By Olasunkanmi Onifade
Abuja – The President of Partnership for Rural Women Development in Nigeria, Hajiya Zainab Mohammed, on Sunday, appealed to Federal Government to provide enabling and friendly policies to ensure rural women accessed grants and other incentives.
She made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja as the world commemorates International Day for Rural Women.
Celebrated annually on Oct. 15, the UN International Day of Rural Women is to recognise rural women’s role in supporting their communities.
It has “Challenges and Opportunities in Climate-Resilient Agriculture for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Rural Women and Girls” as theme for this year.
Mohammed said women should be included in decision making at all levels of governance
to improve support for rural women.
She added that “consultations should be from bottom to top. Rural women should have a voice in channelling issues relating to their community needs to Federal Government in a transparent manner.
“When we talk about rural women development, we should look at it holistically. Economic development, health issues, infrastructure development and education.”
The NGO boss said the private sector was the economic backbone of every society and should get involved in rural women development through Corporate Social Responsibility in supporting them.
She advised the private sector to partner with NGOs and government agencies to drive the development of policies that affect rural women developmental issues.
She said the contributions of rural women to the nation’s economic growth were unnoticed, noting that “the UN Rural Women Day, therefore, aims to appreciate their role and remind the society about them toward nation building.
“Rural women are also employees of labour, their small-scale farming ensures the society has food on daily basis.
“Rural women also ensure food security in societies by providing and sustaining local food production for the nation.”