Replicating agri-SME success across West Africa and the Sahel: Scaling gender-smart agribusiness accelerators

In West Africa and the Sahel, there is a productivity gap between men and women farmers because women face more challenges in accessing resources, including finance. At the same time, climate change affects women-led agricultural activities disproportionately, making them particularly vulnerable.

Women play significant roles across agricultural value chains, acting as producers, processors, sellers, and consumers. With their expertise, resourcefulness and lived experience, women are important determinants of and contributors to households’ resilience to climate change.

Targeted investments can shift more capital towards women farmers and women agri-entrepreneurs, whose participation is crucial for scaling climate-smart agriculture innovations and solutions, making them ‘gender-smart’.

Tackling the funding gaps faced by women smallholder farmers and women-owned agricultural SMEs can unlock significant opportunities to strengthen climate innovation and deliver more robust and equitable socio-environmental outcomes, giving gender-smart accelerator programs game-changing potential.

In Senegal, an accelerator led by AICCRA called the Gender-Smart Accelerator Challenge brought together 20 women-led SMEs (selected from over 250 applications) to participate in an acceleration program that included capacity building, technical assistance and economic grants. It achieved significant outcomes:

85% of the women-led SMEs gained new customers, 69% signed at least five new partnership agreements, and nearly half began discussions with investors to scale their businesses. In one case, the accelerator even led to matched funding four times the value of the original grant investment from AICCRA.

According to Ena Derenoncourt – Gender-Smart Investment Specialist for AICCRA: “The Gender-Smart Accelerator leverages CGIAR science-based approaches to tailor CSA capacity building and de-risking mechanisms, curating opportunities and enhancing bankability to attract impactful investments for women-led agri-SMEs”.

A remarkable success story is ACASEN, a Senegalese family business specializing in the production and marketing of cashew nuts, peanuts, and other food products. ACASEN sources its raw materials from small-scale producers in Senegal, with over 80% of their employees being women. Reflecting on the impact of the program during the regional workshop, ACASEN’s CEO Hermione Awounou said:

“The Gender-Smart Accelerator Program has been a catalyst for my business. Thanks to training in financial management, advice on legal procedures and investment preparation, I was able not only to structure my project but also to raise 10 times more resources after partnering with WIC Capital. This program is central for SMEs, as it propels us towards upscaling sustainable practices that can help our businesses expand in the face of climate change.”