Africa-Press – Uganda. Rural women play a critical role in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty.
They make an enormous economic contribution to the development of their communities, in particular with regard to the unpaid work they perform.
It is against this background that the United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 62/136 of December 18, 2007 established the International Day of Rural Women.
The idea of honouring rural women with a special day was put forward by international NGOs at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
The designation of October 15 – is telling: on the eve of World Food Day to highlight the role played by rural women in food production and food security.
While this day has not been very popular in many countries across the world, there have been advances in Uganda by the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development together with the civil society organisations and the Women’s Land Rights Movement to annually create awareness to popularise the day and celebrate the immense contribution of the rural woman.
Various studies show that in spite of the fact that rural women are active agents of economic & social change, caregivers, farmers, investors, protectors and producers, their contribution is always less owing to various factors like gender inequalities, unsecure land tenure rights, financial muscles to invest, among others.
Rural women ensure food security and good nutrition; make efforts to eradicate rural poverty and improve the well-being of their families in terms of health, education. Sadly, they continue to face serious challenges as a result of gender-based stereotypes and discrimination that deny them equitable access to opportunities, resources, assets and services.
It’s also a fact that women form a disproportionately large share of the poor globally and are highly dependent on local natural resources for their livelihoods due to their socially-constructed role of care work like securing water, food and energy for cooking.
Rural women manually process food materials, and pump water: a role which is getting complicated due to climate change which hits them comparatively harder which makes it harder to secure these resources.
Therefore, as the world faces an increasingly critical need to address climate change, the important role these rural women and girls have on building resilience is undeniable across the board that doesn’t only require visibility and recognition but strategic and specific strategies to ensure they are not left behind.
The International Day of the Rural Women is thus a platform to recognise and celebrate their resilience, bravery, sacrifice and reliability during various crises like climate change and the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic.
It’s thus an opportunity for rural women to share their lived experiences and the challenges they face in their daily struggles to keep the family and indeed the nation, stable. They are the reason households, communities and the world stable.
This input is often times unrecognised, outshined and overshadowed yet for example, over 88 per cent of the rural women are involved in agriculture which supports the growth of the agro industrialisation programme. They support natural resource management and safeguard traditional knowledge, biodiversity and building climate resilience.
This, therefore, is a call to all relevant stakeholders to embrace this day and give it the due recognition it deserves by identifying issues that affect the rural women and enhance their capacity in value addition.
Stakeholders should work to reverse the challenges that keep rural women trapped and provide an enabling environment for them to thrive including through economic empowerment, better health services, and equal participation in decision-making.
Ms Stella Rose Akutui is a capacity building & networking coordinator at LANDnet Uganda.
