On this day of March 8, 2024, Inades-Formation Burundi joined the world to celebrate International Women’s Rights Day under the national theme: “Women’s Rights Day”. Let’s work together with women in development by increasing production”. We can’t approach this theme without mentioning the importance of women’s access to productive resources and innovative technologies. Most of them depend on these resources to ensure the subsistence of their families in a context of climate change,” explains the Director of Inades-Formation Burundi, in his opening remarks.
This is why the celebration of International Women’s Rights Day at Inades-Formation Burundi began with a workshop for staff to reflect on strategies for supporting rural women in the context of climate change, taking into account socio-cultural barriers, challenges and prospects. Under expert facilitation, this approach was favored to lay the foundations for gender action planning for the organization’s next interventions.
The reality is that women, more than men, are negatively impacted by climate variability and change. “Today is Gender Day because gender and climate are deeply linked. The impact of climate change disproportionately affects women and girls “ALOK SHARMA, President of COP 26.
Participants discussed the causes of women’s vulnerability to climate change and described the main demographic, economic, cultural and social factors.
Over 52% of Burundi’s population is made up of women, 80% of whom live in rural areas. (Regional Youth Summit for Peace 2023 held in Bujumbura). According to an FAO study on Burundi, 97.4% of Burundian women work in the agricultural sector, contributing over 50% of GDP, 95% of foreign currency and 95% of food supplies and raw materials to the agro-industry. This shows that Inades-Formation Burundi’s commitment to supporting women and helping them respect their rights is no accident.
They brainstormed on key actions and how to improve institutional and field interventions through projects/programs. This will contribute to both women’s empowerment and resilience in the face of climate change.
It is more than necessary to create opportunities for sustainable improvement in women’s access to resources in order to continue supporting global and national food production.
The participants made a number of recommendations, including that Inades-Formation Burundi should continue to develop projects tailored to the specific needs of beneficiaries, and to strengthen a mechanism for monitoring the impact of interventions in order to document good practices long after a project has been implemented.
Published by Richard HAVYARIMANA
Advocacy and Communications Officer