St. FX University’s Coady International Institute has received $236,000 from a national innovation fund that aims to improve the lives of women and girls in developing countries. The funding to the Coady from the federally-supported Fund for Innovation and Transformation will support initiatives to empower women farmers in the Nyando Valley in Kenya and Gujarat state in India. Yogesh Kumar Ghore, a Senior Program staff member at the Coady, says agriculture is the mainstay of the economy in these two countries. Ghore says traditionally women have been part of agriculture, working on the farm, contributing to the production, and taking care of food security of the household. He says lately, there’s been an out-migration of men from rural to urban areas in search of employment and better wages, increasing the burden of agriculture on women.
Ghore says the Coady will be working with two partners on the ground in these two countries, the Self-Employed Women’s Association, a Trade Union and Women’s Co-operative in India and the World Agroforestry Centre in Kenya.