Gendered Framing of Agribusiness Under USAID's Feed the Future Initiative in Liberia: A Colonial Sequel?

This article examines the gendered framing of agribusiness under the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Feed the Future (FtF) initiative in Liberia, focusing on how program implementers and women leaders perceive its impact on food security and women's empowerment. Despite women being central to Liberia's agriculture, the study finds that the FtF initiative's implementation masculinized agribusiness by privileging men as "change agents," limiting women's leadership roles, and reinforcing unequal gender representation and elitism. The research highlights how such framing reflects enduring colonial and modernization paradigms that marginalize women's agency in agricultural development. It calls for critical attention to the methodologies and communication strategies used by international development agencies, emphasizing the need for more inclusive and gender-equitable approaches to agribusiness in sub-Saharan Africa.