Women and Youth Empowered through Sustainable Agriculture

Some 12,000 women, youth (both female and male) and marginalized men in five Caribbean countries are set to benefit from an agricultural project that will increase their impact on agricultural markets in the Caribbean, while developing more environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient domestic agricultural markets for economic growth. 

This will be made possible through the launch of the five-year Sustainable Agriculture in the Caribbean (SAC) project, which will be implemented in Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Suriname. 

The SAC project is implemented by World University Service of Canada (WUSC) with funding from the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada (GAC). 

The project in Saint Lucia will be launched virtually on Thursday, October 21, 2021 and will include greetings from WUSC, Global Affairs Canada (GAC), the Canadian High Commissioner Designate to Saint Lucia, H.E. Lilian Chatterjee, and the Honourable Alfred Prospere Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development representing the Government of Saint Lucia. 

The SAC project will facilitate linkages between key market actors; strengthen their capacity through training, information sharing and outreach; and foster climate resilient approaches, at every stage and via a wide range of key market actors in the agricultural market system. This approach will help to increase productivity and profitability in the agriculture sector and will mitigate the impacts of climate change, reduce the region’s vulnerability to natural disasters, and foster climate resilient agricultural markets that offer increased equitable, inclusive and sustainable economic benefits for women and youth. 

The project is estimated to indirectly reach 48,000 individuals, assuming an average family size of four in the project countries. In addition, an estimated 650,000 individuals will be reached and contacted through communication campaigns supporting the agency of women and young people, promoting climate-resilient agricultural techniques and raising awareness regarding gender barriers and norms preventing women’s and female youths’ access to agricultural markets.