Gender Equality Would Increase African Food Productivity, Income
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A recent Reuters piece examines the critical role African women play in agriculture, and how increasing gender equality in terms of land rights and micro-financing loans would increase Africa’s food production and family income.
The article highlights key leaders, like former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Rwanda’s Minister of State for Agriculture Agnes Kalibata, pushing for these changes in laws, global grants, and cultural practices.
Some excepts are below, the full article here.
“In Ghana, for example, if women and men had equal land rights and security of tenure, women’s use of fertilizer and profits per hectare would nearly double. In Burkina Faso, Kenya and Tanzania, giving women entrepreneurs the same inputs and education as men would boost business revenue by up to 20 percent. And in Ivory Coast, raising women’s income by $10 brings improvements in children’s health and nutrition that would require a $110 increase in men’s income.
…One powerful woman trying to change that is Agnes Kalibata, Rwanda’s minister of state for agriculture. She said government land reform and credit programmes specifically target struggling women farmers - many of whom are bringing up children alone after their husbands were killed in the 1994 genocide.
This has helped raise their incomes, leading to better nutrition, health and education for their children, Kalibata said. Women are also getting micro-credit loans, which they use to access markets and cooperatives or set up small businesses, such as producing specialty coffee for export.
“They are not like rocket scientists, they are women from the general population who finally feel empowered that they can come out and do some of these things,” explained Kalibata.
-Virginia Simmons
[Photo: Regina and her daughters posing at their stand in Mozambique, May 2008. Regina received a microfinance loan and now has a profitable small business that allows her to send her daughters to school and build a new home.]
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January 3, 2009 at 2:02 pm
While we want to respect other cultures and their traditions, I personally can’t accept anything less that equality for all, regardless of race, religion,or in this case gender. That will prove to be one of our greatest challenges in the decades to come as we try to convince other cultures that there are certain basic rights that all must have access to.
The story here on Rwanda is very powerful. After the genocide in 1994 it was largely left to the women to rebuild that country, and they have done so quite admirably and now own half of all the new businesses that have been created.
As the world heads into a period where food is becoming a scarce commodity in many parts of the world it will be vital to take down any walls that prevent full participation by all.
January 4, 2009 at 1:55 pm
as a micro-roaster of green coffee, these movements are high on our radar to support. we already have a purchasing agreement with a green bean broker that helped to develop el cafe femenino…a cooperative made up of women in latin america who have been abandoned or widowed that produce coffee. hopefully we will see more of this taking place in africa.
February 26, 2009 at 2:25 pm
as a micro-roaster of green coffee, these movements are high on our radar to support. we already have a purchasing agreement with a green bean broker that helped to develop el cafe femenino…a cooperative made up of women in latin america who have been abandoned or widowed that produce coffee. hopefully we will see more of this taking place in africa.
February 27, 2009 at 7:40 am
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March 5, 2009 at 9:23 am
It sounds like you are gathering lots of different ideas in your blog. This is great stuff.