Gender dimension deserves consideration in global agric practice - World Bank

NaijaAgroNet:

The Head of Communications for Agriculture Global Practice at World Bank, Mr. Sarwat Hussain, has called for the consideration of gender dimension to ensure improved global agriculture practice, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking recently at a three-day media workshop hosted by the Africa Media Initiative (AMI) in collaboration with the World Bank in Abidjan, Mr. Hussain said that women have been the link between food, household nutrition and family health.

He also said that this position by women gender deserves encouragement, since of the aforementioned outlines go through women primarily.

Hussain equally said that agriculture is a single opportunity for the transformation of emerging economies, most of which are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Stressing that productive increases in agriculture have all round benefits across the economy as with every dollar investment returns and even more depending on other sectors and other crops.

“… if you have a productive vibrant agriculture is the source of well-being and prosperity as countries have shown by focusing on sustainable agriculture for the benefit of all,“ he said.

 

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Pix: Eric Chinje of AMI and Sarwat Hussain of World Bank at the workshop.

Africa must close gap between gender

NaijaAgroNet

The Africa Development Bank (AfDB), Special Envoy on Gender, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, has said that the huge gap in wages and agricultural yields between men and women must be closed if Africa is to achieve full economic transformation, reports NaijaAgroNet.

"African women feed the continent and they can feed the world, too. But we must close the wide gap in wages and agricultural yields between men and women if Africa is to achieve full economic transformation," she disclosed.

Information obtained from the bank’s website revealed that the office of the Special Envoy on Gender (SEOG) and the Department for Agriculture and Agro-industry (OSAN) of the African Development Bank (AfDB),  launched a new report called "Economic Empowerment of African Women through Equitable Participation in Agricultural Value Chains"in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. The event which gathered high-level participants, including stakeholders from both the private and public sectors from the countries and sectors examined in the report, looked at cocoa, coffee, cotton and cassava sectors in Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Nigeria, respectively.

"This report prepares the ground to empower women, to take a leading role in the business of farming and agricultural value chains, regionally and globally," said the immediate past President of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka.

Agriculture in Africa, NaijaAgroNet gathered, is poised to remain one of the most important economic sectors, accounting for around 25 per cent of the continent's GDP. Over 60 per cent of its citizens rely on agriculture for some form of income. To transform the sector, the economic empowerment of women through boosting their productivity and raising their participation in commercial and higher value-add activities in agriculture is central.

In some countries, such as Rwanda, Malawi and Burkina Faso, over 90 per cent of economically active women are involved in agriculture, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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