A seat at the table: FAO lifts rural women in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Getting up at 5 a.m., or even 4, to start work early on the farm. Rushing home to make breakfast and get the children ready for school. Completing house chores and domestic work and then returning to the field to cultivate fruits and vegetables and care for livestock. Finishing a hard day’s work at 11 p.m. only to wake up at 4 the next morning.

For many rural women in Bosnia and Herzegovina, this is a regular day.

Across the countryside, women are often the first to feel the ground shifting beneath their feet. When droughts scorch fields, when floods wipe out crops, or when communities are rebuilding after conflict, it is women who bear the brunt. They are the ones tending family plots, securing food for their households, caring for children and the elderly, and keeping small rural economies afloat. And yet, they often are excluded from places where key decisions are made and lack access to organization, appropriate training, technologies and financial services.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recognizes the challenges rural women face and works to break down the structural barriers confining them. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, FAO completed at the end of November 2025 the implementation of the project, Women Driving Resilience in Agriculture and Rural Areas, marking an important step towards gender-responsive, climate-resilient rural development across Bosnia and Herzegovina. The project was completed in partnership with key national institutions and UN Women and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

As part of this initiative, FAO supported the formation and enhancement of networking platforms among rural women involved in selected priority value chains and provided specialized trainings on climate-resilient agriculture, environmentally sound production practices, and the use of digital technologies. Extension service providers in selected regions also received targeted capacity-building support to enhance their ability to assist women farmers.

The United Nations declared 2026 the International Year of the Woman Farmer to recognize and amplify the essential roles women play – while often going unrecognized – across agrifood systems, from production to trade. FAO’s project in Bosnia and Herzegovina targeted exactly these goals, listening to the needs and challenges of women farmers to provide tailor-made solutions based on their unique situations.

The deep roots of gender inequality

“Women play an essential role across all stages of agricultural production and processing yet often are seen mainly as helpers in their family farms, responsible for care and household work,” said Anna Jenderedjian, FAO Gender and Social Protection Specialist. “Their work frequently goes unrecognized, and they lack access to training, finance and technologies that could make their hard work far more productive and profitable. In fact, an early stage needs assessment with the support of national experts confirmed that women farmers in Bosnia and Herzegovina require and demand tailored approaches that address their specific needs and constraints. This project represents an important step in the right direction.”

The rationale for the project was the evidence and policy recommendations of the Country Gender Assessment of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Significant progress has been seen recently in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jenderedjian said.

“The country adopted gender-responsive laws and policies that could significantly improve the situation of women farmers,” she said. “However,  much remains to be done to reinforce meaningful implementation of these policies in rural areas  and agriculture.”

To ensure a strategic approach and clearly identify areas of intervention where the allocation of resources and time would yield the greatest impact, FAO conducted a comprehensive gender-responsive assessment in the selected project areas. The assessment identified priority value chains with the highest potential for modernization, digitalization and the adoption of sustainable and climate-smart practices, enabling the project to support women who are involved in or interested in these value chains. In parallel, in close collaboration with national partners, private-sector representatives and UN Women, the project also addressed policy barriers and explored practical, market-based solutions for women’s financial inclusion.

Engaging women as pioneers and key decision makers in climate-smart agriculture is also in line with key strategic European Union initiatives such as The European Green Deal and the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans.

Finding solutions within the community

As one of the key components of the project, Farmer Field Schools (FFS) were established in nine municipalities in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republic of Srpska within the country to support hands-on learning and introduce sustainable and climate-smart technologies among women involved in the priority value chains.

Tibor Szücs, livestock production specialist, was part of an assessment mission estimating the results of the FFS.
“The discourse and collaboration between participants during the FFS activities allowed for meaningful information exchange and sharing lessons learned,” he said, “and through our evaluation mission in November we were able to identify key points to align the training activities with the realities and constraints of these women farmers.”

Opportunities for knowledge exchange and practical collaboration among women farmers and entrepreneurs, agricultural cooperatives and associations were created and enhanced thanks to the networking platforms. With their collective power, the platforms helped women access information, new markets and income opportunities.

“These collective structures not only created a common space for exchange among women involved in the same value chain but also proved crucial support in strengthening women’s confidence as producers,” said FAO International Rural Development Specialist Viktorya Ayvazyan, who provided technical support for the project. “They served as safe spaces where women could share and discuss common challenges, have community support and encouragement, and be heard. Often, these spaces became platforms for generating new solutions to longstanding problems.”

While the project brought tangible benefits to its beneficiaries, important work remains to be done to recognize women as farmers in their own right and ensure they receive the investments and support they need to fully benefit from their hard work. In this sense, it is essential to continue building on these initial results. It takes time to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment and shift mindsets so that women are seen as farmers rather than helpers. It also requires long-term programmes and projects that genuinely respond to women’s needs. Encouragingly, a new project is now under development to continue this work.

Alisa Hadžiabulić, a national consultant on the Women Driving Resilience in Agriculture and Rural Areas project, has witnessed its evolution.

“Women are the driving force of agriculture and are often the leading farmers on their family farms,” she said. “Projects like this recognize their needs, achievements and efforts and provide them with the means to develop their full potential. Most importantly, they help shift perceptions, so women are increasingly seen as farmers and entrepreneurs, benefiting from training and opportunities previously mostly available only to men.”