Independent Dialogue
Geographical focus:
Afghanistan, Albania, Belgium, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, France, Germany, India, Italy, Kenya, Mali, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria, No borders, Senegal, South Africa, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America
Main findings
The main findings from the dialogue is that, there is the need to connect with the grassroot women and youth smallholder farmers. Taking directly from the world of Phumsile Ngukuka, the retired UN Women Secretary General, she said and I quote "Women and girls are not intrinsically vulnerable but their social, economic and political conditions make them susceptible to risks and vulnerabilities." Women and girls need to be included in the resiliency of food sustainability. All the discussion was majorly centered on women and youth vulnerability. The action that stakeholders in the food value cha
... Read morein needs to take together are for the stakeholders to come together with the urban women working with the grassroot women to improve their lives and find a landing ground to resolve the climate change issues that affect the rural women most. Such issues to be included in the discussions are; 1. Food Security Food security is a broad topic that covers the availability, accessibility, utilization and stability of food systems. Women farmers currently account for 36 to 90 per cent of all food production in developing countries, depending on the region. As a result of climate change, traditional food sources have become more unpredictable and scarce, leading to women’s loss of income and access to food. Women are also often excluded from decision–making processes regarding access to and the use of land and resources critical to their livelihoods. 2. Water Resources The increased frequency of floods and droughts has led to disruptions in freshwater supply, negatively affecting women and girls in particular, since they are often tasked with securing and managing water for daily domestic use. In developing countries, fetching water from distant sources is time-consuming, and the quantity retrieved is rarely enough to meet the needs of the household. Furthermore, since the water is not filtered, it can be contaminated and have adverse effects on the health and sanitation of women, girls and their families. 3. Health The effects of climate change on health include increased mortality and morbidity due to heat waves, floods, storms, fires and drought. The risk to women’s health in particular increases as a result of water scarcity and contamination. 4. Effects of Changes in Human Settlements and Migration Patten. The Grassroots women and youths' smallholder farmers are calling on world leaders to action: 1. To Provide them with equitable decent work and livelihoods. 2. Include them in equitable political, social, and economic considerations 3. The rate of disasters experience by grassroots women and youths farmers should be reduced by protecting lives, livelihoods, homes, assets, basic services and infrastructures. Capacities includes networks, infrastructures, knowledge, skills and resources. 4. To become resilience and feel included, the grassroots women and youths should be able to advance in development processes, social networks and institutional partnerships that help women recognize and build on existing efforts that reduce the impact of the disasters. 5. Grassroots women and youth organizations and smallholder farmers put a lot of efforts to their work but the only thing they receive is clap. The disconnect between grassroots women and youth and the federal state should be removed. 6. Grassroots women and youths should be included in emergency responsiveness and national programs. 7. Grassroots women and youth’s successes should be scaled up. 8. Women and youths should be made agent of change in the society. 9. Advocacy and community based work should be jointly done. 10. Hunger has no place where people work in solidarity. 11. Grassroots women and youths’ smallholder farmers should be able to access direct finance or under the leadership of strong leaders like dialogue conveners, action track leaders and commitment makers in the united Nation Food System Dialogue. 12. Livestock sector reforms should be put in place. 13. There’s no one that is allergic to training, herdsmen should be trained in nomadic literacy and older herdsmen should be given adult literacy programs whereby they will look after their herds from the dawn to noon and be at the literacy centers by evening. 14. Gender Equality should be given priority across its six thematic coalitions in Agriculture. 15. Innovations. A participant in the virtual platform based in Uganda, presented this as voices of grassroot women from Uganda. Hear from her mouth some actions that needs to be taken Based on the observation with grassroot women below are my key remarks; • Value addition in agriculture • The power of associations/cooperatives as a platform for knowledge sharing; capacity building in terms of skills; Capital mobilization. • Mentorship in order to build the the necessary skill set for work ethics • Role of technology and e-commerce • Creating an enabling policy environment for the women and youth to enable them actively engage in processing business registration of business; taxes; • Creation of youth business incubation centers women and youth in grassroot areas • Industrial Park policies should also be provide for women and youths . The representative of the youth and children also has this to say. The youth and children farmers entrepreneurs representative also called on the world leaders to come and provide the necessary enabling ground, environmental improvement, finance and technical assistance that will help us in the reduction of food waste. Many other voices also called the attention of the world at the dialogue below. Read less
Action Track(s): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Keywords: Data & Evidence, Environment and Climate, Finance, Human rights, Innovation, Policy, Women & Youth Empowerment