By Oscar Kakande
Oxfam international reveals that globally women contribute 80 percent of the world’s food which is produced by small-scale farming whereby they make up on average 43 percent of this agricultural labour in developing countries.
Despite their contribution in agriculture, they face several challenges, including limited access to resources, technology, and markets, which hinder their productivity, efficiency, and income.
The Young Farmer’s Federation of Uganda (UNYFA) launched the women in agriculture campaign an initiative that aims to increase the visibility of the women in agribusiness, increase awareness of the importance of women’s participation in agriculture through a social media campaign and to make agriculture attractive celebrating innovative women in agriculture.
Although women in Uganda make up a considerable proportion of the agricultural labour force, their participation is often restricted by discriminatory gender norms and lack of empowerment.
The Principal Gender Officer, Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development, Kityo Richard, launched the campaign, highlighting the importance of women’s empowerment in agriculture.
“Women’s rights are human rights, as the 1995 constitution of Uganda stipulates. Let us promote equality for all marginalised persons. The ministry is also having several enablers which aim at empowering women, like the Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises Project (GROW).
He added, “The government is on a move to recognise unpaid work, which mostly the women engage in.”
(Left, Lydia Muchodo, Regional Programme Manager, Trias East Africa and (R) Kityo Richard, Gender officer MGLSD, UNYFA Board member, staff and CEO, Denis Kabiito posing in a group photo at the launch of the campaign.)
According to Oscar Kakande, Communications Officer, Young Famers’ Federation of Uganda, “With this campaign, the federation through the communication department will address this challenge by imploring the public to stand firmly, solidarity with all the women to fight restrictive gender norms which affect women participation in agriculture, erase the narrative that agriculture is a poor man’s job, dirty work etc.
“Through the campaign’s communication strategy, we shall leverage the follower base of the communication channels of the Federation, totalling to 18,036 followers where all these messages will be disseminated from to the public in form of success stories, infographics, videos, news features.” He adds.
The campaign is targeting female youth aged 18-35, Trainers who train other trainers on agricultural topics. These disseminate knowledge and skills to a wider audience. Therefore, they can help to develop training programs that cater to the needs of women in agriculture and also build the capacity of women through training sessions in the community.
The year long campaign aims to increase awareness of the importance of women’s participation in agriculture, and to make agriculture attractive celebrating innovative women in agriculture through spotlights across the communication channels of the Young Farmers’ Federation of Uganda.
International Women’s Day
Speaking at the International Women’s Day celebrations themed accelerate action, Lydia Muchodo, Regional Programme Manager, Trias East Africa revealed, “When we empower the girl child, the community thrives. My call to action is to let us use what we have to accelerate action towards women empowerment.”
She adds, “We need to start a journey where we put certain measures in place. However, they may come at a cost. These should be certain measures that an institution should put in place to ensure that recognise and we take into account that there are things that can affect the performance of females.”
Lydia also called upon employers to do what is within their means such as providing flexible working hours, and educational talks to support peer to peer mentoring to customize the support needed to women in work spaces.
“Now is the time where we need to encourage family businesses. This will help to address issues like gender-based violence and reliance on men for family needs. Men need to be the catalysts of this action. Everyone should be involved,” said Denis Kabiito, CEO, UNYFA.
Denis revealed that if the federation was only promoting women, it would have led to destabilised homes. Living in a society that has been patriarchal, it’s very important to include men while discussing aspects of women empowerment because they are the ones to break these barriers.
“In order for the women to be at the same level with men, there is a need to sensitise men about these issues,” he adds.
In agriculture, the majority of people that are carrying out the largest kind of work are the women and youth, but they are not the owners of the businesses, farms and land.
(Mrs. Petra Bentkämper, president of the German Association of Rural Women)
The president of the German Association of Rural Women, Petra Bentkämper, asked women to be part of decision makers and decision-making processes in order to demand for their fair share.
“Wage differences often go unnoticed because there is no transparency in the whole payment process. To correct that, women have to be present in all decision- making processes in order to demand for their share,” she said.
The International Women’s Day celebrations were organised by the Young Farmers’ Federation of Uganda in collaboration with the German Association of Rural women.
////////////////////////////////END///////////////////////////////