Are rural women the 'missing link' ?

Doreen Nawa has written a powerful piece in The Times on rural women and the crucial role they can play in the development process, if properly empowered, especially as smallholder farmers.

There's general analytical concensus now that rural poverty alleviation programmes are most effective when they are "agriculture based" (hence the current uproar over the slash of agriculture spend in the 2008 budget ). But increasingly the literature also beginning to recognise that for these rural programmes to be effective, we need to recognise that crucial role of rural women, and the fact that they face different challenges to rural men. There are signifcant "gender inequalities" in terms of access to land and credit. Until we begin to address these problems, even land redistribution and rural agriculture programmes will not be effective in reaching the poorest in our society. As Doreen says "They grow, gather and catch the family meals, bring home water and wood, and prepare and cook the food. Where the rural poor get enough to eat, it is most often largely through the efforts, skills and knowledge of mothers, wives, sisters and daughters. Despite this, these women are often the last to gain access to resources, training and financial loans".