62 Session of the UN Commission

REPORT OF THE SIDE EVENT ORGANISED AT THE SIXTY-SECOND SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN (CSW)

Topic: The Intersection Between Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Rural Women and Girls: A Case Study of the Agricultural Sector in Nigeria.

Friday 16th March 2018
12:30pm – 1:45pm
The Armenian Convention Center, New York, USA

Speakers: Mrs Bridget Osakwe – WANEP Nigeria
Mrs Hauwa Mohammed-Ikediugwu – WREP Nigeria
Moderator: Ms. Mimidoo Achakpa – Executive Director (WREP Nigeria)

1.0 OVERVIEW

Men are often perceived as the “real” farmers and receive a greater proportion of technical assistance thereby illustrating the gender gaps between men and women in the Agricultural sector in Nigeria. Most times, women and girls are sidelined as chains become more formalized, or they can be inhibited from participating in developed chains controlled by men. To close this gap, women and girls need to be empowered to promote equal access to resources and opportunities, to ensure that agricultural policies and programmes are gender-aware, and to make women’s voices heard as equal partners for sustainable development.

2.0 KEY ISSUES DISSCUSED

• More women partake in small scale farming therefore, there is a great need to increase their capacity and open up spaces for more women and young girls towards gender equality.
• Investigating increased vulnerability in natural and manmade disasters, women and girls form a larger part of displaced people who migrate.
• Access to education plays a key role in achieving gender equality because in rural areas, farming takes place for subsistence and economic purposes and once it is subsistence, women and girls are more active and then young girls are withdrawn from school in order to have them help out in the farm. This decreases the opportunity for them in furthering their education like the male counterparts thereby stopping these girls from gaining knowledge and skills that will help them take control of their lives. This knowledge and skills increases the capacity to make decision and the capacity to be independent for economic and social independence and it helps women and girls weaken exploitation. Nevertheless, the withdrawal of the girl child from school for farming purposes does not increase economic farming because the men are in control of the land and usually takes over it.
• It is likewise important to increase spaces for farming, education and social mingling of women and girls with others through formal or informal education. This helps them take control of their lives and increases their confidence. In the process of expanding farms, education or skills are required for operating mechanised equipment for farming which makes these skills vital.
• Increasing avenues for support through mentorship programmes and other forms of support to the younger generation from older women will reduce dependency as women and girls depend on men for a lot of things which leads to abuse. When women have more spaces, skills and knowledge, it reduces the tendency to depend on other people especially the men. It also gives them that leverage of taking control of their lives and also increase their economic empowerment. Economic empowerment through rural farming will also get them out of poverty and enable them go beyond subsistence farming.
• One of the numerous challenges women have talked about is access to land. They do not have lands to farm or cannot afford to acquire land to farm and some who have the opportunities to inherit lands are disinherited because they are women. In South Africa, to overcome this, they advocated for women to have access to lands “one women one hectare”. In some parts of Nigeria, women have to do proxy farming for several reasons resulting in shortchanging in the process.
• For women to be able to respond positively on issues on empowerment and gender equality, they have to have the capacity to be able to measure up with other men that are doing the same thing.
• An important factor that has been neglected is the use of ICT. It is not only women in the offices that need the technology as it is also important for rural women in farming. A woman from Kenya talked about the use of smart phones in agriculture and how they have been able to increase the market for their products through the use of this technology.

2.1 CURRENT CHALLENGES

Women and girls play a vital role in agriculture and food production as they make up 70 -80% of the labour force in the country however; they still face a number of challenges.

• Poor access and control of lands as women do not have rights to inherit lands.
• Poor access to finance due to the inability to have personal bank accounts as they do not have the required documents in order to process opening a bank account.
• Land grabbing by the Government of lands already used for farming for other purposes such as construction therefore women are forced to lease or rent lands for farming.
• Poor access to input and late arrival of seedling.
• Poor infrastructure causing women to depend on middlemen who usually wait till last minute when women are desperate to sell their products. If the roads were good, women would be able to easily transport these goods to the market. When women advocate for social infrastructure, people think it doesn’t make sense but it goes a long way.
• Rural women have low participation in agricultural decision making positions and do not even know of the existence of organisations such as the Bank of Industry or Bank of Agriculture meaning they do not have access to them neither aware of opportunities from these organisations.
• There is a huge connection between farming and security. Like the herders and farmers clash, the herders go into farms to graze their cattle and when the farmers resist, they kill them. They is currently so much conflict and lives are being lost daily and individuals especially women and children also displaced from their communities. When basic necessities are donated, it is forgotten that women need certain items such as sanitary towels, pants, inner wears etc. In a particular situation, sanitary pads were donated but the women had no pants and were unable to make use of the pads. The challenge in settling this humanitarian crisis is that it has been politicised. Most of these displacements happen in the rural areas and it is the rural women and girls that are victims. Social life is disrupted as schools are converted into camps and hospitals are not functional. Most times, herders rape women and girls on the farm bringing about a fear on going to farm knowing that these women constitute the larger number of farmers. This will in turn have a great effect on food security in the near future.

3.0 QUESTIONS, CONTRIBUTIONS AND RESPONSES.

• Question: The delay in delivering the seedling should be dealt with easily as they are several issues way beyond this that needs more attention.
  Response: The whole value chain process is usually disrupted that is why it cannot be dealt with so easily.
• Question: Before the introduction of the current seeds used in Africa, communities in Ghana reproduced their own seeds. Wouldn’t it be safer if rural women reproduce their seeds instead of waiting for the government?
  Response: Most times, it is announced that the government is assisting with seedling giving hope that whatever is been farmed can be totally used up. Sometimes women sell off their seedling when in need in anticipation for the ones from the government however; alternative strategy can be used for crops that do not need assisted seedling. It is important that we rethink if we want to stick with the old method but bearing in mind that this old method works only for subsistence farming.
• Question: Big Ocean Women is an organisation that envisions women as respected and valued. Women should be self-reliant both physically and emotionally. The power comes from within and it is like a ripple effect. Knowing that power comes from within, are there currently any training to these women that they have to love themselves and seek potentials so they can achieve and know who they are?
  Response: We have not trained these women farmer on the issues of power from within but it will be considered for future references.
• Question: What has women’s organisations in Nigeria done in response to these challenges?
  Response: A project titled Women in Agriculture is currently in progress by WREP where rural women farmers are mobilised and advocacy around inclusion of women farmers is carried out to states that do not have gender friendly agricultural policy to see there is a gender reflection in the policy.
• Question: What has been done on Climate change issues causing conflict?
  Response: For conflict prevention in that area, Gender Sensitive Indicators were developed to monitor those issues of climate change adaptation, conflict and can translate into conflict within that community. In engaging the women, they know what to do but the issue of assistance was lacking. These women were formed into cooperatives and the leaders were connected to local government authorities who were in charge of the agricultural extension. It has been successful because the agricultural extension workers now work with the women.
• Question: Are there measures taken to counter the middle men activities?
  Response: In cutting them, women in Plateau State were organised and were able to hire big trucks to move their products to the market instead of waiting for the middle men. There was also an off taker who buys all the farm produce from the women at an agreed amount. This strategy has disadvantages and advantages. The disadvantage is that the products are most times sold at the off takers price but the advantage is that the products will be sold.
• Question: Considering some of the cultures we have back home, a woman is seen as someone who is supposed to do domestic work. How does she combine it with farming?
  Response: In Nigeria, the domestic work of a woman is not recognised therefore, she is a multitasker and that is how women make up 70% of farmers in Nigeria even economic crops but it does not translate into economic power for them and that is a great challenge.