Give special stimulus package to rural women

Regional news for Friday, October 16, 2020

Source: GNA

2020-10-16

The Ghana Forest and Agricultural Producers Federation (GhaFFaP) has called for a special stimulus package for rural women.

The Federation, in a statement issued in Accra to mark International Rural Women’s Day, said that women remain the anchor of the nation’s food production and need to be incentivized to improve productivity.

GhaFFaP congratulated rural women in Ghana and around the world, “who continue to be resolved even in very difficult times of the global COVID-19 pandemic.”

This year’s event has as theme: “Strengthening the resilience of rural women as a result of COVID-19”.

It read: “We have noted in particular that the requirements for access to government stimulus packages have excluded the majority of rural women.

“We strongly recommend reviewing these requirements to address the specific needs of rural women,” she said.

The statement called for greater investment in forestry and agricultural value chains by providing micro and small irrigation for year-round production.

She said the government should also provide tailor-made extension services especially for women, warehousing to support product aggregation, support teams to add value and support in the area of ​​market development.

She said that GhaFFaP also recognized traditional authorities as key agents of local development and called for greater engagement with them in an attempt to build the resilience of rural women.

She said the Federation was conducting a COVID-19 and flood assessment to show its impact on rural women’s livelihoods.

She said it was also an opportunity to help rural women rebuild better by supporting the investment of inputs for aggregation, value addition and access to markets, using the product basket approach that generated the rural women’s investment in diversified livelihoods that in turn ensured climate-resilient landscapes.

“GhaFFaP finds the theme of this year’s celebration very appropriate, especially as it highlights the critical role of rural women in our efforts to ‘Build Back Better’ in the face of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said. .

The statement said that, in keeping with its strong belief in the critical role of women in building resilience, GhaFFaP’s 10-year strategy called the GhaFFaP Agenda 2030 has prioritized its Gender Strategy through a wing of champions. of women for the federation.

GhaFFaP members have effectively mobilized various women’s groups in highly functional Community Savings and Loan Associations and are very open to engaging with stakeholders.