October 15, 2021, on the occasion of the International Day of Rural Women
This communication follows the organisation of the 3rd Edition of the ‘Pro Rural Women’ event held annually since 2019 on the occasion of the International Day of Rural Women, on October 15, 2021. The 2021 edition was organized under the auspices of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ms. Frida Krifca, in close cooperation with ANRD member organizations as well as with the participation of women’s producer groups from different rural areas of the country. Nearly 75 participants, of whom 55 were women and girls who travelled from different rural communities of the country, gathered to discuss their needs, challenges and aspirations, to share inspiring models in their socio-economic empowerment as well as to jointly identify practical solutions to key challenges. For more information on the third edition of Pro-Rural Women please read the report here: https://anrd.al/news/pro-rural-women-event-was-organized-for-the-third-year-in-a-row/
This annual gathering marks a moment of reflection and commitment to finding instruments aimed at improving the well-being of rural women and girls. Rural women and girls do need fair treatment to fulfil their aspirations. This edition reinforces the 2020 Edition’s Declaration on Fair Treatment for Rural Women to enable them to be not only good mothers but also successful entrepreneurs and active members of the community.
Key takeaways from the 2021 edition:
- The experiences of Albanian women managers in agriculture and rural development reinforced the belief that women and girls can be just as productive and entrepreneurial as men if they have proper access to land, credit, inputs, markets and food chains;
- Albanian smallholder women farmers, in particular those living in remote and mountainous areas, need agriculture information and advice; small scale processing tools for their engagement in high value food chains; digital knowledge and technology to enable them improve local products’ marketing and sales; shared facilities for collection, storage and processing at local level to enable smallholder farmers ensure high quality of their local products;
- Covid-19 crises has exacerbated existing gender inequalities in rural areas. Local government, CSOs and other development actors should work to encounter the regressive effects of the pandemic on rural women livelihoods and wellbeing;
- ANRD’s platform of priorities toward full activation of the creative and productive potential of rural women and girls appeals for actionable initiatives to bring about concrete changes into rural women and girls. This platform promotes social solidarity in order to preserve human dignity and ensure equality and justice for rural women and girls;
- Support rural women to engage in collective actions: social entrepreneurship, women clusters in agriculture and rural development, women producing groups, cooperatives, etc;
- Linking local initiatives and grassroots organizations active in gender equality, women rights and their social and economic empowerment into a national network toward strengthening their impact for protecting rural women human rights;
- Empowering local CSOs and supporting their thematic work with women, in particular rural women, for promoting social solidarity to stand up for human dignity providing justice for rural women;
- Promoting success stories of rural women empowerment to maintain positive spirit and build positive momentum for ANRD and other actors’ efforts in gender equality;
- Supporting rural women toward sustainable livelihoods and income diversification through providing work tools for vulnerable women including victims of domestic violence:
- Fundraising Campaign “You Are Not Alone! Support today livelihoods for the women living in the rural communities and they will provide for themselves, their family and community for the entire life.”- is ANRD’s newest initiative launched at the 3rd edition aiming at taking a concrete step to support the most vulnerable part of rural women, those who are off the radar of access to public support, donors’ and other institutions’ assistance due to family vulnerability status, being victims of domestic violence, lack of property ownership, limited credit opportunities, limited access to information and insufficient contacts. Help us to change the lives for rural women for better!
When supporting rural women and girls, we are contributing to the sustainable social and economic development of Albania. Rural women and girls count, they should be at the heart of the Albania development agenda because they are the beating heart of any society, community and family.
We all need to connect with the concerns, the aspirations and the energies of rural women and people and work together to channel their great energy into concrete initiatives that will benefit not only rural communities but the whole Albanian society!