Focusing on Rural Women in a Sustainable Development
1.If you could make an intervention at the side event on rural women at the 8th session of the Open Working Group in New York, what would be its key message?
- Improving livelihood security of women – ie enhancing women’s economic empowerment (farm and non-farm income generating activities), and providing capacity development for women’s socio-economic empowerment to be engaged in decision making processes of their spaces (either at household or community levels)
- Providing Agricultural extension and advisory services: to target women and help to increase production, store, process and prepare nutritious foods for the family, and to enhance their wellbeing ie improve food and nutrition security
- Providing rural infrastructure and service to women – to ease women’s household and community burden (pipe borne water/ water points for women to readily fetch water, health centers with health workers, schools with teachers, good roads and market access, industries to help process foods to ensure long shelf lives
2. Rural women are often described as critical agents of change in discussions on sustainable development goals. To what extent would the achievement of food and nutrition security for rural women help accelerate sustainable development?
Rural women are basically into production and feeding of the household in addition to their other unpaid jobs. Increasing knowledge in food production, feeding, nutritional status improvement (including good hygienic environment and good water sources all of which contribute to nutrition) will enhance the women’s capacity to deliver. It will free more time for women to engage in other activities like being involved in political leadership positions, more time for leisure and therefore quality time for the family (the unit of society)
3. Of the many facts or stats recorded on rural women, which one do you consider to be the most revealing?
Women producing to feed the family yet they are most under-nourished. Women doing most of farm work yet under-paid, and unrecognized. Women doing so much for society yet with little education and wealth.
Women should have access to secured land and agricultural extension and advisory services to enable them deliver. Special efforts should be made to recognize and appreciate women’s efforts.
In this year of family farming more has to be done to highlight and appreciate the Rural Women’s efforts to feed the World.
Dr. Anna Antwi, Development Consultant, Ghana
Anna Antwi