Financial empowerment for women
How a women’s resilience fund is strengthening women’s financial autonomy in Togo’s cocoa sector.
Women members of Etsonenyo Cocoa Cooperative turning cocoa waste into value-added products (Photo: FAO)
Created in 1999, the Etsonenyo Cocoa Cooperative is located in the Kloto prefecture of the Plateaux region of Togo. This long-standing producer organisation currently has 57 members, almost half of whom are women.
Many rural women in the Plateaux region are deeply involved in cocoa production, carrying out many harvest and post-harvest activities. Yet their labour is often poorly paid.
With volatile markets, changing regulatory contexts – especially for export-oriented value chains such as cocoa – and increasingly unpredictable climate impacts, diversifying rural incomes is particularly important for women cocoa producers.
But diversification requires investment. Limited rural financial infrastructure in Togo meant many women of Etsonenyo had little or no access to formal banking or credit systems. To be able to invest in additional income-generating activities, women had to rely on informal lending or household-controlled resources.
Forest and Farm Facility activities
In 2024, the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) supported the financial empowerment of the women producers of Etsonenyo by helping the cooperative establish a resilience fund with a gender balanced management committee. FFF also helped to train the 20 fund management committee members in financial management and savings.
The main beneficiaries of this effort were women, who gained access to financial resources that strengthened their economic independence and their capacity to invest in income generating activities.
Significance of impact
These services enabled members to access self managed funds without relying solely on external credit, while contributing to women’s social and economic inclusion and improving overall living conditions.
Today, members regularly come together around the fund, using it not only as a financial tool but also as a space to exchange ideas on income diversification and other development opportunities.
Conclusion
With FFF support to the Etsonenyo cooperative, this initiative not only strengthened women’s financial autonomy but also laid the foundation for more resilient and inclusive local economic development within the cooperative.
Further reading
Mobilising internal finance: how forest and farm producer organisations upscale financial access, Isabela Núñez del Prado Nieto (2024), project report