Rural Women’s Day marked in Azizanya (Daily Graphic, 18/10/08. Gender and Childre’s Page)

Article: Salome Donkor
Wednesday, October 15, was observed as World Rural Women’s Day. The idea of the event, which is devoted each year to honour rural women, began at the United Nations Conference for Women in Beijing in September 1995.
The theme for this year’s celebration was, “Climate Change: Rural Women Are Part of the Solution”, while that for 2007 was “The right to food: Rural women produce and provide”
The International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW), Network of African Rural Women Associations (NARWA) and the Women's World Summit Foundation (WWSF) were the main proponents of the day.
Online information indicate that rural women, mainly farmers, are at least 1.6 billion and represent more than a quarter of the total world population. Women produce on average more than half of all the food that is grown: Up to 8O per cent in Africa, 6O per cent in Asia, between 3O and 4O per cent in Latin America and Western countries.
Despite these women own only two per cent of the land, and receive only one per cent of all agricultural credit, while only five per cent of all agricultural extension resources are directed to women.
In Ghana, records at the Ministry of Agriculture indicate that women constitute 52 per cent of the agricultural labour force and produce 70 per cent of subsistence crops and play major roles in production and distribution.
The event was therefore considered a practical way of obtaining recognition and support for the multiple roles of rural women who are mostly farmers and small entrepreneurs.
Because of their key role in food production and food security, it was decided that the World Rural Women's Day fall on the October 15 - the day before World Food Day.
The purpose of the day is to provide rural women and their organisations with a focal point to raise the profile of rural women, sensitise both governments and the public to their crucial, yet largely unrecognised roles, and promote action in their support.
As part of this year’s celebration in Ghana, the Foundation for Female Photojournalists (FFP), a non-profit making organisation, organised a programme with women in Azizanya in Ada to discuss how best to address the issue of coastal erosion confronting the community. During the meeting, the women resolved to initiate a programme that will harness their efforts to support each other during critical times of the coastal erosion.
They also appealed to the government to engage with the traditional authorities to give them a parcel of land which they will collectively develop as a long term means of providing sustainable and affordable housing.
The women noted that their communities, environment, industries, services and workplaces were facing rapid changes. Drought, climate change, and water issues have increased the cost of doing business. The prices of imputs such as fuel and fishing nets are challenging their very livelihoods.
The women in Azizanya also affirmed that vast distances and lack of infrastructure did not only isolate them, but also stifled growth, innovation, entrepreneurship and adaptive capacity, which threatens Ghana's economic, social, cultural and environmental sustainability and prosperity.
In a welcome address, the Executive Director of FFP, Ms Mardey Ohui Ofoe, said this year's theme was crucial because over the past years, rural women had played significant roles in communities affected by drought, coastal land erosion and ongoing climate change. In these circumstances women in rural communities take on critical roles spanning family, business and the community development.
The rural women and climate change initiative is about local women working together and exploring partnerships that improve their family situations and community's well-being.
In a goodwill message read on his behalf, the Chief of Azizanya, Nene Akrofi Kabu, expressed his profound gratitude to the FFP for the programme and expressed the hope that the conversation would produce lessons that would help the people of Azizanya to address their own climatic change problems.
The chairperson for the programme, Madam Ghananye, admonished the women to take seriously the issues discussed to mobilise themselves to ensure that they maximised the knowledge gained to the benefit of all. She said when the sea eroded the land, women lost property, got displaced, thereby exposing them to diseases and severe poverty.
The Assembly Member of the Azizanya Electoral Area, Hon. Paul T. Amegavie, said women and children were the major victims of the Ada sea erosion because it took over their households and properties.