MAHA Calls on African Governments to Close the Gender Gap in Agricultural Financing
In its first post-launch advocacy brief, MAHA is calling on African Union member states to dedicate at least 30% of agricultural budget allocations t…
Mothers Against Hunger in Africa (MAHA) has issued its first post-launch advocacy brief, calling on African Union member states and multilateral development partners to urgently close the gender financing gap in agricultural and food security programming.
The brief, titled Feeding the Future: A Call to Invest in African Women Farmers, draws on data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and regional agricultural investment reviews to document the scale of underinvestment in gender-responsive food security initiatives.
Among MAHA's key demands: that all African Union member states commit to allocating a minimum of 30 percent of national agricultural budgets to programmes specifically designed to address women's barriers to agricultural productivity; that multilateral development banks establish dedicated gender and food security financing windows with streamlined access for women-led organisations; and that Official Development Assistance for agriculture adopt gender equality as a principal — not merely a cross-cutting — objective across all disbursements.
"Every dollar invested in an African woman farmer returns multiple dollars to her household, her community, and her nation's food security," the brief states. "The failure to invest is not a neutral oversight — it is a policy choice with devastating consequences, and it must end."
MAHA is engaging directly with finance ministers, agriculture ministries, and development finance institutions across the continent to advance these commitments.