Beyond supporting African agricultural institutions to mainstream gender and integrate nutrition, the staff and Local Service Providers (LSPs) of Tanager’s Impacting Gender & Nutrition through Innovative Technical Exchange in Agriculture Plus (IGNITE+) project are driving change through their lived experiences and insights.
In recognition of International Women’s Day, these experts, both women and men shared reflections on why advancing gender equality matters and how their work is contributing to more inclusive, nutrition-sensitive agrifood systems.
Read personal stories highlighting Tanager and its LSPs’ impact in advancing gender-transformative approaches.
Rewriting the Narrative for Women in Agriculture
“My motivation to get involved in gender work was seeing, firsthand, how much potential is lost when women and girls are excluded from opportunities simply because of their gender,” says Kemi Asuni, Tanager’s IGNITE+ Gender Expert in Nigeria.
Through her work, she supports various agricultural institutions to mainstream gender into their work, ensuring women are not just participants in food systems, but decision-makers and beneficiaries of growth.
Growing up in Nigeria, she witnessed how women sustained their households through unpaid care work, farming, entrepreneurship, and community leadership, yet still faced limited access to resources and decision-making power.
“For me, gender work is about restoring balance,” says Asuni. “It’s about ensuring women have the tools, platforms, and recognition they deserve. When women gain access to opportunities and resources, families, and communities benefit.”
As we mark hashtagIWD2026, Asuni emphasizes that real progress for women requires strong political will, inclusive laws and policies, and sustained investment in education, health, and economic opportunities for systemic lasting change.
Evidence in Action
Tanager is implementing the Impacting Gender and Nutrition through Innovative Technical Exchange in Agriculture Plus (IGNITE+) project, which supports African agricultural institutions to integrate gender and nutrition into their operations and programming.
IGNITE+ is staffed by technical experts, both men and women who understand the importance of promoting gender equity. One of those experts is John Kabue, Learning and Impact manager for IGNITE+.
Kabue leads development of the IGNITE+ learning agenda, ensuring that key lessons on gender integration are systematically documented and used to strengthen gender mainstreaming across partner institutions. He also contributes to monitoring and evaluation by analysing data through a gender and nutrition-sensitive lens to inform adaptive programming and evidence-based decision-making.
‘’Empowered women often reinvest parts of their income to their families and communities—thus multiplying the effects of their economic growth,” says Kabue
Why Women Must Be at the Center
Meet Bernadette Muyomi, Gender Expert at Tanager supporting the IGNITE+ and STEP projects. While IGNITE+ supports African agricultural institutions to mainstream hashtaggender and hashtagnutrition perspectives into their operations and programming, the STEP project prioritizes gender and social inclusion across the food value chain, supporting women, youth, and smallholder farmers through equitable procurement linked to Kenya’s Home-Grown School Feeding Programmes.
“While there has been progress in sectors such as education, health, political participation, and legal frameworks, gender inequality remains deeply entrenched worldwide,” says Muyomi. ‘’The most significant gaps persist in economic participation, leadership, access to productive resources and protection from gender-based violence. These gaps are often wider in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.”
As we mark hashtagIWD2026, Muyomi reminds us that investing in women generates impact at multiple levels:
✅ At the household level, empowered women invest more in health, education, and nutrition, strengthening family wellbeing and intergenerational outcomes.
✅ At the community level, women’s leadership enhances collective action, accountability, and social cohesion.
✅ At the institutional level, gender-responsive policies foster fairer systems and more effective, sustainable development outcomes.
“Sustained progress requires political will, adequate financing, and evidence-based policies. It also demands that we challenge harmful social norms and meaningfully engage men and institutions as partners in change,” says Muyomi.
Men as Allies in Women Empowerment
Sammy Kariuki is the Founder and Lead Consultant at Tymax Agribusiness Solutions Limited which is Tanager’s Local Service Provider in Kenya under hashtagIGNITE+. His passion for working with SMEs led to the realisation that women entrepreneurs face structural barriers in accessing markets, finance, and growth opportunities despite being central to food systems and local economies.
‘’Supporting gender-responsive enterprise development is a smart economic development,” says Sammy Kariuki. “At Tymax, we see gender inclusion through socio-economic lens, which is essential for building resilient and competitive enterprises.”
As we celebrate hashtagIWD2026, Sammy Kariuki stands among the many men championing women’s empowerment. He has witnessed the ripple effect firsthand. When women entrepreneurs gain access to finance, mentorship, and fair market opportunities; businesses grow stronger, financial management improves and households experience better nutrition and well-being. Decision-making also becomes more inclusive both at home and in business spaces.
And because women often reinvest in their families and communities, the impact stretches across generations.
For Sammy, hashtagIWD2026 is a reminder that women empowerment must move beyond conversation into practical, measurable action. It requires intentional investment, supportive policies, gender-responsive market systems, digital inclusion, and skills development.
Building Inclusive Financial Systems that Empower Women
Tanager’s IGNITE+ Local Service Provider model empowers local organizations to deliver high-quality, demand driven gender and nutrition technical assistance to agricultural institutions across Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania.
One of these organizations is AP/SFD-Burkina Faso, where Irène DENNE serves as a gender officer. In her role, she supports member organizations —primarily microfinance institutions (MFIs) to mainstream gender within their systems and operations, ensuring women have improved access to credit, savings, and financial products tailored to their needs
On hashtagIWD2026, Irene reflects on the satisfaction that comes from seeing institutional capacity strengthened and impact cascade outward. As MFIs become more gender-responsive, women who are their largest clientele gain greater access to finance. This enables them to participate more actively in household decision-making, contributing to improved family well-being, particularly in health, education, and nutrition.
‘’Sustainable progress requires transforming social norms, adopting gender-sensitive policies, and strengthening institutional capacities. It is also means engaging all stakeholders, including communities and men, to ensure meaningful change,’’says Irène DENNE
