International Day of Rural Women is an annual observance celebrated all over the world on the 15th of October.
This year’s theme for the International Observance is “Rural Women Cultivating Good Food for All”, highlights the essential role that rural women and girls play in the food systems of the world.
From production of crops, poultry and livestock to processing, preparing and distributing foods, women’s labour – paid and unpaid – feeds their families, communities and the world at large.
Yet, their backbreaking efforts which contribute to Food Security are not recognized and as a result, they earn less income and experience higher food insecurity.
Despite our planet’s capacity to provide sufficient and good food for all, hunger, malnourishment, and food insecurity are rising in many parts of the world. The COVID-19 pandemic, along with climate crises, have made matters worse: some 3.37 billion people did not have enough to eat in 2023 –that’s almost 50 per cent more than 3 years before.
UN Women’s latest report, Beyond COVID-19: A plan for sustainability and social justice, calls for rebuilding the broken global food system from the bottom-up by supporting rural women’s livelihoods to produce and distribute diverse and healthy food crops, poultry and livestock
Ending global poverty demands that we prioritize investments in Livelihood Support Programs,Vocational Trainning Programs, creating more opportunities for learning and social protection programs
With less than 10 years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, including Zero Hunger (Goal 2) and Equal Opportunities for All(Goal 5), the Oyo State Government led by His Excellency Governor Seyi Makinde through its Ministry of Women Affairs & Social Inclusion is committed to implementing Goals 2 and 5 of the SDGs through an Agribusiness Intervention tagged the Omituntun Noiler poultry Empowerment Program ( ONE Program) through which indigent women comprising Widows, Victims of Sexual & Gender Based Violence, Victims of Domestic Violence, Victims of Human Trafficking, Teenage Pregnant mothers, Mothers of Multiple Live Births( twins, triplets, quadruplets) and other female members of the vulnerable demographics in the state will be empowered with numerous Noiler Poultry birds per beneficiary which have dual capacity for both meat and egg production, including poultry feed, medication and technical support that will take them to market/ table size.This Program is to be flagged off in the next few weeks.
This ONE Program intervention by the Govt of His Excellency Governor Seyi Makinde FNSE is both strategic and timely particularly given the recent outcry by the Poultry Farmers Association of Nigeria on the high cost of poultry production with its incipient dire implications for food security and nutritional deficiencies in our populations.
The projected outcomes for the Oyo State Government is to through this intervention serve the dual purpose of improving the nutritional outcomes of the families of beneficiaries through access to quality proteins and also empower the women economically through the sales of the eggs and poultry meat and ultimately, to entrench Food Security.
The Oyo State Government/Ministry of Women Affairs & Social Inclusion recognizes the efforts, resilience and critical role in Food Security played by our women, celebrates our women today as always and restates its commitment to continue with Programs and Interventions that will effectively empower the female demographic in the state in order to enhance their resilience, skills set and leadership capacity.
This International Day of Rural Women offers us a renewed opportunity to commit to a different way of organizing our world, to build on the outcomes and multistakeholder commitments of the recent United Nations Food System Summit, so that rural women benefit equally from their productivity, with good food enjoyed by all.
Happy International Day of the Rural Women
*Hon( Mrs) Toyin BALOGUN*
COMMISSIONER FOR WOMEN AFFAIRS & SOCIAL INCLUSION