The National Alliance for the Promotion of Women’s Land Rights urges the State of Senegal, in a press release received by APS on Thursday, to establish “equitable, egalitarian and transparent governance of land resources”.
She made this plea on the occasion of the celebration of the International Day of Rural Women on Friday, as on October 15 every year since 2007.
The National Alliance for the Promotion of Women’s Land Rights, made up of several organizations, is led by CICODEV Africa, a non-governmental organization dedicated to citizenship and consumer advocacy.
It reaffirms its “commitment to work for the improvement of the conditions of women and girls in rural areas, in the access and enjoyment of land resources”.
It invites the State of Senegal and its partners to “intensify their efforts for a fair, egalitarian and transparent governance of land resources”.
The alliance also hopes that the Senegalese authorities will work to “give substance to the recommendation of the Heads of State of the African Union to allocate at least 30% of land in a documented manner to women.
It invites them to “respect the Maputo commitment to allocate at least 10% of the national budget to the agricultural sector”.
Rural women grow good food for all” is the theme of this year’s International Rural Women’s Day celebration.
A theme that “highlights the essential role that rural women and girls play in the world’s food systems,” the statement said.
”Production system failures”
The National Alliance for the Promotion of Women’s Land Rights deplores the fact that “the role and place of Senegalese rural women [are] marked by precariousness in terms of access to and effective use of land resources”.
The “problem” of rural women’s access to land resources and other production factors (inputs, credit, etc.) “remains a major concern” in Senegal, according to the press release.
The alliance believes that “this is another good opportunity to recall how important it is to strengthen development efforts in the rural world, particularly for the benefit of women” in Senegal.
It deplores “the notorious weakness of access to and control of land by women, based on persistent unequal parameters and a socialization process favorable to this discrimination.
This is a regret that is compounded by “the low involvement of rural women in land institutions, starting with the family, the village, and the local community”.
According to the release, women, who make up more than half of Senegal’s population, own only 11 percent of the country’s land.
This situation is unfair and weakens women’s land rights. This fragility is a source of food insecurity and several failures in production systems,” deplores the National Alliance for the Promotion of Land Rights.
This is in contradiction with the Senegalese Constitution, which stipulates that “men and women have the right to access the possession and ownership of land under the conditions determined by law.