Close-up of onions thriving on elevated beds
By: Patricia Sia Ngevao
Fatmata Kanneh, 42, has spent her entire life in Mbomi, a small village located just before the Jendema border crossing in southern Sierra Leone. About 25 miles from Jendema, the main gateway linking Sierra Leone and Liberia, Mbomi lies near the Moa River, which forms part of the natural boundary between the two countries.
Mbomi, where farming was once steady and predictable, today, inconsistent rains and flooding endanger every harvest. Yet Fatmata and the women of her community have found ways to fight back.
Standing beside rows of onions growing atop wooden beds filled with soil, Fatmata brushed the dust from her wrapper and smiled. “The ground gets too wet now. If we plant down low, the rain washes it away,” she said. “So, we thought: lift the crops up.”
The raised gardens, crafted by hand, protect their plants from floodwaters and soil erosion. “I didn’t go to school to learn this,” Fatmata said. “But you watch, you think, and you try.”
Upon crossing from Jendema, the immediate settlement encountered is Bo Waterside, a town situated in Liberia’s Grand Cape Mount County. Further inland from Bo Waterside is one of its villages, called Bandela.
In Bandela, Musu Tamba, 30, known affectionately as the “twin mother,” held her twin daughters as she shared her story. After losing her husband six months ago, Aminata feared she would lose her farmland too.
Musu Tamba, “twin mother,” with her daughters in Bandela
“I would sit and cry. The farm was too big for me alone,” she said.
Instead of abandoning her fields, Musu rallied four other women: Fatu Kolleh, 29, Kumba Jallah, 31, and two others, to form a rotating farming group. Together, they work each member’s land in turn, sharing tools, labor, and support.
“Today we work on my cassava. Tomorrow, Fatu’s rice,” Musu said. Nobody is left behind.”
Women from Musu’s farming group work together in the fields
Fatmata and Musu’s stories are part of a much bigger regional picture. Climate shocks are severely threatening agriculture across West Africa. According to the World Bank’s 2021 Analysis of Issues Shaping Africa’s Economic Future, crop yields in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa could fall by up to 30% by 2050 without urgent adaptation.
Notably, the 2022 Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index (ND-GAIN) shows that both Sierra Leone and Liberia are among the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations. Sierra Leone ranks 179th out of 182 countries, with a vulnerability score of 0.598 and a readiness score of 0.298. Liberia ranks 167th, with a vulnerability score of 0.543 and a readiness score of 0.281. These rankings highlight the significant challenges both countries face in adapting to climate change.
Statistics detailed in the FAO’s 2020 report titled “Sierra Leone: Agricultural Livelihoods and Food Security in the Context of COVID-19” and the information captured in the FAO’s 2021 publication “Empowering Women in Small-Scale Fisheries for Sustainable Food Systems” for Liberia highlight the crucial role women play in agriculture in both countries.
In Sierra Leone, approximately 70% of women are employed in agriculture, contributing about 75% of the labor along the food value chain, including production, processing, and marketing. Despite this substantial involvement, women face challenges such as limited access to land, financial support, and technology, which hinder their productivity and economic empowerment.
In Liberia, women represent about 80% of the agricultural labor force, with rural women making up the majority. However, many women do not have control over the land they cultivate, limiting their ability to expand farming activities, secure financial support, and improve their livelihoods.
Sierra Leone, ranked as one of the most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change, faces significant challenges due to its reliance on rain-fed agriculture and natural resources. Despite contributing negligibly to global greenhouse gas emissions, Sierra Leone’s rural populations, who depend heavily on agriculture for their livelihoods, are at the forefront of climate impacts like unpredictable rainfall.
The government has set ambitious goals, striving for an inclusive, green middle-income status with a focus on gender equality, economic growth, and sustainable environmental practices. Through the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), the country has committed to green growth strategies, aligning with both national development plans and international climate frameworks.
Liberia faces similar climate challenges, with shifting rainfall patterns, extreme coastal flooding, and sea-level rise threatening agricultural productivity. These impacts have made farming practices less predictable, particularly for farmers whose livelihoods depend on reliable rainfall.
According to the World Bank’s 2021 Analysis of Issues Shaping Africa’s Economic Future, crop yields in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa could fall by up to 30% by 2050 without urgent adaptation. Despite these challenges, women farmers along the border are showing remarkable resilience.
In Jendema and Bo Waterside, the early morning crow of a cock does more than signal the start of border life, it echoes with opportunity. On both sides, women farmers rise early, baskets in hand, some with babies on their backs and seeds folded into cloth pouches and cross the borders with purpose.
These women, mostly from towns like Zimmi and Potoru on the Sierra Leone side, and Garwula in Liberia, defy harsh weather patterns by tapping into one another’s resources, knowledge, and trade routes, fostered by ECOWAS protocols that guarantee free movement of people and goods between the two countries.
“The border is a lifeline,” says Yeama Konneh, a 43-year-old farmer and palm oil dealer from Pujehun District. Every Thursday, she and her cooperative members travel across to Liberia with agricultural produce and return with pest-resistant seeds.
“We don’t need passports, just our national ID cards. The Liberian women teach us water storage techniques for the dry season, and we show them how compost helps improve our yields,” she said, adding that it works both ways. “When prices are low in Liberia, they come to Sierra Leone bringing their cassava, onions, and peppers to trade, and then they head back home.”
The ability to cross borders legally provides crucial flexibility, helping women escape local shocks like poor harvests or weak market demand. It also promotes the sharing of seeds, farming techniques, and adaptation strategies between communities, embodying social, economic, and cultural change.
“We are reshaping market systems, too. With the support of NGOs, we have created informal trade networks that bypass corrupt middlemen. We trade goods directly across the border,” says Konneh. “They give us cassava, and we give them rice. Sometimes, no money is involved. Just value.”
In the Bo Waterside and Jendema checkpoints, market women have lobbied for lighter customs scrutiny, successfully reducing harassment and illegal charges that previously hindered trade. “Women demanded respect, and we got it,” Konneh says.
“While ECOWAS laws allow freedom of movement, women say more must be done. Border security sometimes demands bribes, especially when carrying large farm tools or seedlings in bulk. But the bigger challenge is the lack of storage facilities.”
According to her, when the palm oil is ready for sale, they often have to sell quickly before it spoils, especially during the rainy season. If there were proper storage units, she believes they could wait for better market prices, which would increase their profit.
“There is potential here,” says Dr. Augustine Amara, Lecturer, Researcher and Agricultural Extension Specialist at Njala University in Sierra Leone. In his words, these women are proving that regional integration is survival.
The 2019 African Development Bank (AfDB) Gender Index Report highlights that women generally have less access to credit than men, often due to a lack of assets to use as collateral, a major barrier to investment. The report shows a 73.4% gender gap in access to credit and a 22.9% gap in land ownership.
Doris Fatima Webber, Program Director of the Women’s Advocacy and Agricultural Development Organization (WAADO) in Sierra Leone, emphasized civil society’s critical role in amplifying rural women’s voices, adapting to climate change.
“Women lead the charge in climate adaptation but often lack institutional support,” she said. WAADO supports women’s cooperatives by offering sustainable farming training, facilitating microcredit access, and lobbying for gender-sensitive agricultural policies. “To build resilience, we must dismantle structural barriers like land inequality and poor rural infrastructure. Women innovate daily, but policy must catch up.”
Hawa Dunor Varney, founder of Women in Agriculture for Sustainable Development (WaSuDev) in Liberia, underscored the role of women as key innovators, not just victims of climate change. She also stressed the need to strengthen regional networks for knowledge exchange, resource sharing, and advocacy.
The AfDB’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative seeks to close the gender gap in finance access for women entrepreneurs. In an interview with AWiM, Sierra Leone’s Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Henry Musa Kpaka, praised the role of women in advancing climate-smart agriculture. Through the National Agricultural Transformation Plan (NAT 2023–2027) and the Feed Salone initiative, he moves to promote their practices nationwide.
“Our goal is to help farmers adapt to climate change, boost productivity, and enhance food security,” he said. “What we see is transformation led by women.” The Ministry is scaling up investments in women-led cooperatives and working with ECOWAS to protect cross-border farming under regional trade and mobility protocols, in partnership with organizations like FAO, WFP, and AfDB.
Dr. Abu-Bakar S. Massaquoi, Executive Chairman of Sierra Leone’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), also highlighted female farmers on the frontline of climate challenges. The EPA integrates community-based adaptation into national climate policy per the country’s INDC commitments.
“Through the EPA, government initiatives with international partners’ support, resource-sharing, ecosystem preservation, and knowledge transfer among women. These women turn vulnerability into opportunity, and we must build systems that support their leadership,” he added.
Solidaridad West Africa, active in Sierra Leone and Liberia, promotes climate-resilient agriculture and women’s empowerment. “Our work fosters knowledge exchange between communities, nurturing innovation and adaptability among women farmers facing similar climate challenges,” said Andrew Kojo Morrison, Solidaridad’s Country Representative in Sierra Leone.
While the region still grapples with the gaping gaps in infrastructure, land access, and credit, it is clear who’s leading the charge. The border may divide nations, but in the hands of women like Fatmata, Musu, and Yeama, it becomes a bridge. A place of trade, of knowledge, of possibility. They are not waiting for the weather to change. They are changing everything else.
This content is produced as part of the Move Africa project, commissioned by the African Union Commission and supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. The views expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of GIZ or the African Union.