Filed under: Edible Gardening, Equality, GardenAfrica Project, Love the planet | Tags: Africa, equality, feminism, garden, women
Women in Africa:
52% of the total population
contribute 75% of the agricultural work
produce 60 – 80% of the food.
BUT
earn earn 10% of African incomes
and own 1% of the continent’s assets.
The tragedy is that women are often better economic stewards of capital than men. For example, crop yields in Kenya could rise up to 22% if women farmers had the same education and inputs (such as fertilizer, credit, investment) as men farmers*. A report called Economic Empowerment of Women by Almaz Negash shows that women are more likely to reinvest profits back into human capital than are men.
When women have economic power – defined as control of income and capital (land, livestock, etc.) -they gain more equality and control over their own lives, while contributing directly to their children’s development (nutrition, health and education) and thereby indirectly to their nation’s income growth. Increased income controlled by women gives them self confidence, which helps them obtain a voice and vote in land use and conservation decisions: rural women tend to favour sustainable environmental practices since they are usually the ones that collect the families’ natural resources such as water and firewood.
Women’s economic empowerment could ease corruption and violence in Africa, promote greater environmental sustainability, and through education, contraception, and lower fertility rates, help lower HIV/AIDS rates. If this kind of process is accepted by society, then it should be apparent that women’s education and economic empowerment is not only a matter of human rights but also human security.
A very simple solution to some of the challenges outlined above? GardenAfrica empowers women in Africa, giving them the training and the resources they need to grow food for themselves and their families, while selling their excess produce to pay for their children’s school fees. Please dig deep. www.gardenafrica.org.uk.
*UNFPA, UN Population Fund, State of World Population 2005: The Promise of Equality, UNFPA, New York, 2005, p. 47
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