A strategy for the economic empowerment of rural women
By Judith CUMA
October 16, 2015 21:24
A fifty peasant women group from Bukavu and different territories of South Kivu plans to stablish a National Academy of Congolese Peasants to promote the emancipation of female farmers at all levels, following one of the recommendations made during an interprovincial workshop that gathered rural women of Congo in Kisangani, at the Eastern Province, in 2013.
The Academy would contribute with a training framework which might facilitate their professional careers. Would also envisage create space for sharing experiences and hands-on training among several agricultural producers and to develop the rural economy in which women from South Kivu play a prominent role.
The set of strategies would consist, among many others, in: offering practical, professional and informational training, exchanging experiences reinforced by internal and external assessments, strengthening collaborative relationships with the Congolese state and promoting a synergistic work environment among women with diverse competencies to create a multidisciplinary team.
If the initiative is successful, this academy of women would reduce the gaps and disadvantages associated with gender that hinder the integral development of peasant women.
This initiative has already been created at the North Kivu province, where women farmers have managed to start up an agro-pastoral enterprise called «Mandimba» and have developed several income-generating activities.