World Rural Women's Day
Date: 15 October, 2011
The idea of a World Rural Women's Day was initiated at a UN Conference for Women in Beijing in September 1995. The Conference decided that the special day would fall on 15 October, the day before the World Food Day, because of the key role rural women play in food production. For centuries they have been the tillers of the land, always at the forefront of ensuring food security and to a greater extent, social stability, yet they were deprived to own land in their own right by all the land ownership systems in the past. The celebration of this day was considered a practical way of obtaining recognition and support for the multiple roles of rural women, who make up more than a quarter of the world population.
The purpose was to provide the 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;
- Promote action in their support. Initiative on how to celebrate this day was left to individual organisations and communities, according to their own traditions and requirements. Stress was placed on the importance of activities or events being concrete and visible. This action - undertaken by rural and farming women in all parts of the world on the very same day - strengthens the impact of the day.
To give impetus to rural development, the South African government has introduced a number of policies that seek to entrench the role of women as drivers of rural development, namely, the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development sub-programme (LRAD), Micro Agricultural Finance Institutions of South Africa (MAFISA), Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP) and Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment in agriculture (AGRIBEE).
Notwithstanding all these efforts and the fact that some individuals have achieved remarkable success recently, the majority of rural women in South Africa still live under dire circumstances.
Sources:
Links:
http://www.rural-womens-day.org/origin.html
http://www.agric.nsw.gov.au/rwn/calendar/