General
Government has been urged to empower rural women to enable them to fully participate in economic production.
Giving feedback following her attendance of the 2012 UN Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW) held in the USA last month, Grace Chirenje, said rural women produce approximately 70 percent of the total small scale agricultural produce.
The women’s rights activist said if women were fully empowered the country would not face food shortages.
“Women constitute 52 percent of the population and the majority of those women live in the rural areas and produce 70 percent of the country’s food requirements. Government should therefore reflect and be able to support women to produce much more,” said Chirenje.
According to the latest news from the UN CSW 2012, rural women are key agents of change and their leadership and participation are needed to shape responses to development challenges and recent crises.
“Women are central to the development of rural areas, they account for a great proportion of the agricultural labour force, produce the majority of food grown especially in subsistence farming. It is critical that their contributions be recognized and their voices be heard in decision making processes at all levels of Governments,” read part of the latest document on CSW.
According to the CSW document, if rural women had equal access to productive resources, agricultural yields would rise and there would be 100 million to 150 million fewer hungry people.
“We call upon Government to support local groups which support women’s cause and there is need for joint organisation between the Government and civil organization.”
“To make the empowerment of rural women a success, government should fully implement. Although they are good at planning and presenting implementation is another story which requires had work,” said Chirenje.