Many projects manage to reach women and youth, but only a few had explicit strategies to guarantee women and youth actually benefit from the opportunities created. Strategies to facilitate women and youth empowerment are even less common.
During a webinar on September 17th this challenge of inclusiveness in horticulture sector programmes was discussed. The webinar facilitated sharing of several practices, amongst others from Kenya, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Rwanda and pointed out a very clear dilemma: given the complexity and multiple objectives of most horticulture sector programmes, it is often not easy to achieve results in both inclusiveness and in economic development. Participants recommended to start recognizing that this is a dilemma, and to be transparent and realistic about expectations. For future discussions and policy making, further research is recommended on the potential synergies and trade-offs between objectives within horticulture sector development. This work can benefit from ongoing efforts to improve indicators for programme monitoring.
