Sammy Cécile Lucie Ndecky, dynamic agriculture start-up owner in Senegal 

USAID 60th anniversary

Women’s Empowerment and Entrepreneurship in Senegal

The United States is committed to realizing the economic potential of women around the world. The 2021 Interim National Security Strategic Guidance specifically commits to advancing women’s empowerment, which is part of the United States’ commitment to inclusive economic growth and social cohesion.

Investing in gender equality and women’s empowerment is a key strategy of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). If women, who make up over half of the human population, are empowered, they help eradicate poverty, build bustling economies, and improve the education and health of their families.

Toward this end, USAID is focused on improving access to education for women and girls, funding efforts to support women-led start-ups and small businesses, and encouraging policy reform in local and national governments to remove legal and regulatory barriers to women’s economic participation. 

USAID has been in Senegal since the passing of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 which effectively established the Agency to combine the efforts of various foreign assistance programs. For these past six decades USAID has worked together with Senegal and its development partners to create sustainable solutions to economic challenges.

A key component to this partnership is to encourage and support the economic growth of women to improve the everyday lives of Senegalese families. In celebration of the 60 year anniversary of USAID in Senegal, the stories of eight women who have benefited from USAID activities and projects in the country are featured.

Sammy Cécile Lucie Ndecky, dynamic agriculture start-up owner in Senegal 

Sammy Cecile Lucie Ndecky is the owner of FERME NAMAKA, an agroecological farm located in Koudioubé, in the department of Bignona in southern Senegal. In February of 2020 she participated in Entrepreneur’s Friday (Vendredi des Entrepreneurs), which is a networking and knowledge exchange meeting for entrepreneurs in Ziguinchor hosted by the Feed the Future Senegal Youth in Agriculture (Jeunesse en Agriculture, or YIA) project.

This USAID-funded initiative has been training and empowering young Senegalese citizens in the agriculture sector since 2018. It builds on the Positive Youth Development (PYD) program, also known as 4-H, previously established through USAID’s Education and Research in Agriculture (ERA) activity which was active from 2010 to 2018. Youth, ages 15-24, are taught how to pursue employment opportunities and become profitable entrepreneurs through the program’s focus on value chains and markets specific to Senegal’s agriculture sector.

Sammy expressed that it was especially important for her to be able to meet with young women like herself that are just starting up in their businesses. Participating in networking events and meeting with others like herself facing similar challenges has increased her ambitions.

Feed The Future Senegal Youth in Agriculture hosted an Agro Bootcamp that Sammy described as one of the most important eventsof her career as an entrepreneur. The bootcamp connected her with young people from Senegal and other countries with whom she has created partnerships. And in her own words, this has allowed her to “discover and dream bigger for the future of Ferme Namaka”. She is looking forward to learning from these partnerships, most particularly in how to cultivate new varieties of plants.