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Last weekend, the Department for Women, Children and People with Disabilities and Port St John's Local Municipality observed World Rural Women's Day together with hundreds of women from this rural town of Eastern Cape. We used that opportunity to deliver agricultural implements to local women projects and a three-month supply of sanitary towels to indigent girls and women in the area. Deputy Minister of Tourism also joined in raising awareness about tourism opportunities that can be explored by women in rural areas.

This event was followed by a meeting of Women in Agriculture and Rural Development (WARD). The meeting reviewed progress in mobilisation of rural women in all provinces and discussed issues of rural development, capacity building and skills development and as well as economic empowerment of women in rural areas.

Our department has focused very firmly on development of rural women in line with the priority theme of the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women that our country will participate in next year. The theme for the 56th Session of United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) is:
The empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges.

We acknowledge that despite the progress made in the first three terms of the democratic government, a large number of people in rural areas still face harsh conditions of poverty, lack of access to land and various basic services.

Government committed to develop a comprehensive rural development strategy linked to land and agrarian reform, improvement of conditions of farm workers and farm-dwellers as well as building potential for rural sustainable livelihoods.

We committed to speed up the process of putting more land in the hands of rural poor and provide our people with technical skills and financial resources to productively use the land. Most importantly, we committed to focus on the systematic promotion of agricultural co-operatives throughout the value chain, including agro-processing, access to markets, financing and basic necessities like fencing and irrigation systems.

All of these commitments were made with a clear understanding that women constitute the majority of people living in rural areas and they should therefore be the largest number of beneficiaries in the country's rural development programme.

Over the past months, I have visited a number of development projects run by women including in Mopane District in Limpopo where we held a National Rural Women's Summit in May this year. Some of these projects demonstrate the extent of progress made in facilitating rural development.

Women's groups who benefited from the land reform programme have been able - with the assistance from government and other institutions - to establish farms that are productive and profitable. They are increasing the scale of production and opening new market avenues for sale of their products. From the profit, they are able to service or have paid-off the loans secured to start up their businesses.

Other projects remain at a very low scale mainly due to lack of technical support, access to finance and larger or stable markets. Sometimes the gap between acquisition of land and access to capital and other operational amenities for farming has landed some of these projects into difficulties.

These are challenges that became core to our discussions at the Rural Women's Summit. Representatives of women from across our country outlined the challenges they face as lack of access to land and water for them to initiate their development projects. Those who have secured land want developmental finance and access to markets for their produce. They also want skills development programmes that will enable them to improve their produce and achieve sustainable livelihood where they live.

We are working with the Departments of Rural Development and Land Reform as well as Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to ensure that the aspirations of rural women are integrated into the Rural Development Strategy. Women in rural areas need opportunities to develop themselves.

Rural areas include all traditional communal areas, farmland, certain peri-urban areas and informal settlements in small rural towns where people have a number of possibilities to live from the land. Rural development is about enabling people in these areas to take control of their destiny through the optimal use and management of natural resources. Rural development should result in fundamental change for women in the countryside; including changes in attitude, ownership patterns and systems and participation on the part of rural communities themselves.

To achieve development of rural women, we have to strengthen efforts that promote collaboration between communities, civil society, the three spheres of government and the private sector.

At the Rural Summit, we invited a number of government departments to participate because we believe rural women should be able to access resources from all sectors of government to enhance delivery. Departments and spheres of government need to move together to ensure delivery of infrastructure such as housing, water, sanitation, multi-purpose centres, police stations, Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres, schools and clinics.

All of these services are essential to improve the lives of women in rural areas and empower them to participate in socio-economic activities. We also need to be conscious of development of young women in rural areas. There are programmes like the National Rural Youth Service Corps where emphasis has been made to attain 50/50 gender parity and disability consideration amongst the recruits. There is commitment that of the 12 000 youths who are being skilled and employed through this programme, 50% should be women and almost 3 000 should be youth with disabilities.

One of the major challenges facing women in rural areas is the risk posed by climate change. Changes in weather patterns will have devastating effects on women who depend on natural resources for survival. Floods and severe drought will undermine agricultural output, a source of survival for many women in rural areas.

As South Africa hosts COP17 in Durban next month, the Department for Women, Children and People with Disabilities is ensuring that the perspective of women in rural areas and the African continent in general is heard. In this regard, we will be convening a meeting of Southern African Development Community (SADC) Ministers of Gender and Women Affairs to consolidate our position in the build up to COP17. We will also be using the occasion of the National Children's Day on 5 November to highlight the impact of climate change on children, our future generation.

Malibongwe!!!