Agricultural Value Chain Development Project through the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, an IFAD supported program in Sierra Leone has in July 2021 concluded a five days training of 225 Cocoa youth contractors comprising of 55% males and 45% females on Gender Action Learning System/ Financial Action Learning System (GALS/FALS) and Nutrition-Sensitive Education from the south-Eastern regions of Sierra Leone.

The Training of Trainers was organized so that participant can roll over the skills to their colleagues’ farmers hence the approaches used in the training will help to influence change in gender and power relations of project beneficiaries. The methodology influence change in gender relation, stereotypes and redistribution of work load, decision making and control over resources at the household and group levels. According to the Snr. Gender, youth and Targeting officer, Borteh Y.P Massaquoi, the training will foster inclusive development of youth farmers as individual household members and as members of FBOs by effectively defining a part to the  institution of GLS/FALS with the appropriate tools adopted to achieve the goal of women and youth employment and promoting gender equality in participatory manner and Nutrition Sensitive Education thus helping the youth contractors to improve their diet by growing and consuming diverse, nutritious, safe and affordable food and educate them on basic hygiene and sanitation.

One of the participants, Yai Bender from Kono expressed delight to the project for educating them on GALS, she said, the various tools taught will add value to her life and help in solving most of their household problems, referencing the Challenge Action Tree and the Vision tools which were some of the training methodologies used to mainstream gender in Agriculture and at household level. She continued to excitedly report that, most of the nutritious foods mentioned in the training are accessible and affordable by them if only they change their mind set. “We grow vegetables and rear animals at home, but we never knew how helpful they can be to us if we consume them using the right nutritional combination, we just grow and sell. I will carry this important information to my family, colleagues’ farmers and my community to consume more of our fresh and nutritious food rather than to sell all” Yai concludes.

The training was facilitated using drawing and symbols for which both literate and illiterate can comfortably understand the entire concepts. Therefore, the training was highly participatory.

The facilitators encouraged participate to propagate the concept in their households, FFSs and the community at large which will make them emerge as GALS’s champions like the Facilitators of the training who were also Youth Contractors before.

The GALS/FALS skills gives women as well as men more control over their lives, income communities and overall enhance their analytical skills to make joint decision in their homes, farms and their community as a whole.