WOCAN held its first Women Leadership Circle in Agriculture and NRM (WLCAN) meeting on 22nd May, 2012 at Serena Hotel which attracted representatives from women farmers, government officials and civil society practitioners in the relevant sectors. The objectives of the meeting was to establish a platform for strengthening women’s leadership and promoting dialogue among women farmers, policy makers and professionals. During the meeting, participants noted that women leaders at the local and national levels face many gender related constraints, including lack of male support for women’s leadership, and the fact that as leaders they have to work twice as hard as their male counterparts to get approval/recognition.
Women farmers are also faced with additional challenges of limited understanding of the legal and policy provisions related to agriculture and related sectors. They expressed a need to be educated on specific policies to enable them to engage with local governments and advocate for their needs and concerns. The farmers had clear ideas about what they wanted in terms of policy needs, but unfortunately they were unaware of the current policies and their contents. Participants in the meeting agreed that one of the immediate activities that should be undertaken is policy analysis from a gender perspective, to prioritize policy needs of the farmers. These included agricultural development strategy, water, forest and land policies.
