Africa

In October 2016, Mary Afan made history by leading 400 rural women farmers up Mount Kilimanjaro in what became the world's largest women’s land rights assembly ever organized. More than a symbolic climb, the action marked the culmination of years of grassroots mobilization to demand secure land rights for women across the continent. As President of the Small-Scale Women Farmers’ Organization, Mary sought to force governments to confront the policies and legal systems that continue to exclude women from owning and inheriting land. Her message was clear: without land rights, women farmers remain locked out of economic power, decision-making, and long-term security, despite sustaining much of Africa’s agricultural production. A year later, Mary and fellow advocates brought their demands to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, where they addressed representatives from African governments and farmers’ associations. There, they highlighted their grassroots efforts to defend women’s land rights, remove barriers to land ownership, and expand women’s access to agricultural resources. The stakes are high: in rural Africa, smallholder farmers produce most of the continent’s food, and women make up the majority of this workforce. Yet, according to UN Women, women produce 70-80 percent of Africa’s food while owning less than 10 percent of its land. Globally, women comprise nearly half of the agricultural labor force, but fewer than one in five landholders are women. This disparity is a matter of inequality as well as a structural challenge to food security, economic growth, and climate resilience. The Kilimanjaro Initiative continues to endure as both a movement and a symbol of the lengths women are forced to go to secure fundamental rights, while inspiring advocacy for economic independence and legal recognition across Africa. Building on this momentum, Mary’s organization, the African Kilimanjaro Women Farmers Forum, launched the Gender Influencing Brief in Nairobi in partnership with Oxfam, FEMNET, the SDG2 Advocacy Hub, and ActionAid. Contributing to the Roadmap Towards Gender Transformation in Africa’s New Agri-Food Systems Strategy, the brief advances a framework for embedding gender equity into agricultural policy. The roadmap calls for measurable, gender-sensitive indicators to track women’s access to education, technology, productive resources, and leadership, while addressing the cultural and structural barriers that continue to marginalize women in agriculture. Through this work, Mary and her organization are advancing women’s land rights while helping reshape the future of African agriculture.