IATP's Alexandra Spieldoch and Anne Laure Constantin are in Accra, Ghana for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) XII meeting through April 24. They will be blogging periodically on events in Accra.
According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, women represent 80 percent of rural food production throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. In Ghana, the number is between 70-80 percent. However, women’s voices are largely absent from the global food and agriculture debates.
Yesterday in Accra, one of the first questions at a forum we co-hosted on women and food sovereignty was: why wasn’t the voice of a Ghana woman farmer in the opening plenary of the Civil Society Forum preceeding UNCTAD XII?
We heard from a number of women agriculture leaders at the forum, which was co-hosted by Acord International, Action Aid International, Food Security and Policy Action Network (FoodSPAN), International Gender and Trade Network, Third World Network-Africa and Gender and Economic Reforms in Africa.
In particular, we heard the testimonies of two women farmers on the role of women in agriculture in their part of the world:
Mme Beatrice Donkor - FoodSPAN: In the northern region of Africa, women are farming grains. They are also the majority producers of shea butter, livestock, small poultry and they process food. They have replaced men as the dominant force in agricultural production. Yet, management and decision-making processes continue to be male-dominated.
Mme Lydia Sasu (photo left) – ROPPA (Network of Farmers’ and Agricultural Producers’ Organizations of West Africa) and International Federation of Agriculture Producers: In the South, women are planters of maize and plantains. They are also fish processors. Women handle the smoking, sorting and drying of fish. They are washing, peeling, grating, and pressing cassava into dough. They are also providing food for their families and cleaning.
We learned that structural adjustment policies and trade liberalization have created some disturbing changes in food systems in both the North and the South.
1. The eating habits of Ghana communities are changing. For example, the younger generation is now eating rice, which has flooded the Ghana market since trade liberalization, instead of other traditional food items such as cassava and fufu.
2. Farmers, majority women, that are unable to make a living are migrating out of rural areas.
3. The cost of farm inputs is higher than the income that farmers receive.
4. Rural networks are struggling to gain access to markets.
5. High food prices are increasing hunger in rural communities.
6. Water is drying up in rural areas so women are traveling farther to collect water.
7. Women lack land rights, technology, credit, infrastructure and resources.
8. Women farmers and producers are not present in policy-making decisions nor are their concerns central in food sovereignty debates.
Participants at the event stressed the need to link agendas so that agriculture and development groups adopt gender into their analysis and action, and the global women’s movement commits to alternatives in food and agriculture in a more substantive way.
In light of the global food crisis today, linked to high commodity prices, climate change, biofuels and financial speculation, it's clear that deregulating agriculture has been a mistake. And the message here is that we do not have any time to waste in correcting the problem. Controls are needed to manage our food system. In order to do this, support for human rights, including women’s rights, and reform of global governance overall are urgently needed.
