Université de Sherbrooke

Purpose

The Université de Sherbrooke project is based on the conviction that improving women's networking, coupled with a mastery of smart agricultural production techniques adapted to the climate in the emerging sector of seed value chains, offers a competitive opportunity to strengthen the power of rural women (RW), reduce their poverty, and promote gender equality. The ultimate desired result is the increased improvement in the socio-economic well-being of vulnerable women and girls in rural communes of the Koutiala region in Mali. The direct beneficiaries are 25,000 RW of legal age to work in Mali. The Ministry for the Promotion of Women, Children and the Family in Mali, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the authorities in the 18 municipalities (authorities plus about thirty cooperative and associative groups) will benefit from the project. . Two local partner NGOs, the l’Association Malienne d'Eveil au Développement Durable (AMEDD) and the Association Malienne pour la Sécurité et la Souveraineté (AMASSA Afrique Verte), stand out with strong initiatives in terms of climate change and reduction of poverty. This project will develop its strategies for responding to problems in close partnership, with regard to the best practices of these organizations, in addition to developing effective synergies with international projects in the same sector. Ultimately, a capitalization process will guide the scaling up of practices in a living laboratory approach emphasizing equality of ender, and taking into account the support of governance bodies. The project will also contribute to informing key performance indicators in order to measure the progress regarding the implementation of the Feminist International Assistance Policy in the fields of action that concern it.