As part of our African Women’s Decade 2010-2020 Campaign, Make Every Woman Count is pleased to present our African Women’s Day event for July 31, 2012 entitled:   Let’s MakeRuralWomenCount.

  To celebrate the African Women’s Day, we want to share the voices of young Africans. We want to highlight young African women and men’s IDEAS and VISION for a better future where rural women in Africa are empowered to lead and reshape their communities.

According to FAO's report  (rural women and MDGs), “60% of employed women in Sub- Saharan Africa work in agriculture. The substantial involvement of rural women in agriculture, primarily as unpaid or contributing family workers, highlights the importance of developing policies and programmes that address the needs, interests and constraints of women as well as men in the agriculture sector.” According to the same report,  ".... if these women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30%, raising total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5 to 4%, in turn reducing the number of hungry people in the world by 12-17%"

Yet in the year 2012, we still live in a reality marked with grave inequalities for women and girls, they are  denied full access to fundamental rights such as education, physical integrity, health and the ability to participate equally due to prevailing constructs of gendered inequalities.. How do we address such a deep-rooted barrier to global progress? One way is by investing in rural women. By making these women count, we will see a more equitable, sustainable world.

Let’s MakeRURALWOMENCount is a visionary contest. We are asking young African women and men between the ages of 18-32 to share with us their thoughts, innovative project ideas and vision for a better future for African women, especially Rural Women.

What needs to be done to ensure that rural women count? What is your unique community development idea that you’d love to see implemented? What is your vision for a better future?  We want to know and we want to share YOUR Visions to all our followers and supporters on the African Women’s Day, July 31st, 2012.

Share with us your vision! Write it in a short paragraph (no more than 500 words, using Arial font size 9 in word format ) or present  a video, audio clip or photo presentation--whatever best conveys your vision. Also please submit 3-5 lines about yourself and your background information (name, age, country, photo).

We will select the best 10 visions and post them every hour from 8am on the 31st July on our website and highlight submissions on our social media feeds. We will have one winner of the 10 selected who will receive:

- A prize worth $150 (US Dollar), - A front page highlight of the project and the individual’s biography from Aug 1-30, 2012 The deadline for the submission:  29th of July 2012 by 23:59 GMT

We hope you will join us in this exciting opportunity to MakeRuralWomenCount in the celebration of African Women’s Day.

For questions and submissions, write to:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Please write “African Women’s Day” on your subject line. We accept submission in English and French

 This event is sponsored by London Centre for Social Impact (LCSI)

 

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