WDI Global Impact 2015 Insights from Emerging Markets Around the World: Entrepreneurship in Agriculture & Impacting Women's Lives in Tanzania

A year and a half ago I came to the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in order to jump career paths, and find a role that was more interesting and impactful than my previous life as a consultant. I wanted to be a “Double Wolverine”—returning from almost a decade in New York City to the Ann Arbor streets of my undergraduate days. One of the main reasons why I chose Ross was because of its strength in Entrepreneurship and Social Impact. I was intrigued by the challenge and potential rewards that both of those realms could provide. That is why it was the perfect opportunity when WDI posted a fellowship listing to work with Land O’Lakes International Development’s Innovations in Gender Equality (IGE) to Increase Household Food Security program in Tanzania.

In Tanzania, smallholder women farmers carry out most of the time and labor-intensive activities in agriculture, including farm preparation, planting, weeding, harvesting, transportation, storage and processing. They are also responsible for food preparation, which makes them the gatekeepers of nutritional security and dietary diversity for their households. This is a critical role, as 42 percent of children under the age of five suffer from stunting and 16 percent are underweight.

Moreover, limited decision-making power, biased socio-cultural norms and unfavorable regulations reduce women’s access to finance, land, technical training, labor saving-equipment, and other productive resources. Because of this, there exists a high barrier for women to lead technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and legal and regulatory change throughout the agricultural sector.

That’s where IGE comes in. Funded by USAID, the program seeks to promote household food security through the development of local capacities to enhance women’s status and empowerment in the agricultural sector. The program focuses on four main areas: agricultural technology development and dissemination, building community awareness on issues affecting women’s empowerment, supporting national policy changes for gender equality in agriculture, and promoting programmatic sustainability of IGE initiatives.

My role as a WDI Fellow is focused on the first main area: accelerating the advancement of agricultural innovations and technologies from the product prototyping, validation and piloting phases to the commercial production and scaling phases. Through various innovation expos conducted by IGE, local entrepreneurs showcase their products and services in order to compete for grants of up to US$ 100,000. My main focus is to consult with the selected innovators to help accelerate their businesses and to provide training and support in early stage business development.

My main focus areas include:

Increasing the business acumen of IGE-affiliated entrepreneurs through the development of training materials, the support of incubation trainings, and the participation of innovator expo competitions
Consulting with individual innovators on their business models and business plans and providing guidance on future access to external funding
Analyzing and enhancing IGE’s current social media marketing strategy

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Upon arriving in Tanzania, I was not sure what to expect. I had recently spent a month in northern India with my incredible Multidisciplinary Action Project (MAP) team working to enhance the financial inclusion of women in self-help groups, and to develop their entrepreneurial capacities. The project was both challenging and extremely rewarding and I was now hoping to bring this experience to the IGE program. I was also excited to explore a new region of the world. Tanzania is home to the beautiful island of Zanzibar, Serengeti National Park, Mount Kilimanjaro, Lake Victoria, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tarangire National Park, and Lake Manyara, to name a few. The World Economic Forum Competitiveness study from 2011 named Tanzania second (only after Brazil) in terms of the richness of its natural resources. Needless to say, I was excited and felt blessed for this opportunity to spend my summer in such a beautiful country doing exciting, impactful work. I knew, however, that this would be a challenge and a new area of work for me.

My first few weeks of the program consisted of program orientation and meetings with IGE leadership. The IGE team consists of experts in agriculture, nutrition, gender initiatives, policy, microfinance, and entrepreneurship. I am lucky to have had such a kind, supportive and talented team with whom to work.

After concluding my orientation, I quickly prepared for Expo 4, the fourth IGE innovation competition, which was held in Morogoro, the agricultural heart of Tanzania. More than 20 innovators, out of an initial applicant base of more than 75, were asked to come to the two-day event to compete for funding and capacity building support.

The products and services selected had to be innovative, made out of local materials and impactful for women in agriculture. Technologies presented included mushroom-growing innovations, solar driers, coal briquette producers, multi-functional crop tilling machines, palm oil extractors and more. Each innovator was given five minutes to present, and a panel of judges followed up with five minutes of Q&A. At the end of day one, 10 innovations were selected as potential recipients for an IGE grant.

On the second day, an initial orientation was provided to the winners and trainings were conducted on how to build their budgets and statements of work. I then conducted a Needs Assessment presentation at the end of the day in order to gather information on the innovations that would later be used to help develop a capacity building strategy.

At the close of the event, I was even more excited to work with these innovators in developing their ideas and supporting their businesses’ development over the remainder of the fellowship. I know this internship will be challenging, but I am excited to get hands-on experience working with the design, maintenance and scale of early stage start-ups supporting Tanzanian women in agriculture. In the next few months, I will engage in one-on-one capacity building meetings with these entrepreneurs and help develop trainings based on their needs. I will also work with the IGE team to provide insight into external sources of funding and try to build a stronger social media presence for the program. Moreover, I look forward to exploring all of the beauty Tanzania has to offer and sharing my experience on this blog for readers to learn more and enjoy.