Minister highlights women’s role in stability, family cohesion

 Luanda – Angolan minister of State for Social Affairs Carolina Cerqueira highlighted in Luanda the women's role in stability, family cohesion and community development.

Carolina Cerqueira was speaking at celebration ceremony of the African Women's Day on July 31, stating that women have been able to reinvent solutions to reduce the difficulties of families in a pandemic period, particularly actions to protect children and rural women. 

She added that they are aware of their obligations to help empower several women, provide financial autonomy to the most disadvantaged women, victims of armed conflict, violence, racism and discrimination. 

According to her, improving their participation in the agricultural sector could contribute to economic growth, as long as they have access to training, new technologies and modern techniques for food production, processing and marketing. 

The minister said it was necessary to guarantee access to credit and organisation in agricultural cooperatives, rural schools and modern equipment. 

“The legal right to land, support for associations and empowerment for integration into the productive economy circuit are practical forms of support for rural women that easier their access to agricultural inputs, seeds and fertilizers, in order to achieve the tools that allow the opening of small workshops and starting family businesses”, she asserted. 

The official also pointed to training in basic management of small businesses, training in savings, production and marketing of products and the modernisation of agriculture and new land cultivation practices, including mechanisation, the creation of economies of scale and storage.

She also defended the implementation of social protection policies (support networks for my groups vulnerable to food and nutrition insecurity, facilitating their access to food and basic services - water, sanitation and health, in order to improve livelihood and promote social inclusion. 

“Special attention should be given to children, pregnant women, the elderly, low-income families and people living with endemic diseases, such as  HIV/AIDS. Small shops and community kitchens, basic food baskets, access to drinking water, free school meals and food education programs are already underway in several African countries,” she said. 

In Angola, Carolina Cerqueira added, the Executive is developing a sustained programme of social monetary transfers that has lifted hundreds of thousands of people and their households out of poverty, with women playing a leading role in this social relief programme. 

She also highlighted the expansion of free school meals aimed at improving children's diet, mainly in the most rural areas of the country. 

She spoke of the main focus on increasing the availability of food as a way of meeting the food needs of the populations through the reinforcement of production, supporting family farmers, one of the groups most vulnerable to food and nutritional insecurity, which must be combined with access to natural resources, technology and markets. 

According to Carolina Cerqueira, the greatest concern of African Governments is the demographic increase in most countries, with an annual growth of 3%, demanding inclusive demographic policies in order to guarantee basic care, such as health, education and employment for young people. 

In order to mitigate the malnutrition situation of children, she said, several initiatives are being implemented, highlighting the commitment made by African countries at the last FAO meeting, based on the “International School Meal Coalition”, in which African governments committed themselves to improve child nutrition in schools and the introduction of food education practices, encouraging school gardens, to awaken in children the values ​​of good practices in food production and protection. 

“The production, processing and marketing of food, as well as food education relies substantially on the female workforce on our continent and there are several local programmes of voluntary construction for access to quality water, education for health and capacity building and sharing of experiences and good practices, which are strengthened with the publicising of literacy in rural and suburban areas, the training and technical qualification of young women and their access to new technologies”, she said. 

To the minister, food security and nutrition are directly linked to the physical and mental well-being of populations, enabling them to be key actors in development programmes. 

The challenges and opportunities, she stressed, must also take into account environmental and human development issues, whose response must be capable of dealing with the risks caused by climate change, drought, natural disasters and other crises. 

The date marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Pan-African Organisation of Women, in 1962, in Dar-Es-Salam, United Republic of Tanzania.