Helping our smallholder farmers tackle the impacts of climate change and gender inequality

Tell us about the Diageo partnership with CARE. How long have you been working together and what are the kind of projects that you work on?

Helen: Diageo and CARE International UK have been cross-sector partners for over 10 years. Our collaboration began in 2012, supporting women in Asia to find work in the hospitality industry or to start their own businesses. We then built on the success of this partnership, with a shared ambition to tackle gender inequality throughout the global supply chain, from Grain to Glass.

We’ve expanded our approach to support smallholder farmers, ensuring women, who make up the majority of these farmers, have equal access to agricultural skills and resources. Our work ranges from funding research gaps on barriers to women in supply chains, to applying a gender lens to Diageo’s flagship community programmes. Through this work, 91% of women say they have experienced a significant change in the level of decision-making they have within their community.¹

Our new report focuses on climate change in Tanzania and its impact on gender inequality. The research is based on our pilot project that set out to improve the lives of these women, while strengthening Diageo’s supply chain.

Firstly, let’s have some context. Can you explain what climate change adaptation means, and the importance of adaptation in sub-Saharan Africa?

Amanda: Adaptation is all about responding to, and mitigating, the impacts of climate change. As the world experiences more floods, heatwaves and droughts, climate change is affecting economies, infrastructure, water and food systems, agriculture and livelihoods. To put this into scale, the number of floods in Africa has jumped five-fold since the 1990s.

Singida, Tanzania, is the home of our case study. A semi-arid region, it is characterised by low rainfall, increasingly warmer temperatures, and flooding when the rains do come. These all lead to, in turn, soil erosion, land degradation and food insecurity.

Without adaptation, farmers will continue to face an acceleration of negative impacts on their yields, lands and prices. Adaptation is vital as although smallholder farms account for only 12% of the world’s farmland, they provide 80% of the food produced in Asia and Africa.²

What role do women play in local agriculture in this region?

Amanda: The role of women smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa is extremely significant. Among all smallholders in this region, women on average account for 40-60% of the agricultural labour force.³ And in rural Tanzania where our case study is based, 98% of women engage in agriculture as an economic activity, compared to 73% of men.⁴

But this means women are disproportionately affected climate change; closing this gender gap could reduce food insecurity for up to 45 million people a year.

Our 10-month pilot, that wrapped up in August 2024, was a consortium between CARE Tanzania, Sightsavers and the Syngeta Foundation, along with Serengeti Breweries (part of Diageo’s operations in Africa). The project was designed to remove the barriers women, and people with disabilities, face by equipping them with farming skills and empowering them to speak up for their needs. Our subsequent research showed the importance of helping women farmers mitigate against extreme weather.

Why are women in the region disproportionately affected by climate change? How did the project address this?

Helen: Many women farmers face discriminatory market structures, limiting their productivity and resilience. Nearly one billion women are excluded from formal financial systems⁵, making it difficult to access loans and insurance, and without personal land ownership many of them lack the power to make long-term sustainable investments.

Women also receive less access to farming tools and climate-smart practices and take on most household responsibilities. In Africa, it is estimated that women spend an average of 4.5 hours on domestic work a day, compared with just over two hours for men.⁶ Fixed gender roles hinder women’s capacities to build climate resilience and means they are often invisible in the agriculture supply chain.

Our pilot with Diageo helped to facilitate the right conversations to raise awareness of the importance of including women in economic activities, and to identify the market barriers they face. We provided financial, leadership and marketing training, as well as climate resilient resources.

And results revealed tangible benefits for supply chains and communities, from improvements in cash crop production to community resilience to extreme weather events. 93% of respondents agreed that more women became motivated to seek agri-business skills training, and our data also revealed 80-89% of participating women saw income growth.⁷

“My husband and I used to cultivate together, but when it came time to sell our produce, he handled all the transactions personally. I was not permitted to sell the crops or engage in any market activities. After receiving training from CARE, everything has changed. I now understand my right to participate in economic activities, and he now supports me in selling our crops and seeking buyers.” Elipendo from Senene.

What is the business case for a company like Diageo, beyond social responsibility? What is currently limiting private sector involvement, and how can this be changed?

Helen: Many companies have pledged to reduce carbon emissions but efforts to support climate adaptation are less coordinated. And when agriculture training programmes are implemented, many of them are not designed for the needs of women.

Sourcing from regions facing extreme weather creates unpredictable outcomes for companies and their supply chains, affecting the bottom line. And simply changing where a company imports raw materials from, instead of supporting adaptation efforts, may have increasing cost implications too.

This project has shown us the importance of supporting climate adaptation for women in rural farming communities. It’s also important that agribusinesses partner with local authorities and NGOs on the ground to conduct joint programmes, so the work is done in a culturally sensitive and contextual manner too. This work can strengthen supply chains for companies, improve food security for communities, increase income for women farmers and reduce poverty, and build climate resilience.