UN International Day of Rural Women: Transforming rural areas so that rural women thrive

Editor's note: Dr. Jemimah Njuki is the African Development Bank Group's Director for Gender Women and Civil Society. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

This year's International Day of Rural Women comes at a difficult time, marked by significant pushback against gender equality – from funding cuts to disagreements over fundamental principles of gender equality and inclusion. Amidst this push back is a stark reminder that every day, rural women continue to hold half the sky.

Now, most articles and debates on this day focus on the role rural women play in rural economies – and for good reason. In sub-Saharan Africa, women account for nearly 49 percent of the total agrifood systems workforce, and 63 percent of those who work off farm as traders, processors, suppliers of food products and as workers. Yet rural women face disadvantages in their access to and control over resources. They face disadvantages when it comes to land and livestock ownership, decision-making, access to finance, and inputs.

This disadvantage hampers their productivity and growth, robbing rural areas of potential economic benefits and resulting in weak rural economies, as well as a negative impact on local and global food systems.

Rural women also spend enormous amounts of time on unpaid care work and domestic work.

In Africa, women and girls bear the primary responsibility for collecting water in 80 percent of households without access to water on their premises. Collectively, millions of women and girls worldwide spend 200 million hours every day collecting water – a whopping 8.3 million days, or over 22,800 years!

And yet, we know that if development efforts removed these barriers for women, the gains for women, their communities and economies would be enormous. We know that we can make rural transformation more inclusive and gender-responsive in ways that enable rural women to thrive.

Three actions to unburden rural women

Firstly, we need to make infrastructure more gender-responsive, which can help women in rural areas gain better access to resources and opportunities.

It can also open more job opportunities for women and reduce the unpaid housework and caregiving they do. Take a look at infrastructure such as rural markets: Women make up the majority of traders and users, yet most of these commercial spaces are designed without considering women's needs and priorities.

These markets often lack water, sanitation, or childcare facilities. But there are signs of change. In Kenya, a non-governmental organization called Wow Mom Kenya partnered with the County Government of Nairobi to integrate childcare facilities in markets, enabling women to conduct market business, while ensuring high-quality care for their children.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the African Development Bank consulted with civil society to design and finance the Project for the Reinforcement of Socioeconomic Infrastructure in the Central Region. This integrated program embraces gender-responsive solutions, such as providing safe water distribution points closer to women's homes.

Second, we need to ensure that economic and financial programs in rural areas remove barriers for women, including access to finance. Women in Africa face an estimated $42 billion gap in financing, mainly driven by a lack of collateral, by financial institutions' risk perceptions of women entrepreneurs, and because women-led businesses, especially those in rural areas, operate outside of formal or traditional legal and regulatory frameworks.

The Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) – the African Development Bank Group's bold, continent-wide initiative focused on reducing this financing gap for women-owned and led small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – is changing the narrative.

This initiative is building an inclusive financial ecosystem that empowers women entrepreneurs, fosters sustainable business growth and drives economic transformation across the continent. The program, currently in 45 countries and partnered with 185 financial institutions, is well on track to unlock $5 billion in funding for 30,000 women-owned and led businesses by 2026.

By providing access to finance, visionary coffee roasting entrepreneur Elisabeth Tano has expanded her Cote d'Ivoire-based business into two neighboring countries and increased her revenue by 20 percent in less than a year. In Kenya, Pauline Otila, founder of Apiculture Ventures honey products, has expanded her beekeeping business, helping over more than 10,500 local beekeepers.

Third, we must ensure that Africa's legal frameworks established to benefit rural areas and rural women are implemented and enforced.

Take land rights for women. The African Union has the Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa, which prioritize equitable land access for all land users and secure land tenure for women. Countries that have implemented these policies now have more equitable access and increased land productivity.

However, achieving tenure security for women – the certainty that one's rights to land, housing, or other property will be recognized and protected – requires the highest level of engagement in decision-making.

Malawi is a good example and advocates gender parity in decision-making, requiring 50 percent women's participation in village development committees – an important land governance structure in the country.

By making rural development more inclusive, we can stop putting the burden of rural transformation on women.

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