AFRICAN WOMEN HAVE THE CAUSE TO FIGHT FOR NOW...... President Jakaya Kikwete opened the African First Ladies Summit in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday commenting on how women in Africa do most of the work but often get much less for their sweat and toil than what lands in the hands of men. The issue he was shedding light on was as serious at the summit as it has always been – and this is that women do most of the labour but their work is not adequately appreciated. Women constitute the majority of the 80 per cent of the farming population in Tanzania, most of whom live in underserved rural areas. In that agriculture is the backbone of the economy, it is only fair to say they deserve a pat on the back for easily standing as the drivers of the country’s economy. Unfortunately, despite global meetings echoing the importance of empowering women, most deliberations usually end on paper and little is done to improve women’s lives. While being the major producers, most women engaged in agriculture are smallholders making do with the hoe. All this is despite our having put in place institutions that are supposed to provide loans to farmers as a way of improving their lives. For instance, few women in rural areas don’t qualify for credit facilities for the simple reason that they don’t own property to stand as security or collateral. This is a multiple tragedy because most of these same people are poor and uneducated. Many girls are meanwhile denied a chance to reach their potential as either they are married off too early or have their journey towards attaining education cut short by early pregnancy. While educating a girl is indeed educating a whole nation, many school girls are vulnerable to pregnancy since they lack reproductive health information and services. US first lady Michelle Obama addressed the Dar es Salaam summit aptly underscoring the need for it to serve as a platform to further empower a wider spectrum of women in Africa. By the very virtue of being first ladies, delegates to the summit ought to remember that they have a golden opportunity to improve the lives of less advantaged women especially smallholders in Africa’s rural areas. Using the NGO she leads, Wanawake na Maendeleo (WAMA), First lady Salma Kikwete has been working hard to help underprivileged girls have access to education. She has also been at the forefront in fighting maternal mortality. We urge her to continue fighting so that more women in Tanzania have access to reproductive health information and services, with a view to appreciably reducing maternal and child mortality. For sure, every woman has the right to plan her family and schoolgirl pregnancies are a costly menace. First lady Salma Kikwete can also help in pressing for a quick overhaul of the country’s widely contested Marriage Act of 1971, particularly sections stating that a girl could get married at age 16 or, with parental consent, at age 14 – while the same Act recognises a person under 18 as a child. The extent to which the voices of first ladies will be heard remains to bee seen. But it is a noble crusade in every sense.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 09:33:13 +0000
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