March 5, 2025
The Sustainable Development, Human Rights, Inclusion, and Equality (SHINE) Project has shown that climate-smart agriculture is more than a tool for food production. It's a catalyst for employment, stronger families, and thriving communities.
From September 2022, the SHINE Project has supported smallholder farmers in northern Ghana, helping them increase yields, improve incomes, and access vital resources. This work was made possible through funding from Global Affairs Canada and the support of Kinvia’s donors, along with our partner Regional Advisory Information & Network Systems (RAINS).
But the impact doesn’t stop there. It sparked a movement of growth, especially for women. From creating jobs to strengthening communities, the SHINE Project is ensuring families can build a more sustainable future, together. The legacy of the SHINE Project continues to grow through the knowledge, skills, and community bonds that will support generations to come.
What is the SHINE Project?
Scholarstica, a SHINE participant, stands proudly on her flourishing farm.
The SHINE Project focuses on empowering communities through climate-smart agriculture, with a particular emphasis on supporting women’s agribusinesses. By providing training, resources, and leadership opportunities, the project has helped smallholder farmers, especially the women who make up the majority of the workforce, to increase their agricultural productivity, improve food security, and create new economic opportunities. This approach not only transforms individual livelihoods but also strengthens entire communities by fostering job creation, reducing rural-to-urban migration, and promoting gender equality.
Farms as Engines of Local Job Growth
One of the most notable outcomes of the SHINE Project in northern Ghana has been the growth in local employment opportunities. The SHINE Project participants, particularly women vegetable farmers like Patience, expanded their farms significantly after receiving training and resources, increasing average farm sizes from half an acre to three acres.
Farming is the key to development, and I have great passion for it. Because of my farming successes, I pay my children’s school fees, household bills, and have more than enough food for my children.
Some smallholder farmers, like Assibi, James, Scholastica, Abdul-Salam, and Akagure, expanded to five acres in 2024. This expansion meant more hands were needed to manage the planting and harvesting of their land. These five farmers alone hired 22 young men and women for seasonal work, providing crucial employment in their communities.
For some, this opportunity was life-changing. Abdul-Salam, a person living with a disability (PLWD), employed four temporary workers, including another unhoused PLWD. With earnings from farm work during the 2023 and 2024 vegetable seasons, this worker established his own one-acre onion farm, demonstrating how access to opportunity fuels self-sufficiency and creates a lasting impact that extends beyond a single season.
Monica, a farmer and mother of two children points at the crops on her thriving farm.
Similarly, Akagure returned to his village from the main city of Accra, where he struggled with unstable, menial jobs. With the SHINE Project’s support, he expanded his onion farm from half an acre to five acres. His farm now employs seven young people, each earning 80 GHS per workday. These jobs support individuals, strengthen local economies, and reduce the need for rural-to-urban migration in search of work. By passing down skills to youth and providing opportunities locally, these farmers are ensuring that future generations have a place to thrive in their own communities.
Communities Taking Development into Their Own Hands
Economic empowerment leads to collective action. In 2024, women in the Adaboya Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) pooled funding and volunteered their time to renovate their community’s primary school.
By replacing a damaged roof, fixing broken doors and windows, and mending cracked walls, they created a safer, more effective learning environment for children. This initiative is a testament to the power of kinship and local leadership. When women have the resources they need, they come together to invest in their own future, ensuring the next generation has access to education and opportunity.
Women Leading Stronger Families to Stronger Futures
Faustina and her husband Akolbila enrolled in gender equality classes, and it's changed their farm, their relationship, and their home life for the better.
The SHINE Project’s impact extended beyond economic growth - it strengthened families. By focusing on women's access to agricultural resources, training, and leadership opportunities, the SHINE Project has enabled women like Lucy to transform not only their farms but their families and communities as well.
Through gender and family life education, many couples learned to share responsibilities and make joint decisions about their livelihoods. Before participating in the project’s family life education sessions, Lucy’s husband, Badawe, rarely consulted her about household or farming decisions. Lucy managed her quarter-acre vegetable farm alone, as well as working alongside her husband on his land and managing most of the household chores. The training helped them shift to a co-management approach, and today, they run a thriving three-acre farm together.
“I feel a strong bond with my husband, and I see our family thriving better because of our unity,” Lucy says. This change leads to a future where their children will grow up seeing collaboration, shared responsibility, and the power of working together.
Another community farmer, Robert, echoes this experience. Inspired by the sessions, he encouraged his wife, Vida, to join the project’s business incubation program. Now, instead of relying on middlemen, they sell their produce directly, increasing their income and securing their family’s financial future. They even invested in a tricycle, both for farm transport and as an additional income source. Their success not only strengthens their own household but also creates pathways for others in their community to do the same.
I was taught as a child that men were the sole providers for families, that men were the ones to provide food and women stayed at home. Women shouldn’t be consulted. But now, since gender quality training, clear to us that husbands and wives need to support each other’s work to make their homes grow well. I am challenged not to limit myself because I am a woman but to be bold and take agricultural and business roles to enhance my family and community’s well-being.
Growing Forward Together
Nayine has financed her grandchildren's education and employed fellow women to help her farm ever since she signed up for the SHINE Project.
Farmers and families are growing forward, expanding their farms, training others, and strengthening their communities beyond the SHINE Project's timeline. The ripple effects - job creation, stronger institutions, and more resilient families - are proof that investing in women and local solutions drives lasting change.
The bonds formed reflect the deeper principles of kinship and legacy, principles that guide our broader vision for community-led change. Just as families and farmers are passing on knowledge and resources to the next generation, we can all take part in building a future where sustainable agriculture continues to transform lives.
Be part of our journey. Your support will help more farmers expand their land, create jobs, and strengthen their communities. Give today and help grow this movement - because the momentum doesn’t stop here.
