On 10-12 Dec, four rural women members of The African Women’s Network for Community Management of Forests (REFACOF) attended the Forum of African Rural Women inYaoundé, Cameroon with the financial support fromWOCAN. The Forum was organized byThe Sub-Regional Platform of Peasant Organizations of Central Africa, in French Plateforme sous-régionale des Organisations Paysannes d’Afrique Centrale (PROPAC) with the theme”the place and role of women in family and rural exploitation in Africa.“
The forum aimed to gather together rural African women within an institutionalized framework of dialogue and cooperation in order to increase the visibility of the role and contribution of rural women in agriculture, food security and poverty alleviation. Hosted and chaired by the Cameroon Minister for Women Empowerment and the Family, Mrs Marie Thérèse OBAMA ONDOUA, the forum gathered together nearly a hundred participants from Africa and Europe.
REFACOF 15 minutes video on “Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies in Cameroon: The Ndokohi Women’s Green Business Initiative” highlighting (1) unvalued rural women’s contributions to climate change mitigation and adaptation and (2) an exclusion of rural women’s interests in climate change and REDD+ finance mechanisms was presented during the first day of the forum.
The forum resulted into two main resolutions and 8 recommendations:
- Resolution 1: Under the auspices of African Union, Panafrican Farmers’ Organization is the institutionalized body of the Forum
- Resolution 2: The engagement of rural women to actively participate in the promotion of food security and nutrition.
Recommendations to FACO and members:
- Promote Cooperatives as models for developing rural women entrepreneurship and achieving economic empowerment
- Promote skills development program for rural youth especially for rural young women
Recommendations to State Governments:
- Increase rural women access to decision making positions, spheres and mechanisms
- Develop specific development programs for rural women to facilitate their access to finance mechanisms, resources, production capital, education and to health
- Develop special funding mechanisms to support women’s participation to international conferences on climate change
- Implement FAO voluntary Guidelines and the Africa Union Framework on Tenure
Recommendations to Media:
- Train journalists to improve their knowledge on rural areas challenges
- Strengthen awareness raising programs on African rural women issues