The food crisis and its impact on poor women in Africa/La crise alimentaire et son impact sur les femmes pauvres en Afrique.

AuthorMatovu-Winyi, Norah

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Rosette is a mother of 3 children though she is responsible for 8 children. The other 5 children belong to her late sister and brother who passed away due to the HIV/AIDS scourge. The five children were staying with Rosette's mother in Mukono District, in Uganda until last year when the mother suddenly died as a result of shock and heart attack.

The mother faced death when she was caught up in a stampede during the visit of Prince Charles of England and his wife to the area when Uganda hosted the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of States Summit in November.

Rosette's life has never been the same since then. She was forced to rent out the small piece of land (Kibanja) that belonged to her late mother to a neighbour and travelled to Kampala with all the eight children. She realized that though she inherited this small piece of land it could not sustain her and the children.

She moved to the city to took for opportunities for better income and education for the children. She struggles every single day to put food on the table for the children. With the global food crisis and the rising food and fuel prices, Rosette woes are not anywhere in sight.

Unfortunately, Rosette's story is not necessarily unique in Africa. Though poverty eradication has been the focus of most development policy and agenda in African countries over the last 10-15 years, they are all still struggling to realize improvements in the lives of the poor in Africa and to achieve more equitable distribution of the benefits of development and economic growth.

Uganda, which is a food basket in the East African region, should not have any of its citizens starving or unable to meet their basic food requirements and those of their families. Women in most African countries are the providers of the bigger percent of agricultural labour. However, when there is a food crisis they are the most affected.

This is mainly because many of them may not have the power to make decisions on how the land they till is used (they lack ownership and have only usury rights) or have very limited influence on how the proceeds from the produce are distributed.

As more and more land is committed to commercial farming, less food is produced. The distribution channels tend to also be very inadequate due to poor road infrastructure and a lack of clear policies on marketing and distribution of agricultural products.

Rosette knows nothing about the Washington Consensus or the World Bank and IMF...

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