Why women should be at the top

What you need to know:

In my view, all attempts to solve societal problems as earlier mentioned, must begin and end with empowering women.
The writer, is the executive director of Food Rights Alliance (FRA), a coalition of civil social organisations in the field of sustainable agriculture and food security

During celebrations to mark the International Women’s Day in Dokolo District, President Yoweri Museveni said the need to empower women economically will solve many societal problems including domestic violence.

We agree with the opinion of the President because an empowered woman is a society empowered and in the context of Uganda and developing world, women empowerment is a crucial aspect.
The President’s acknowledgement should, in our view result into policies and resources channelled in sectors where women are the biggest players.

Agriculture, which takes up more than half of the women workforce is Uganda’s economic backbone therefore as government joins the rest of the world to implement a new global agenda under the Sustainable Development Goals particularly goal two that aims to end hunger, empowerment of women must be key.
The world must recall that despite the global commitment to halve hunger and malnutrition by 2015, within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals, hunger has insisted and even grown to worse levels.

The zero hunger challenge recognises the need to; making food systems sustainable from production to consumption, end rural poverty: double small scale producer incomes and productivity, adapt all food systems to eliminate loss or waste of food, all of which need women as key players.

According to the 2015 Global Nutrition Report, 45 per cent of countries across the globe continue to face a double burden of malnutrition although, as indicated by the Global Hunger Index 2016, significant progress has been made in fighting hunger attaining a remarkable reduction of 29 per cent as recorded under the Global Hunger Index score of 2000.

In regard to land management, according to Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 43.2 per cent of the farming households are female headed compared to 56.8 per cent that are male headed.
In terms of agricultural labour wages, female headed households earn 4.5Euros (about Shs17, 015.4) compared to 9 Euros (about 34,030.9) earned by their male counterparts.

Disturbing figures still from Ubos indicate that only 19 per cent of female headed households access agricultural extension services as compared to 81 per cent of males and another paltry eighteen per cent of females access markets, compared to 82 per cent of male counterparts.

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics 2014 report, indicate that 60.9 per cent of the women are self - employed compared to 45.6 per cent for men.

In the business sector, a recent World Bank report indicated that 40 per cent of micro enterprises headed by women are feeling the burden of regulation compared to 35 per cent headed by men.

Only 22 per cent and 16 per cent form senior and middle management in the public service respectively.
Women are less in much of Uganda’s high paying economic sectors compared to men and face different constraints while participating in formal and informal employment.

This year’s International Women’s Day, under the theme “Be bold for change” is a call for re organisation, remobilisation and reflection on the critical and underlying issues that impede realisation of desired change.

While Uganda, like the rest of the world, has achieved considerable milestones towards women empowerment, a lot is yet to be done.

The new global agenda 2030 is a renewed commitment to cause change and no one should be left behind.

Therefore, achieving the renewed commitment of agenda 2030 cannot happen without investment in sustainable, resilient, and comprehensive interventions that prioritise focus on inherent disparities to build capabilities as well as enhancing resilience within individuals and communities which are vulnerable.

Efforts by the UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, especially in regard to achieving zero hunger is a shared commitment and now is the time to work as partners to build a truly global movement to ensure the right to food for all and build sustainable agriculture and food systems.

Significant steps have been taken but there is need to take more bold changes away from the normative approach of emancipation to tackle real challenges that will underline attainment of a sustainable food system which emphasises more of production.
Land tenure security, the new attack to seed security and biodiversity and access to information must be availed, especially in the area of agricultural extension and training of key players.

Rural poverty and doubling small scale producer incomes and productivity as embedded in issues to access functioning markets and access to production resources by both men and women and regulation of market economies must be addressed as well as deploying means that will help to adapt food systems in order to eliminate food loss and waste as enshrined in equitable access to technology.

In my view, all attempts to solve societal problems as earlier mentioned, must begin and end with empowering women.
The writer, is the executive director of Food Rights Alliance (FRA), a coalition of civil social organisations in the field of sustainable agriculture and food security.

The writer, is the executive director of Food Rights Alliance (FRA), a coalition of civil social organisations in the field of sustainable agriculture and food security.