MALAWI: CADECOM Supports Women Farmers Advocacy on Land Rights.
Women Matching to present their demands to Ministry of land
By Prince Henderson, ECM Communications Officer
The Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM) in collaboration with other Civil Society Organisations that include Oxfam, Civil Society Agriculture Network and Actionaid among others are in support of women farmers in their dream towards actualization of land rights in Africa.
The women farmers are advocating for rights to land acquisition and registration and have called upon African governments to urgently address their concerns.
Chairlady for Rural Women Assembly in Malawi, presented the Charter of Demands to the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development in Lilongwe, while on their transit for a Caravan to Mt. Kilimanjaro in Arusha, Tanzania where they will present the same to African governments.
The Chairlady said, rural women farmers play a key role in food production and food security in Malawi and as such access to land and secure tenure rights remains critical for food production and to the welfare of the entire household. She noted that despite of this, rural women in Malawi and across Africa continue to face challenges in agricultural development due to their lack of access and control over productive resources which include land. According to the Chairlady, women account for 60 – 80 percent of smallholder farmers and produce 90 percent of food in Africa and about half of all food worldwide, yet women are much less likely than men to own land, and their farms are usually smaller and less fertile. Women control less than one percent of land in Africa.
It is with this acknowledgement that the call on the Africa wide Food and Climate Justice campaign was made so as to bring to light the challenges women face and to call for commitment in addressing these challenges by national governments, development partners, private sector, civil society and our male counterparts. Women from across Africa have been mobilized to hold a summit to demand agitate for women’s land rights.
She called for an immediate start of allocation for adequate resources towards implementation of land related laws and also put in place systems and guidelines to ensure gender sensitive land governance in the country; starting in the next Financial Year 2017/2018. She also called on the speedy enactment of the amendments to the Registered Land and Land Acquisition Bills.
Responding to the Charter of Demands as expressed by the women farmers, the Malawian Minister said, it was pleasing to note that the demands were presented at a time when Malawi Parliament recently passed Land Laws that have since been assented the Head of State, His Excellency Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika.
He promised that his Ministry will work tirelessly towards ensuring that women are fully empowered in as far as decision making on issues that affect their day to day livelihood is concerned particularly in regard to land administration and management.
National CADECOM Secretary, applauded the initiative and called upon government to act swiftly in addressing land related challenges faced by women face as this is key to realization of their aspirations on increased agricultural productivity. He said that, “as major food producers, women deserve a better share of land; it is their own survival tool in addressing agricultural inequality which exacerbate poverty and suffering.”
Rural women farmers from Zimbabwe and Zambia who are on a Caravan entered Malawi through Mwami Border in Mchinji district where they were joined by Malawian women enroute to Tanzania for the iconic event at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro
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