A newly-launched cashew project will provide a valuable source of income for 2,800 women farmers in West Africa.

The project, Women’s Economic Empowerment Through Entrepreneurship in the Cashew Value Chain (DEFI), will organise the participating women into five cooperatives in Burkina Faso.

The women will receive training on entrepreneurship, management, business plan development, and on investment and funding opportunities in the cashew value chains.

In addition, the project, which will operate in in the Comoé, Houet and Kénédougou provinces will create enterprises around other income-generating activities, such as beekeeping and market gardening.

Self Help Africa’s Gender and Inclusion Advisor Mary Sweeney said that the project would allow these women to earn more money for the household, and thus have a positive effect on the whole family. We’ll also be supporting women who don’t have their own orchards, but who are working alongside their husbands in our target communities.”

DEFI is funded by the Austrian Development Agency. The project will be implemented by Self Help Africa together with partners the National Union of Cashew Producers.

The new programme continues Self Help Africa’s work within the cashew value chain in West Africa. This began in 2012, and includes Burkina Faso, Benin and Ghana.