Executive Director of UN Women for Empowerment in the Agricultural Sector

The Executive Director of UN Women, Ms. Phumzile, Mlambo Ngcuka, has been in Dakar since Monday, July 23, 2018. A visit to Senegal to increase the economic empowerment of women in the Senegalese agricultural sector but also to promote female leadership.

After having a lunch with women entrepreneurs and a dinner with women leaders in Dakar, this Tuesday, the director visited the Réseau des agricultures du Nord REFAN, in the region of Saint-Louis , Ce, in partnership with UN Women in the framework of the "Agriculture, Women and Sustainable Development" program (AGRIFED) and under the presence of Mrs. Salimata Diop Dieng, Minister of Women, Family and Gender.

Women farmers represent up to 70% of the active population and provide more than 80% of Senegalese agricultural production, especially in food crops, at Ross Bethio women are active in various fields with high potential for creation. employment. But there are many disparities in access to land, skills, financial resources and markets, despite the advocacy of REFAN.

Since the beginning of the project in 2017, more than 10,000 women in the cooperative have benefited from the creation of local sales outlets for rice distribution in Dakar and in different regions of Senegal. Madam Executive Director of UN Women, magnifying the work, says: "We will work hand in hand and go from 10,000 to 20,000 women" she will say to ask the youth of the north to work well to ensure the over.

For the record, the perimeter of the Union of Producers of Ross Béthio is a rice trap located about ten kilometers downstream from Ross Bethio leaving Saint-Louis, extending over an area of ​​280 ha of which 32 ha sowed by the women of the GIE Bamtare members of the Network of Women Farmers of the North (refan) accompanied by UN women .. Reportage.