From Boston, to Togo, to DC: Learning Leadership with Women
This week the world observes International Women’s Day to honor the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
I celebrate those achievements every time a young woman who aspires to make the world a better place asks me how I got started in international development.
And I am always delighted to tell them that it was a woman who set me on my course.
When I was about five, my mother took me to the Boston Children’s Museum, where they had an exhibit showcasing African markets. I had so much fun negotiating with the Market Mammas from West Africa that I instantly fell in love with their energy. Later, my mother also gave me a children’s book about anthropologist Margaret Meade, further fueling my fascination with other cultures. And by the time I reached 11 — thanks to my mother’s efforts to expose me to the world — I already preferred the international culture exhibits at Epcot Center over the Disney rides that drew in other kids.
This pull toward other cultures continued through college, where I took courses on anthropology and development along with my major. After graduation, I came home from a summer job one afternoon to find a newspaper ad for the Peace Corps that my mother had saved for me, circled in thick, black permanent marker. I applied and was thrilled when I was invited to serve in a small farming village in Togo. I spoke Togo’s national language, French, and apparently, the Peace Corps thought my experience growing up working on a horse farm made me a good fit for promoting environmentally sustainable agriculture.
I loved everything about the village of Kollo — the people, their culture, and our mission together. While the village did not have running water or electricity, what stood out was the generosity and work ethic of the people who lived there. They worked hard in the fields by day, and then went hard to work with me at night to plan village development initiatives.
I even wrote my first proposal with them, often by lantern light, with goats and children running in and out of the meeting room. Working with the people in Kollo and other nearby villages to articulate and achieve their goals helped me learn and grow professionally. Together, we also planted organic gardens, built stoves that required less firewood, planted community fields to raise money for the village, and pursued other income-generating activities. And amidst all of this, we found time to eat, dance, and giggle through our language barriers.
The acumen of the women and girls in the village inspired me, along with their grace, integrity, and confidence. I also developed my skills in the art of negotiation with the Market Mammas on their home turf in the cities — 20 years and thousands of miles from the Boston Children’s Museum. I learned so much from these shrewd entrepreneurs about business as a woman in a male-dominated world.
Now, with 20 years of experience in various sectors in development, I am entering my fifth year at Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA), where we support agriculture in villages just like the one I called home for two years.
My work alongside the determined, resilient women in Kollo gave me an appreciation for the work that CNFA does. My career still focuses on designing programs, and to this day, the most rewarding part of my job is designing programs in partnership with leaders, entrepreneurs, and communities in the countries where CNFA works. Our programs always include opportunities to promote equity for women in the agriculture sector as a step toward establishing a level playing field in business and society. These opportunities empower women to participate more profitably in markets and thrive, rather than merely survive.
Lenoure Recanatini is associate vice president, program development at CNFA.
