First Lady Esther Lungu says ending poverty in Zambia and other developing countries will depend on the attention given to rural women.
Mrs. Lungu said rural women are the primary agents of change in the fight against hunger and poverty in their communities.
She noted that empowering rural women would lead to agricultural growth and poverty eradication.
Mrs. Lungu was the keynote speaker at a side-event co-organised by FAO, IFAD, WFP, UN Women, the EU and the Permanent Mission of Slovak to the UN under the theme: “Step It Up Together with Rural Women to End Hunger and Poverty.”
She said this on Monday the first-day of the 61stSession of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW61), an annual meeting focusing on women and girl’s welfare worldwide.
This is according to a statement made available to ZANIS in Lusaka today by First Secretary for Press and Public Relations at the Permanent Mission of Zambia at the United Nations, Chibaula Silwamba.
Mrs. Lungu said in the developing world, rural agriculture is the sustenance of the majority of people, in particular women.
“We all agree that extreme poverty manifests mostly in rural areas of developing countries where statistics indicate that on average, women comprise 43 per cent of the agricultural labour force and contribute 70 percent of labour,” Mrs. Lungu said.
She adds, “In Zambia, we are stepping up, but of course more needs to be done. The President of Zambia His Excellency Mr. Edgar Lungu has directed that the policy on allocating 50 per cent of state land to women must be enforced without fail.”
She said traditional leaders were required to provide a minimum of 100 hectares of land to women cooperatives.
The First Lady said Zambia had a provision for individual women to be allocated land in line with the mechanisation programme for rural women in agriculture.
She said last year the Ministry of Gender distributed 51 tractors and 94 tillers to 100 chiefdoms out of the earmarked 288.
“As First Lady, advocacy continues to be top on my agenda and is focusing on tackling social-cultural norms, attitudes and behaviours that need elimination or adjustment,” Mrs. Lungu said.
She explained that she has engaged the spouses of traditional leaders to be the transformational champions in addressing deep rooted cultural gender inequalities in rural areas.”
Owing to climate change, Mrs Lungu expressed concern that effects such as drought and flooding lead to many women losing their crops.
Mrs. Lungu said this forces women to seek employment from emergent and large scale farmers where they face risks that come with lifting heavy loads, harsh weather conditions and exposure to chemicals among others.
She said rural women work long hours earning low, unstable incomes let alone being least appreciated.
The Commission on the Status of Women opened on Monday at United Nations Headquarters in New York and will run up to 24 March 2017.
Zambia has won international respect for its advocacy and implementation of policies and programmes that protect and promote the wellbeing of women and girls.
Why was the other first lady not invited. This is not fair. We will petition this.
The one and only Zambia’s first lady till 2025. Thank You
GOOD CONVERSATIONS AMAYI ABUGWE AMAYI AMOKANO AMAYI ACHINGWILIZANO BUT ‘’WHAT IS COUNTRY ZAMBIA GLOBAL GENDER GAP INDEX’’
However it’s important for any GENDER ISSUES ON WOMEN to make reference to the ‘’GLOBAL GENDER GAP INDEX’’ that seeks to measure and analyse and report the one important aspect of gender equality—the relative gaps between women and men across four key areas: politics ,education ,health, and economy
There is a clear direct correlation between economic activity and smaller gender gaps It is therefore known and appreciated that not one country in the world has eliminated the GENDER GAPS COMPLETELY NOT ONE
“Smaller gender gaps are directly correlated with increased…
economic competitiveness. And not one country in all the world has eliminated its economic participation gap – not one.
Global rankings, then Rankings by sub index, then Rankings by region say for the year under review 2016
The GlOBAL GENDER GAP INDEX also points to potential role models by revealing those countries that—within their region or income group—are leaders in distributing resources more equitably between women and men, regardless of the overall level of available resources The methodology of the Index has remained stable since its original conception in 2006 The country Zambia report at this March 2017 UN must reference to this GLOBAL GENDER GAP INDEX and see the gains Zambia has made Its common knowledge that the Society invests in…
“survivors,” not “victims not the narrative of victimhood for example in the 1994 women accounted or 77% of the nation Rather than victims, these women tend to be “the face of resilience.”
As observed in Zambia and Global, Women entrepreneurs are not anomalies or “exceptions” but examples to emulate. •The case of RWANDA always comes up in WOMEN AND GENDER GAPS and should be an example for starved women in Zambia to highlight together with challenges and compare what is it
In Rwanda and similar regions experiencing or recovering from conflict and war, women are business start-ups and actually own and run the businesses that are feeding families saving them from starvation and help rebuild the economy
It ranks…
fairly in micro finance of women entrepreneurs However emphasis should not be on microfinance in any GENDER GLOBAL INDEX GAP “Microfinance is an incredibly powerful tool that leads to self-sufficiency and self-respect, but we must move beyond micro hopes and micro ambitions for women, because they have so much greater hopes for themselves, this has often tended to LOCK their IDEAS as entrepreneurs
Women entrepreneurs are not anomalies or “exceptions” but examples to emulate. • In regions experiencing or recovering from conflict, women launch and run the businesses that save families from starvation and help rebuild the economy
Global Gender Gap Index Rank and Score the country’s overall performance on the Global Gender Gap Index on a 0-to-1 scale and its…
its rank out of 144 countries
Sub-Saharan Africa With an average remaining gender gap of 32%, the Sub-Saharan Africa region scores in the lower middle range of the Global Gender Gap Index
‘’WHAT IS COUNTRY ZAMBIA GLOBAL GENDER GAP INDEX’’
“”SEE THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM 2016 GLOBAL GAP REPORT” AND MAKE REFERENCE FOR WENSDAY DELAYED “PRESENTATION MEETING “” ITS A SOURCE OF INITIATIVES BOTH FOR WOMEN FINANCES AND POLICY ITS A FOLLOWUP MEETING FOR GLOBAL LEADERSHIP THOUGH ZAMBIA IS NOT MENTIONED AND APPRAISED SO ITS IMPORTANT TO MAKE KNOWN THE ZAMBIA GLOBAL GENDER GAP INDEX
GOOD CONVERSATIONS KEEP IT UP AND ALIGN TO GLOBAL GENDER GAP INDEX AND SHOW THE WOMEN DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDED A SIMPLE SLIDE AND SMALL VIDEO SELECTED COULD GO A LONG WAY TO MEASURE UP TO THE GLOBAL GENDER INDEX ESPECIALLY TO GLOBAL AUDIENCE AT UN
This woman is just ballooning our national budget. She needs to stay at state house instead of wasting money wandering around. She has no experience and expertise to even talk about the stuff she is reading about.
SHE DOENOT NEED TO BE AN EXPERT SHE HAS EXPERTISE PROVIDING SUPPORT WITH PEER REVIEW SHOULD BE NECESSARY BEFORE PRESENTATION AND DR DECRA OF PPRMC PROPERLY GUIDED AS TO WHAT CONSTITUDES CONVERSATIONS IN GLOBAL GENDER GAP INDEX TO WHICH SHE SHOULD TALKING
SHE HAS SHOWN ZAMBIAN GLOBAL LEADERSHIP TO DRIVE THE AGENDA FOR ZAMBIA AND THAT IS ENOUGH AND SHOWS LEADERSHIP
You see a thought provoking conceptual and analytical structure of poverty, deep drivers and action interventions but good except next time reference the global gender Gap index and see critically
If you can see world Bank data and forecasts of poverty in the region and Zambia and how is the outlook That’s the data people are reviewing and benchmarking to compare to your presentations on the spatial nature of poverty and inequalities ///