Women & Inclusion

A key objective in all our work is supporting smallholder farmers, especially women and other vulnerable groups, to achieve a sustainable living income. We developed the sustainable living income concept as a holistic measure of farming households’ well-being, measuring income alongside additional indicators that contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Achieving sustainable living income means a household earns sufficient income to support a decent life — including safe and secure shelter, nutritious food, clothing, education and health care — while also reaching benchmarks for climate-friendly farming practices, women’s empowerment, food security and social capital development, all essential markers for building long-term resilience to shocks.

Our community-led development model emphasizes engagement of underserved populations. We focus on addressing cultural and social norms that exclude women and other vulnerable groups from accessing opportunities and advancement. 

We facilitate creation of locally organized collectives, such as women-led self-help groups or youth savings groups, many of which evolve into agricultural cooperatives, producer organizations and business hubs. Working collectively, vulnerable individuals are better equipped to leverage program support to access agricultural resources, financing and market connections to grow their businesses.

The model prioritizes supporting groups as they envision what their future looks like and collaborate toward shared goals, building social capital and trust that, over time, breaks down barriers to progress and creates a foundation for inclusive, long-lasting change.

The 12 Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development are a valuable component of our community-led development model. Offered through our programs as a training series, the Cornerstones prompt discussion and reflection to establish community solidarity and shared values and create a conducive environment for personal growth. 

In small gatherings led by a Heifer-trained community facilitator, groups learn about and examine the 12 Cornerstones, which are values such as sharing and caring, justice and personal accountability, assigning their own meaning to each in the context of their family, community and society. 

This approach challenges systemic behavioral constraints that often affect marginalized communities, including limiting belief systems or social structures, creating opportunities for individuals to reconsider restrictive norms, reimagine the potential for the future and establish collective goals to work toward together.

We monitor several areas of progress related to inclusion and personal development as part of our standard data collection processes. This includes measuring women’s participation in household decisions and participation in enterprise leadership positions, such as cooperative leadership, as a means of tracking impact toward women’s empowerment. 

We also measure social capital among project households, which is a strong indicator of community solidarity and respect and trust between individuals in our program areas. Social capital is determined by the number of households actively involved in community projects; the number of households actively involved in community-based organizations, such as self-help groups, cooperatives and savings and loan groups; and the number of households that would offer financial support to community members in need of financial assistance. 

Additionally, in partnership with a research team at University of Arkansas at Little Rock, we have developed a new measurement tool to monitor participants’ personal perceptions of self-worth and their role in their families and communities. The tool, called the Personal Transformation Index, assesses individuals’ confidence in their personal abilities and communication skills, and their sense of civic engagement, community engagement and leadership. The tool was piloted in projects in India, Uganda and Honduras and will be rolled out globally in 2025.

Youth engagement is a key priority for our programs, as climate change, inadequate infrastructure and an aging farming community inhibit agricultural potential despite a growing population and increased demand for food. We work to address these issues by supporting farmers and cooperatives to scale their production using sustainable technology solutions and increased access to finance, presenting agriculture as a promising and profitable livelihood opportunity for young people.

In Africa, we encourage youth to participate in agriculture through our AYuTe Africa NextGen initiative, a program that provides incubation and financing for young African entrepreneurs who are developing agritech solutions to address smallholder farmers’ challenges. The AYuTe Africa Challenge, an annual competition under the initiative, awards grants and offers ongoing support and mentorship to strong growth stage agritech innovators. 

By positioning agriculture as a tech-driven, aspirational career, AYuTe aims to make the sector more appealing to the next generation and catalyze agricultural transformation across Africa. Since its inception in 2021, the AYuTe Africa NextGen has directly supported more than 658,000 people.