The Women’s Green Yard

Women’s Green Yard was an agricultural project carried out in the Gambian villages of Katatorr and Sanyang, where the Women for Africa Foundation worked with agricultural cooperatives run by women to encourage development in this sector and in female business skills in Gambia.

The main objective of this project was to ensure food security by strengthening the production of fresh food from the agricultural fields to meet family needs and contribute to increasing the income of rural households. The aim is to improve the diversity, quantity and quality of the products, as well as their commercialization.

The program was aimed at two cooperatives made up of a total of 500 women to strengthen the country’s horticulture through the cultivation of irrigated vegetable gardens, through 3 lines of action: implementing sustainable irrigation infrastructures and the necessary tools to obtain a quality product in the greatest possible quantity; strengthening the cooperative in its technical, social and productive management, providing training to guarantee profits; and supporting the entire cycle of marketing and commercialization of the products.

Women´s Green Yard has had a rapid and notable impact on life in the two towns in which it was carried out, which have a total of more than 8,000 inhabitants. The success of the program has led the Gambian government to adopt it as a model for agricultural action and it is already being replicated in other communities with the support of international organizations such as the World Bank.