It is well known that of all women, those in rural areas often face the greatest challenges. 15 October marked the International Day for Rural Women, and several agencies and organisations held meetings to discuss efforts around improving these women’s lives. Such efforts face multiple obstacles in their implementation and it is not easy to change people’s lives in a manner that is sustainable, compatible with context, and open to expansion simultaneously. The improvement of rural women’s lives will, in fact, also contribute significantly to reaching at least some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), most of which are related to gender issues. The need for skills development and other programmes in many African countries can hardly be overlooked, when 50% or more of some populations are based in rural areas. Life in rural settings usually poses a particular set of challenges to women throughout their lives.

RURAL WOMEN FACE MANY CHALLENGES

Although generalisation on this matter is not viable, it is safe to say that most women in rural areas on the continent face a multiplicity of challenges that renders their everyday lives a complicated web of negotiation and sacrifice. One of the most well-known and often oversimplified challenges is the one of traditions and cultural practices that undermine women’s rights to make their own choices or to make choices that advances their own well-being.

In Uganda last month, parents were warned not to circumcise their daughters and police were instructed to arrest those who encourage female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C), in the Kapchorwa and Bukwo districts respectively. FGM/C is a vivid example of how traditional beliefs, upheld by men and women alike, impede on young women’s lives, damaging their reproductive health systems and even leading to death. Early marriage is a product of patriarchal control and poverty combined – girls as young as nine are married off for material gain, fall pregnant and are later subjected to shame and humiliation when their pregnancies lead to severe and untreated cases of fistula. Sufferers of this condition often do not have access to medical care and are ostracised by their communities in many cases. Widows are often left with nothing when their in-laws manage to grab their inheritance through customary law and loopholes in the legal system.

In addition, rural women are usually responsible for food production, and climate change makes this task increasingly difficult, as weather patterns become unpredictable and ruin thousands of crops that would have sustained communities and generated income. The women also have to spend more and more hours looking for water. They have to walk miles every day to supply the household with water for cooking and drinking (2).

From a health perspective, medical services in rural areas are often seriously lacking in most departments. This means that most women do not have access to medical care. Some rely on traditional birth attendants, and the maternal and infant mortality rates in rural areas remain high. Low levels of education and specific beliefs about HIV & AIDS keep women from being tested for the virus and also from taking antiretrovirals (ARVs). Many men argue that their wives had brought HIV & AIDS into the house and reject them, leaving them without support and often ostracised by the stigma that surrounds HIV & AIDS.

Amnesty International South Africa’s report, entitled ‘I am at the lowest end of all – Rural women living with HIV face human rights abuses in South Africa’, is based on interviews with women who state that they are oppressed in their relationships with their male partners and communities because of their gender, HIV status and economic marginalisation. The report states that violence against women and HIV & AIDS are intimately related to each other, and they exist in a reciprocal relationship. Unfortunately, it is likely that women in other African countries face the same challenges.

INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR RURAL WOMEN

Calls like the one in Ugandan newspaper New Vision (15 October 2008) to prepare farmers for the effects of climate change on agriculture have been answered in some countries, such as Tanzania. Here, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) pledged to provide farmers, especially women farmers, with better farming inputs and seeds, in order to help them produce better yields. Building Resources across Communities (BRAC-Tanzania) believes that farming could transform the country by turning it into a self-sufficient food producing country, no longer dependent on imports. Since so many rural women are also farmers, their lives can be improved significantly if climate-change and poverty-combating farming projects approach their challenges through a gendered lens.

In Sierra Leone, a two-day meeting was held by Action Aid International Sierra Leone with the aim of empowering rural women farmers to put together a list of demands and important issues to be presented to policy makers. In this context, like many others, rural women demand changing of land laws so that they can own and control land. The women experience food shortages and the lack of women-owned land as interrelated issues. By familiarising themselves with the women’s needs, policy makers can make decisions that will empower rural women to come to their full potential as important food producers.

In October, Hajia Turai Yar’adua, wife of the Nigerian President, unveiled a new project that will facilitate development of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The project aims specifically to empower rural women with access to credit and other advantages. Seven federal government Agencies are going to support the project, and it will be led by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).

The Women’s Forum in Mozambique, a coalition of associations and NGOs, held their National Meeting to discuss various issues that touch on the lives of rural women. On the list were topics such as cultural, social and traditional problems, including initiation rites, female-headed households, and girls’ education. Spokesperson of the Women’s Forum, Anabela Mabota, said that the Forum should set up a Secretariat that can assist in the fight for credit for rural women, and that these procedures need to be simplified so that woman peasants can obtain titles to their land. A Plan of Action and a Declaration of Rural Women were approved by the Community Development Foundation (FDC), who organised the meeting.

In Cameroon, this year’s celebration of the International Day of Rural Women in Centre province was marked by training for women on food processing and conservation. The workshop was organised by the Chamber of Agriculture, Livestock and Forest, and focussed on products like cocoa, cassava and vegetables. The day was themed “Climate Change: Women Bring Solutions” and emphasised techniques that will help the women cope with farming and subsistence issues.

TACKLING THE CHALLENGE

While small-scale local, regional and national initiatives are integral to changing rural women’s circumstances and coping with the effects of climate change on agriculture, broad macro-scale policy making and support is equally important. In October, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation released its Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook, which reviews complex issues that the women face and will serve as an important tool for agricultural development initiatives. The book cites findings such as that the inclusion of women in the development of new crop varieties and tools (in the Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa, Honduras, Nepal and Zambia), increases agricultural productivity and incomes and also speeds up the adoption of innovations (3). The Sourcebook provides valuable information on projects and programmes, all through a gendered lens that aims to empower rural women.

The World Development Bank pays special attention to rural development issues and this year marked Rural Women’s Day with the theme “Financing for Gender Equity”. The Bank is involved in several areas of rural development and women in many areas will benefit from its initiatives. Harnessing the potential of rural women to run agricultural production and care for their communities in the process will be a giant step forward.

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