[et_pb_section admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”on” specialty=”off”][et_pb_fullwidth_image admin_label=”Fullwidth Image” src=”http:\/\/cusjc.ca\/taking-root\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Chopping-kale.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”fade_in” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_fullwidth_image][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_post_title admin_label=”Post Title” title=”on” meta=”off” author=”off” date=”off” categories=”on” comments=”on” featured_image=”off” featured_placement=”below” parallax_effect=”on” parallax_method=”on” text_orientation=”center” text_color=”dark” text_background=”off” text_bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.9)” module_bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0)” title_all_caps=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_post_title][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
Women are the breadbasket of the world. Their role in food production is as old as the division between hunters and gathers in prehistoric times.<\/p>\n
Women still make up the majority of world food producers today.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_code admin_label=”Code”]<iframe width="800" height="1800" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="overflow-y:hidden;" src="https:\/\/magic.piktochart.com\/embed\/12797628-women-and-agriculture"><\/iframe>[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
Women produce nearly 80 per cent of the food in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).\u00a0 Women\u2019s roles in the developing world tend to revolve around food production and preparation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn many regions of the world, women spend up to five hours per day collecting fuel wood and water, and up to four hours preparing food,\u201d says the FAO in their Women Feed the World<\/em><\/span> report.<\/p>\n Not only are women instrumental in the world\u2019s food production, the majority of women across the world are responsible for bringing food to the family table at meal times, says Oxfam Canada program officer Roxanne Murrell, and veteran of the women\u2019s movement. Murrell has dedicated her career to rural agriculture in Latin America, with specific emphasis on gender empowerment through agriculture.<\/p>\n In many cultures, including much of sub-Saharan Africa, cultural tradition and patriarchal social structures place the onus on women to feed their family. They often do this by participating in subsistence agriculture.<\/p>\n Urban agriculture could be seen as a transfer of women\u2019s traditional role in substance agriculture into their new urban landscape. Women make up nearly two-thirds of urban farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a 2012 International Development Research Centre\u00a0report.<\/p>\n Urban agriculture provides women with an opportunity in an urban setting to continue to provide subsistence food sources, close to their homes but with greater technologies and resources that can help them flow into small market activities.<\/p>\n Women can make more money by participating in value-added activities. From the produce, or meat that they rear they could start a small restaurant to increase their urban agriculture profitability.<\/p>\n Women are less likely than men to participate in the more profitable large-scale cash crop farming in rural areas, says Murrell. This is due to gender inequality in a woman\u2019s right to access, and secure land in rural regions.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” src=”http:\/\/cusjc.ca\/taking-root\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/7948897066_d83991c5a8_z.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”fade_in” sticky=”on” align=”center” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”center” text_font=”|on|||” text_font_size=”12″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Woman working a\u00a0field\u00a0in rural Kenya. [Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons]\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n In many cases, women cannot inherit land in their rural villages. \u201cWomen [in Kenya] are allowed to buy land, they can\u2019t inherit it,\u201d Diana Lee-Smith, a pioneer in the field of urban agriculture, and a long-time transplant in Nairobi.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” src=”http:\/\/cusjc.ca\/taking-root\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Diana-Lee-Smith.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”fade_in” sticky=”on” align=”center” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”center” text_font=”|on|||” text_font_size=”12″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Diana Lee-Smith posing at the Mazingira Institute in Nairobi, Kenya. [Photo \u00a9 Evelyn Harford]<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Inheritance rights only guarantees land to men, not women. Since women cannot secure viable land themselves without a man, they are often bound to them because of economic necessity. If a woman wants to strike out on her own, many are forced to move into urban centres to find work as a housekeeper \u2013 as we saw through Maggie\u2019s and Judy\u2019s story.<\/p>\n Gender inequality permeates land rights laws in Kenya and indeed across the developing world. For women in Kibera, saving enough money to buy land is a near impossibility. Most of the money they make goes back into their families.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” src=”http:\/\/cusjc.ca\/taking-root\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Judy-and-teen-mothers-at-Savo-Foundation.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”fade_in” sticky=”on” align=”center” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”center” text_font=”|on|||” text_font_size=”12″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Judy and two teen mothers meeting at Savo Foundation. [Photo \u00a9 Evelyn Harford]<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n \u201cWomen both adapt and knuckle under in the situation, or they try to make changes to the environment, or they move away,\u201d said Lee-Smith, who led the first ever comprehensive study of urban agriculture in the late-80s.<\/p>\n The experience of women moving away from their rural homes into urban centres is a common story, as illustrated by Judy and Maggie.<\/p>\n \u201cLook at the numbers of urban women who are there on their own,\u201d says Lee-Smith. \u201cWhy are they there on their own? It\u2019s because the men own all the rural land and they can\u2019t, so they\u2019ve moved away and they may indeed be widows, or second wives.\u201d<\/p>\n Women who leave their rural homes, escaping the chains of patriarchy, often find themselves in urban centers, like Kibera, still performing traditional roles to provide food for their family.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is women who act on the value that their main goal in life is to support and care for their family,\u201d says Lee-Smith. \u201cSo, maybe there is a fundamental gender difference.\u201d<\/p>\n My research backs up Lee-Smith\u2019s claim. As I have shown above, for the most part, it is mostly the women of Kibera engaged in the business of urban agriculture.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” src=”http:\/\/cusjc.ca\/taking-root\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Zainabportrait.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”fade_in” sticky=”on” align=”center” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”center” text_font=”|on|||” text_font_size=”12″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Zainab poses in front of her chicken coop. [Photo \u00a9 Evelyn Harford]<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a very big debate in the women\u2019s movement and elsewhere. In a way, it\u2019s just a cultural assumption that women are more caring,\u201d says Lee-Smith. \u201cBut, nevertheless in most cultures, they simply are.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s \u2018nature or nurture\u2019, instinct or tradition or, simply the need to survive, in the case of urban agriculture in Nairobi, women play a major role. But that doesn’t mean they have the support they require to make these initiatives productive and sustainable.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text Women and poverty header” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”center” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” text_font_size=”18″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Gender inequality within Kenya has serious, real-world impacts on women’s daily lives. There are ripple effects that spread out from a lack of rights that include the absence of income and food security. Women\u2019s barriers to land rights and increased risk of food insecurity and poverty prevent or reduce most input from women when it comes to public policy, including having a say about urban agricultural reform.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” src=”http:\/\/cusjc.ca\/taking-root\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/NaimoposingatAlHadid.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”fade_in” sticky=”on” align=”center” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”center” text_font=”|on|||” text_font_size=”12″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Naimo visits Ali at the Ali Hadid farm. [Photo \u00a9 Evelyn Harford]<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n \u201cKibera has a lifestyle; most of our men are drunkard,\u201d says Naimo Abdullai, the founder of Savo Foundation, a non-profit that supports girls in Kibera through water and sanitation projects.<\/p>\n When you look around the streets, you can\u2019t escape the unimaginable level of poverty that is rampant and normalized.<\/p>\n Domestic gender-based violence is common: rapes and beatings. Some of Maggie\u2019s orphans have been victims of serious gender based violence.<\/p>\n An 18-year-old girl living with Maggie experienced a gang rape by four men on her way to find work. Another, younger girl in Maggie\u2019s care was sold into the sex-trade by her uncle.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople [here] live less than a dollar a day,\u201d says Naimo. \u201cAnd they suffer in silence. Most of these people who suffer in silence are women.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_code admin_label=”Code”]<iframe width="800" height="1385" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="overflow-y:hidden;" src="https:\/\/magic.piktochart.com\/embed\/12723346-women-and-poverty-copy"><\/iframe>[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” text_font_size=”16″]<\/p>\n When it comes to tending urban plots and a wide range of household-related tasks, women are at the helm working hard, while many men stay idle. Women are responsible for child rearing, cooking and cleaning. Many get pregnant while still in their teens leaving them with little education and the added burden of caring for their children.<\/p>\n \u201cThe girl children start to suffer from a very young age,\u201d says Naimo. \u201cSo as she is growing up she decides to start early prostitution and early birth. And that makes her mental and her status, and physical appearance more vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” src=”http:\/\/cusjc.ca\/taking-root\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Teen-mom-at-Savo-Foundation.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”fade_in” sticky=”on” align=”center” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”center” text_font=”|on|||” text_font_size=”12″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Finah Atieno and her baby visit with Judy and Naimo at Savo Foundation. [Photo \u00a9 Evelyn Harford]<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” text_font_size=”16″]<\/p>\n Many men in Kibera say they know that women struggle more than them. Although it\u2019s unfair, it is simply accepted as the way life goes. Urban farmer, Ali Abdul Majid, works with many women at a gender-balanced urban farm called Al-Hadid.<\/p>\n Ali, 37, is now a part of the urban farming movement too. The Kibera native started his urban farm at his self-help group, Al Hadid, two years ago. Now, they have 147 sack gardens and dozens of rabbits, chickens and ducks.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_gallery admin_label=”Gallery” gallery_ids=”274,545,549″ fullwidth=”on” show_title_and_caption=”off” show_pagination=”on” background_layout=”light” auto=”on” auto_speed=”5000″ hover_overlay_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.9)” caption_all_caps=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_gallery][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”center” text_font=”|on|||” text_font_size=”12″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Photo Gallery: Ali and his animals at Al Hadid.\u00a0[Photo \u00a9 Evelyn Harford]<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” text_font_size=”16″]<\/p>\n Ali\u2019s group promotes gender mainstreaming through their urban agriculture projects. Both men and women work together to rear the animals and tend to the kale sacks.<\/p>\n He says, working with women has increased dialogue between men and women working at the farm leading to a more common understanding.<\/p>\n \u201cWomen also have their brains. They\u2019re also human beings they also have ideas,\u201d says Ali. \u201cWhen we are together we exchange ideas and we give them support.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image Ali and Beatrice” src=”http:\/\/cusjc.ca\/taking-root\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Beatrice-and-Ali.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”fade_in” sticky=”on” align=”center” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”center” text_font=”|on|||” text_font_size=”12″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Ali and Beatrice, an Al Hadid member, at the farm. [Photo \u00a9 Evelyn Harford]<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” text_font_size=”16″]<\/p>\n The urban farm has helped the women who work there.<\/p>\n \u201cThey see if they come and spend their time here they\u2019ll have vegetables to eat, they\u2019ll have vegetables to sell and they\u2019ll have food to feed their children,\u201d he says. \u201cIt saves them.\u201d<\/p>\n Ali has seen that women go hungry more often than men in Kibera.<\/p>\n \u201cWomen, they can\u2019t do hard labour,\u201d says Ali. \u201cSo they stay home and they stay hungry. They wait for the men to come home and give them something small to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n Ali says that women can\u2019t get higher paying construction and labour jobs, which is what he means by \u201chard labour\u201d. Women are left to do more low-paying tasks like cooking and cleaning laundry, as well as, unpaid tasks like caring for their children. Women rely on men for money when they are working, but Ali says that this comes at a cost.<\/p>\n \u201cHere in Nairobi men can\u2019t give you money unless he takes you to be a girlfriend and then he gives you money. So women they are suffering,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_gallery admin_label=”Gallery women at Al Hadid” fullwidth=”on” show_title_and_caption=”on” show_pagination=”on” background_layout=”light” auto=”on” hover_overlay_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.9)” caption_all_caps=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” gallery_ids=”546,548″ auto_speed=”5000″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_gallery][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”center” text_font=”|on|||” text_font_size=”12″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Lydia Simon works at Al Hadid. Most days she brings her children. [Photo \u00a9 Evelyn Harford]<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” text_font_size=”16″]<\/p>\n Ali\u2019s views are not uncommon. He\u2019s brutally honest about women\u2019s condition in Kibera; a condition that is generally accepted and rarely challenged. But, even women who work with Ali at Al Hadid\u2019s or with Edmonton at The Junction\u2019s fish farm, are still responsible for traditional roles like cooking and cleaning despite the mandate to promote equality and ensure the projects are gender balanced, as required by Kenya\u2019s 2013 Constitution.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” custom_width_px=”800px” use_custom_gutter=”off” padding_mobile=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Document Cloud Document” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”center” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\nWomen and poverty<\/strong><\/h2>\n