Rural women are active agents of economic and social change and environmental protection. They are key to life in rural society in their roles as farmers, producers, investors, caregivers, and consumers and are crucial in ensuring food and nutrition security, eradicating rural poverty, and improving the well-being of their families. Much of their work is unpaid particularly in the areas of care and domestic work. These are especially important to note in the li.ght of Covid-19, as these responsibilities increased during the pandemic. Yet, rural women continue to face serious challenges because of gender-based stereotypes and discrimination that deny them equitable access to opportunities, resources, assets and services.
The 15th of October is the International Day of Rural Women, a day that is especially noteworthy for ACT because of our focus on supporting women-led households in rural African society.
The International Day of Rural Women was first celebrated in 2008, following the UN General Assembly resolution 62/136 which recognises “the critical role and contribution of rural women, including indigenous women, in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty.”
This year the focus of the International Day of Rural Women is the need to build up the resilience of rural women given the challenges of Covid-19. The aim is to strengthen their wellbeing to allow for sustainable livelihoods. While in recent years the role of rural women has increasingly been recognised, they still disproportionately suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. While extreme poverty has decreased globally, most of the people still living in unacceptable conditions are concentrated largely in rural areas.
Although rural women may work as hard and be as innovative as their male counterparts, they are still discriminated against and are denied access to opportunities, resources and services.
“Women are less likely to be able to access land, credit, agricultural inputs, markets, and high-value agrifood chains and obtain lower prices for their crops.”
The United Nations
Across Africa, the Covid pandemic has especially highlighted the importance of rural women in keeping the household together and creatively providing food particularly for the children, who have to stay home during the school’s shutdown. They are having to find ways to supplement the school meals, which for many children is the main meal of the day. They’ve also had to find ways for the children to continue to learn, even though they lack access to government educational programmes which are mainly online or on television, which they don’t have and cannot afford.
By celebrating the International Day of Rural Women, we are helping to highlight the important role of women in rural communities across Africa and all over the world. Also, we are raising important ongoing issues that need to be addressed, like the need to enshrine women’s land rights in law to protect women’s homes and livelihoods.
ACT works with women-led households across 8 African countries so they can support themselves and their families. We provide these hard-working women with counselling and classes so they can learn business skills which will allow them to generate sustainable income.
