ActionAid has been joining the community of nations to observe 15th October as the International Day of Rural Women instituted by UN in 2007 (UN Resolution Day A/Res/42/136/2007) to draw attention of policy makers to some development issues against the backdrop of its mandate of ending poverty and injustice against vulnerable people. ActionAid’s support of the global solidarity with rural women, initiated by the Global Outreach Campaign in 1995 and now promoted by Women’s World Summit Foundation is also because of the topical issues raised annually and that are in line with the values of ActionAid. These year’s theme is “Claim your Right to Land and Inheritance” and preceding the World Food Day, 16th October, theme “Food Prices – From crisis to stability” and the fact that in Ghana most rural women are in agriculture we are looking at the theme “High Food Prices: Meet Needs of Rural Women Farmers”. Issues of women’s access to land are not just the major constraint that rural women farmers are confronted with. In Ghana, much lip service is paid on the important role of women in agriculture but rural women largely lack agricultural productive resources.
ActionAid, as usual is committed to the solidarity with rural women basically because they form the majority of the poor across the nations and yet by their toil billions of people are fed. Eight (8) out of 10 of the world’s smallholder farmers are women, and it is these women who produce half of the world’s food, and in Africa they produce 80%. Rural women are the hidden food production heroes and if the global food crisis, especially the increasing food prices is to be addressed by governments, they must address the specific needs of rural women and women farmers in particular. Within this year, 2011, nearly a billion people are going hungry. In Ghana, apart from the high levels of stunted growth among children, over one million people go hungry. ActionAid believes that if women are given the same access as men to training, technology and other farming service, the number of hungry people could be cut by about 15% worldwide. If indeed leaders and policy makers are to address the hunger problem, they must see rural women as the solution.
ActionAid is committed to this solidarity with rural women and the call on policy makers on the plight of rural women, particularly their access to productive assets because women’s rights and gender equity are at the centre of ActionAid’s work. This is because gender intersects with all forms of poverty and injustice. Furthermore, without challenging and transforming deeply embedded norms and customs that perpetuate unequal power relations between men and women, no society will address the root causes of poverty and injustice. Your participation in this observance of Rural Women’s Day 2011and more importantly your commitment to address the issues that will be raised by the rural women themselves to address their increased access to productive resources confirms ActionAid’s belief that we need widespread solidarity on HungerFREE so that together we can fight poverty and injustice among rural women.
Considering the theme “High food prices: Meet needs of rural women farmers” is appropriate for our context – 3 to 4 months before the next harvest for 3 - 4 months in the year 70% of farmers in Ghana do not have food stocks, as revealed in a research on public financing of agriculture in Ghana by ActionAid – yet as a nation we are confronted with over 20% of post-harvest losses. Working on food prices for increased food supply is to realise that:
Women’s rights in access to and control over land is a determining factor – Land is essential to women’s everyday survival, economic security and household welfare, including the wellbeing of children
Food security is dependent on women’s equal access to land and natural resources – women have a better chance of ensuring food security but they are often denied their right to land. Men more than women are likely to abandon agricultural work and migrate to seek greener pastures.
The right to land and inheritance is an internationally recognised human right and yet women, especially rural women are often denied this right, creating gender inequalities in access to land or often given poorer quality and/or smaller plots.
These issues about land have been confirmed in an ongoing research on women and land that ActionAid has commissioned ISSER of University of Ghana, Legon to undertake. Also coming up is the increased commoditisation of land (land for sale) and since women are often financially not empowered their vulnerability is deepened.
Further to land, as mentioned earlier the ActionAid research on public financing of agriculture in Ghana brought more empirical evidence on women’s poor access to productive resources. Government is yet to fulfil its Maputo Declaration of a minimum of 10% of national budget being invested in agriculture. For the 2011 national budget Ministry of Food and Agriculture had only 2.8% and WIAD’s budget was very small – only 0.4% of the MoFA budget. If the Directorate is to champion the issues of women in agriculture and particularly processing and nutrition it is not surprising that post-harvest losses are still high. Widespread lack of resources for women will manifest as such since the women are the key actors in food processing.
The Gender and Agricultural Development Strategy (GADS) framework developed in 1997 to promote gender mainstreaming in MoFA is yet to be fully operational. The ban on recruitment in the Ministry has contributed to only 2% of female-headed households having access to extension services. Issues of value addition, food processing facilities and credit, and food storage infrastructure for yearlong access to food and stable food prices are a concern and without the needed government support the situation will be worse. There is clearly the need for increased government support for women in agriculture. - postharvest management and food distribution are mostly the domain of women, yet they lack visibility in agricultural spending in Ghana. This gap may also explain why expenditures in agricultural research have significantly increased in recent years but farm productivity is still not improving. Linkages between research and extension particularly at the district often do not seem to work. As mentioned the greatest need of women farmers is agricultural credit, as the research revealed, but banks in Ghana currently distribute only 4% of credit to agriculture and the leading bank for agriculture financing, Agricultural Development Bank, earmarks only 30% of its credit to agriculture – without mentioning the poor literacy resources of rural women to even access the little.
Efforts at national food storage is woefully inadequate – understandably so since there is overemphasis on export crops and not food crops. The National Food Buffer Stock Company, established last year, purchased and stored just 6,949 MT of rice and 416 MT of maize. Within 2002-2006 the government allocated twice as much agriculture budget resources to Ghana Cocoa Board as it gave to MoFA and even cushioned with minimum guaranteed prices. Since 2008 the trend has been reversed but the food sector does not have the attention it deserves. Emphasis on the food sector with accompanying innovative schemes for value addition and food storage should be given priority attention. By this one venture the role of women in agriculture matched with the resources they need will be addressed.
Observing the Rural Women’s Day in Jirapa is a commitment of ActionAid towards the plight of the northern sector of Ghana and hence the seat of our major food rights programmes. Ghana has achieved sustained economic growth in the past two decades but the north has not been caught up in this growth. The programmes of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority and the Northern Rural Growth Programme are evidence of this. On the current growth path, national poverty will fall from 28% to 16% in 2015 but in the north it will fall from 63% to 49%. This means that targeted interventions such as increased access of productive resources for women, including fertile lands for production cannot be overemphasized. The women at this forum will speak for themselves on what they need in their agricultural ventures.
We are demanding that government puts in innovative programmes targeted at productive resources for smallholder farmers and especially rural women farmers. There is the need for increased visibility of smallholder agriculture and the contribution of women farmers in particular in agricultural policy formulation, programming and financing. ActionAid is calling for increased investment for women farmers in particular and smallholder agriculture in general. There should be clear budget lines for smallholder agriculture and a standalone budget for women farmers, accompanied by promotion to address cultural sensitivities on issues on women’s access to and control over fertile lands. These provisions when put in place will expand value addition, food storage infrastructure at all levels, including community granaries and thereby stabilise food prices.
Likewise we are calling on the global policy makers such as the G8 to honour their pledges to support smallholder agriculture and food security. The FAO State of Food and Agriculture Report 2010-2011 writes that investing in women in agriculture could increase yields and decrease global hunger by 12-17 percent, or by between 100 and 150 million people. At the recent IV LDC Conference in Istanbul, UN Women’s Executive Director stated that productive resources and financial services can have critical multiplier effects on rural development. She asked the obvious question: why isn’t this kind of investment happening? We can also ask “Why is it not happening in Ghana, knowing the contribution of rural women to the food sector and reduction of hunger?
ActionAid Ghana adds its voice to the demands for strengthening food security. We demand that government should:
- 1. Support gender mainstreaming in MoFA’s program of work, allocating the necessary resources to WIAD’s regular budget for the full implementation of the Gender and Agricultural Development Strategy, while investing in gender disaggregated data for policy making and expenditure as well as setting clear targets and processes to monitor its effectiveness.
- 2. Invest more in visible gender targeted policy, programs and financing on smallholder agriculture and women farmers in particular
- 3. Hire more women experts in the work of MoFA to create a more gender-equitable organisation and that will meet the needs of women farmers.
- 4. Regularly engage with women civil society leaders, including organized groups of women farmers, processors and marketers to strengthen the direction and implementation of its thematic areas of work –especially in policy formulation, programming and financing to address hunger and food security and not agricultural export mostly for government revenue.
- Promote the adoption and implementation of policies that protect women’s rights to land and other productive resources, access to markets, finance, information and technologies, their capacity to organize themselves and participate in policy processes and decision making.
Addressing high food prices is simply meeting the needs of rural women farmers. ActionAid is committed to support the rural women themselves to come forward and speak for themselves on their access to productive resources and what government and traditional authorities, particularly those holding land in trust of their people, the agricultural financiers and all stakeholders present – The majority of the population needs cheaper, local and nutritious foods for a healthy peaceful nation. ActionAid is pleased about this platform created for a dialogue between rural women and their stakeholders in their farming activities. Long live rural women of Ghana long live the solidarity between rural women and ActionAid in this quest to end poverty and social and economic injustice. Let’s invest in rural women’s livelihood, assets and decision making power, the high food prices will come down. Let’s act now!!!
Delivered By: Queronica Q. Quartey, ActionAid Ghana Right to Food and Climate Change Policy Advisor