adminThe World Rural Women’s Day is a United Nations International Day that is observed on 15 October of every year, aims to reflect, appreciate and remind governments and society how much they owe to rural women and to give value and credit to their work as well as highlighting trials and tribulations they encounter in bringing up the social fabric of the family unit.
The idea of honouring rural women with a special day was put forward at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing China, in 1995 with the main objective being to highlight rural women’s role in food production and security for the family and the nation at large.
This year’s celebrations come at a time when most rural women especially in remote areas of Zimbabwe are finding it difficult to make ends meet due to food shortages. Concerns have been raised by many stakeholders in most developing countries over the lack of government support on empowering rural women.
From time immemorial, non-governmental organisations (Ngos), civil society, political parties have been commemorating and celebrating International Women’s Day and World Rural Women’s Day with Zimbabwe not left out, but out of all these celebrations and commemorations, they have done little to improve the plight of women and empowering rural women especially in remote areas.
The commemorations have been always supported by high-sounding themes of “empowering rural women” “end hunger and poverty” “promoting women empowerment and Gender equality” but these conference and commemoration themes have not changed the plight of the struggling rural women.
In Zimbabwe only few urban women celebrate and can claim to have benefited from women empowerment programmes with rural women having nothing to celebrate about, worse still others have little knowledge about these celebrated women’s days.
Most rural women’s contribution to the communities and national economic development often goes unrecorded without their recognition or support from the government, despite their contribution to economic growth of the country.
“We only knew and heard about Women’s day celebrations and women empowerment in the media, we haven’t seen anyone coming or going down to the remote rural areas of Binga or Tsholotsho talking and implementing these women empowerment programmes or projects, except some NGOs and other politicians who visit us during or towards election campaign periods thereafter no-one comes to our rescue,”” said Mrs Betha Bango a member of a Binga women’s fishing club.
In most of the Sub-Saharan regions, the burden of rural women has been worsened by climatic change that has resulted in recurrent droughts and hunger. Due to these changing weather patterns the critical role of rural women in enhancing agricultural and rural development, as well as ensuring food security, water and sanitation provisions has become a nightmare.
Most rural women spend most of their time hunting and gathering food, firewood for the family and water which at times is scarce.
Climate change environment expert, Mr Collen Mutasa, said at a recently held Climate Change Awareness Campaign Dialogue, that climate change has worsened and increased the rural women’s workload compared to that of their counterparts in
urban areas.
“Most rural women’s workload is aggravated by droughts caused by the changing weather patterns in most rural areas, where agriculture is undertaken and supported by women. Much of the burden has rested upon women as they try to adapt to climatic change.
“Rural women have increased workload as they try to employ mitigation and adaptation measures such as practice of conservation farming, walking long distance in search of water for drinking and for their livestock as well as ensuring food security for the family,” said Mr Mutasa.
A recent United Nations survey revealed that rural women who are marginalised constitute 82 percent of the world population and about 500 million live below the poverty datum line.
In the sub-Saharan region 60-80 percent of basic food stuffs are produced by rural women according to the survey report.
The report also noted that rural women spend almost 72 percent of their productive time in enhancing agricultural production and ensuring food security not only for the family but for their livestock.
Recurrent droughts, erratic rainfall caused by climate change have pushed the rural women to the wall, where they are desperately grappling with the situation. Rural women are now involved in food for work projects, self-help projects such as peanut butter making and bee-keeping projects and also the practicing of conservation farming methods as they try to fend for themselves and their children in most drought-stricken arid areas in ountris such as Zimbabwe.
With only three years left before the deadline for the attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Zimbabwe and other developing nations are still struggling to bring about the emancipation and empowering of rural women as well as ensuring the improvement of maternal health and eradication of poverty in most of the rural communities before the year 2015.
MDGs goal number five’s target is to improve maternal health and to reduce death by three quarters between 2000 and 2015.
In recent months media has been awash with stories about pregnant women in most rural areas walking more than 20km or giving birth before arriving at their nearest clinic a scenario that shows the plight faced by many rural women.
Land reform programme have seen the majority of Zimbabwean’s rural women engaged in agricultural activities, which forms the hub of the country’s economy.
For too many rural women, their daily reality is one in which they do not own the land they farm, are also denied the financial services that could uplift them out of poverty, and they are living without the guarantee of basic nutrition, health services and amenities such as clean water and sanitation.
Online Reporter