By Conrad Mwanawashe
Muteo Value Addition Cooperative in the Save Valley community under Chief Tsovani in Ward 25 of Chiredzi District is this year’s venue for the commemorations of the International Day of Rural Women, a UN Calendar Event celebrated every year on the 15th of October.
The day was set aside to recognise the role of rural women who contribute immensely to agriculture as well as food and nutrition security.
The venue for the commemorations is a project site for Muteo Value Addition Cooperative run by 35 women who are producing small grains and add value to this produce. There is also a model village that is solar powered and this demonstrates the benefits of climate smart technologies.
The International theme for 2023 is “Rural Women Cultivating Good Food for All.”
Women Affairs, Community, and Small and Medium Enterprise Development Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa said rural women work 16 to 18 hours a day and spend at least 49% of their time on agricultural activities and about 25% on domestic activities.
“Rural women are a very important cog in our social and economic sphere and therefore, must be celebrated. For a lot of us who grew up in the rural areas we know the importance of the work which is carried out by rural women. As a ministry we it is important to make sure that we empower women in their local communities. Yes, there is rural to urban migration but it must be a choice. Take the financial, teaching them digital skills to their areas,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.
According to the, 2019 Women and Men in Zimbabwe Report (ZIMSTAT), 80% of women live in the communal areas where they constitute 61% of the farmers and provide 70% of the labour force. Women have traditionally been assigned the onerous role of caregiving in their families.
This year, the International Day for Rural Women will be commemorated under the following objectives:
Celebrating and acknowledging the role of rural women in the development process with a focus on the role that women and girls play in the food systems.
Strengthening resilience and raising awareness on the reduction of risk and vulnerability to climate change effects.
Raising awareness on available programmes supporting women empowerment and gender equality and how women can benefit.
Prompting Service Providers and Public-Private Partners to support and empower women enterprises in rural areas.
United Nations Women’s latest report, Beyond COVID-19: A feminist plan for sustainability and social justice, calls for rebuilding the broken global food system from the bottom-up by supporting rural women’s livelihoods to produce and distribute diverse and healthy food crops. With less than 10 years to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, including Zero Hunger (Goal 2) and Gender Equality (Goal 5), UN Women is working to support rural women and girls around the world, to build their resilience, skills and leadership.
In a statement on the International Day of Rural Women, UN Women said across the world, food systems depend on the daily work of rural women. They play a variety of essential roles, from raising crops and processing their harvest, to preparing food and distributing their products, ensuring that both their families and communities are nourished.
“Yet paradoxically those same women often have less access to food and a higher risk of hunger, malnutrition, undernutrition and food insecurity than their male counterparts. The reasons for this disconnect from their right to food include unequal power relations and discriminatory gender norms, for example, resulting in women eating last and least in the household, as well as their disproportionate responsibility for unpaid caregiving and domestic work,” UN Women said.
Minister Mutsvangwa bemoaned the gender disparities in ownership, access to, and control of livelihoods and economic resources such as land, water, credit, knowledge, and labour which she said negatively affect women’s food production.
“For instance, failure to access land and other resources often imply that women obtain lower yields than would otherwise be possible if household resources were allocated more equitably. Insecurity of tenure for women thus compromises their production potential and increases food insecurity. Greater food security would be achieved if women had access to needed assets, equipment and resources and had a voice in the decisions that have an impact on the lives of their households and communities.
“Rural women often face constraints to market their produce due to factors such as lack of mobility and knowledge about markets, capacity to produce and lack of agricultural skills. Female agro- based entrepreneurs can play important economic roles that have positive effects beyond the micro level, for example, supplying food production, value addition and creation of employment opportunities.