Women:
Africa: Women Call for a Partnership to Defeat
Poverty
April 26, 2007
Oupa Segalwe
Durban, South Africa
Governments, civil society and the private sector have
been urged to partner with rural women’s organisations in order to help the
women participate meaningfully in the economy.
In a declaration following the 4th World Congress of
Rural Women (WCRW), delegates at the Durban conference said this partnership
was critical for addressing unemployment and hunger as a central focus on
development.
They said the partnership was also important to undertake
the necessary measures to give rural women full and equal access to productive
resources, including ownership of land and other property.
The issues of access to credit, start-up capital for
emerging businesses, skills development and access to markets for emerging
businesses also came across as urgent matters of concern in the declaration.
“We must take collective responsibility to address rural
poverty in a comprehensive, integrated and holistic manner through mobilising
political, economic and social resources,” they said.
Regarding social issues, the women said the partnership
should be strengthened in order to deal successfully with diseases such as HIV
and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
The partnership, the declaration said, should seek to
protect and promote their human rights and freedom by ensuring that gender
equity principles are mainstreamed in national and international development
agenda.
It should ensure necessary legal, policy and administrative
measures for the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence and other
harmful practices against rural women and the girl children.
But while many have hailed the congress as a success,
concerns are being raised about whether the outcomes will be implemented.
Acting Director for Gender in the African Union (AU),
Yetunde Teriba said ever since the first such congress took place in Australia
in 1994, much had not changed in terms of the improvement of the rural women’s
living conditions.
“Over the years not much has changed because of the top-down
approach that was used however in this congress there was a lot of change as the
bottom-up approach was used,” Ms Teriba told reporters after the congress.
South Africa’s Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu
Xingwana said in between the four-yearly congress sessions, there would be
continental conferences to check on progress made and ensure full implementation
of the resolutions.
“It is important that we meet from time to time as women to
evaluate progress made from such congresses and share experiences to better
address these challenges,” Ms Xingwana said.
Minister for Community Development, Gender and Children in
Tanzania Sophia Simba said the congress had been unique in that it allowed women
to get involved in making decisions to improve their own conditions.
“We can’t keep on planning things on behalf of other people
without involving them.
“We must up hold the ‘nothing for us without us’ approach to
strategise on how to tackle the porvety that is overwhelming our women,” Ms
Simba said.
Calista Chapolo-Chimombo, a Malawian member of parliament,
said the congress had been good in that it gave women a platform to share
experiences and learn from one another.
“It has given me the opportunity to go back to Malawi and
start to interact with rural women because in my country they are one of the
most marginalised members of society,” Ms Chapolo-Chimombo said.
The delegates decided that the next congress be held in
India in four years time.
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