Photo via farmlandgrab.org

Africa: Anti-poverty agency calls for investment in rural women

As the world marked the World Food Day on October 16, ActionAid, an anti-poverty agency, stepped up their fight against hunger with a series of events highlighting the lack of investment in rural women all over the world, reports CISA.

From events organised in various parts of the world; Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique in Africa to Nepal, Afghanistan and Bangladesh in Asia to Guatemala and Brazil in the Americas, the organisation called for governments to:

Increase public subsidies and support to smallholder farmers, especially, women who grow up to 80 percent of the food in poor countries but benefit from only a tiny fraction of extension services, credit, land, inputs and social protection.

Guarantee women’s equal rights to land as any other citizens. Customs and traditions must not be used to deny women their rights to land and other productive resources.

Enable the systematic involvement of women and smallholder farmers in agricultural policy making.

The anti-poverty agency also urged donors to:

Ensure that no credible national plan for halving hunger goes unimplemented for want of funds. For starters, deliver the US $22 they promised when they met in L’Aquila in 2009 and ensure this money benefits women farmers in poor countries, as this approach goes right to the causes of hunger and tackles poverty.

Improve the gender impact of their food security policies and spending through the use of tools such as gender budgeting and collection, and monitoring of sex-disaggregated data.

This year’s theme for World Food Day was: United against hunger.

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TAGS: Africa World Food Day ActionAid investment rural women anti-poverty agency

[10/21/2010]

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