cascade model, these young women are reaching thousands of people in rural Africa with techniques, information and affordable technologies for climate-smart agriculture, combining Indigenous methods with innovation. They focus on the ‘forgotten farmers’ among them – smallholders without access to adequate knowledge or finance to increase the productivity of their land or look after natural resources. These include Parent Support Groups, formed to keep vulnerable children in their communities in school by growing food for school meals, for example.
Agriculture Guides are helping to raise productivity, combat hunger, build resilience to climate shocks, and lower greenhouse emissions, while tackling gender inequity in farming. The approach has huge potential to scale.
CAMFED’s UN Climate Action AwardCAMFED Agriculture Guides are young women who have completed school with CAMFED support and who have expertise in sustainable agriculture.
They draw on the knowledge they gained at secondary school – including the creativity, problem-solving and leadership skills cultivated through CAMFED’s school-based Learner Guide Program – and combine it with “green economy” technical expertise.
It is our pleasure to award CAMFED’s breakthrough initiative. Their project serves as a beacon, guiding us towards a more resilient future for all. Their project trains young women from poor, marginalized farming communities across sub-Saharan Africa – and in turn provides a shining example of a scalable, effective climate solution, that’s led by young women.Niclas Svenningsen, Manager of the UN Climate Change Global Climate Action Program
Agriculture Guides train smallholders in sustainable farming techniques, supporting their communities to adapt to the effects of climate change and improve yields. They respect traditional knowledge, combined with innovation, using methods and materials readily available in local communities.
Techniques include:
These approaches make effective use of scarce water resources, reduce surface water evaporation, improve soil nutrition and its ability to store carbon, and increase productivity by enabling multiple harvests on a single plot.
Agriculture Guides also work with schools, government and community groups to provide nourishing school meals, protect trees and biodiversity, construct cleaner cook stoves, heat water using solar power and plastic bottles, provide pot in pot refrigeration, recycle materials, and reduce waste.
CAMFED Agriculture Guides have won the confidence and support of local government Agricultural Extension Officers, who invite them to train alongside them.
On 26 September 2019, CAMFED received a UN Global Climate Action Award in recognition of African women’s leadership for climate-smart agriculture. CAMFED’s action on climate change was showcased in a series of special events at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 25) in Madrid, Spain, in December 2019.
As part of CAMFED's 5-year strategic plan, we aim to scale the Agriculture Guide Program to
Help 50,000 young women transition into productive and sustainable agricultural enterprises
Reach 750,000 more community members who will benefit from young women's knowledge in sustainable agriculture
Create 150,000 new jobs, especially in climate-smart enterprises
Learn more from some of CAMFED's leaders in sustainable agriculture
Esnath is a core trainer of CAMFED Agriculture Guides, and an expert cricket farmer, bringing sustainable protein to her community.
Dorcas is a sustainable agriculture expert from Zambia who is developing mobile Aquaponics units to support community nutrition and resilience to climate change.
Agriculture Guida Mwanaisha demonstrates simple interventions – like using manure and growing crops in rotation – to increase yields while protecting the soil.
Harriet trains climate-smart Agriculture Guides, and, together with other young women and community partners, is growing CAMFED’s first demo farm.
Beauty, whose climate-smart farm helps feed her school community, inspired the CAMFED Garden at the UK’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Miriam is an Agricultural Extension Worker, bringing her expertise to rural communities (and electricity to her village)
Malumbo’s learning journey has taken her across continents. Now she’s using her expertise to build community resilience to climate change.
The founder of Chasi Foods, Forget is supporting farmers to reduce food waste and increase profit by drying and preserving fruit and vegetables.
While studying to be a doctor, Cindy’s greenhouse business is helping to ensure fresh, local produce is available year-round in her community.
Watch videos, download brochures and read news articles about CAMFED's Climate-smart Agriculture Guides
This booklet catalogs the activities of CAMFED’s climate-smart agriculture champions are leading action in some of the most marginalized areas of Africa.
This Earth Day, join us on Esnath’s cricket farm in Zimbabwe; meet Miriam, who is raising productivity while preventing soil erosion in rural Malawi, and read about the link between education and climate action.
After gifting 304 ha of land to our young women leaders, Senior Chief Nkula launched CAMFED’s first large-scale climate-smart demonstration farm
The CAMFED Garden at the 2019 RHS Chelsea Flower shone a spotlight on the life-changing effects of supporting girls in Africa to go to school, and young women to start climate-smart agricultural businesses after graduating, nourishing their school communities.
The garden lives on at the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK, supporting our campaign to launch tens of thousands of female-led, climate-smart agricultural businesses.
Diane Miller £250
catherine griffith $300
Mary Madha £120
Joan Deverteuil $50
Roger Walker £500
George Marshall £20
Barbara Ferreira €53
Cheryl Peck $20
Mariama Walker $10
Jacqueline Shaldjian $100
Pete Rodriquez $5
Bamidele Adewola $25
Jack Tappin £33
Jing Ma $10
Derek Juno $580
