House Chairperson, we are debating International Women's Day today to recognise that in order to secure peace, social progress and the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms we require the active participation, equality and development of women. We also want to acknowledge the contribution of women to the strengthening of international peace and security.
For the women of the world, the symbolism of this day has a wider meaning. It is an occasion to review how far we have come in our struggle for equality, peace and development. In our plight to empower women, we need to assess the current status of rural women. The DA realises that women's poor access to infrastructure in rural areas limits their opportunities to reduce poverty and hunger.
Rural women spend more time than urban women and men in reproductive and household work, including time spent obtaining water and fuel, as well as caring for children and the sick. Collectively, women from sub-Saharan Africa spend about 40 billion hours a year collecting water. This is because of poor rural infrastructure and services, as well as culturally assigned roles that severely limit women's participation in employment opportunities. This is also the case in most rural villages in South Africa.
As an important source of livelihoods for the poorest, agriculture is a means to eradicate extreme poverty, especially for rural women. More than 60% of employed women in sub-Saharan Africa work in agriculture. The substantial involvement of rural women in agriculture primarily as unpaid or contributing family workers highlights the importance of developing policies and programmes that address the needs, interests and constraints of women in the agricultural sector.
The UN Food and Agricultural Organization estimates that rural women are responsible for half of the world's food production and produce between 60% and 80% of food in most developing countries. Despite their contribution to global food security, women farmers are frequently underestimated and overlooked in development strategies.
Improving agricultural productivity is a key component in economic development. This includes the revamping and strengthening of extension systems to be more responsive to and inclusive of women; addressing structural barriers to women's access to productive resources; and improving financial systems to respond to the needs of rural women producers and entrepreneurs.
Environmental degradation has a great impact on natural resources, which rural women rely on for their livelihoods. Reduced quality and availability of land, game, forests and aquatic resources increase rural women's time burden and reduce their capability to cope with shocks and climate change.
This is a tip for the 2014 elections: Research suggest that women express more concern for the environment, support policies that are more beneficial to the environment and tend to vote for leaders who care about the environment. Remember that in 2014!
For rural women and men, land is perhaps the most important household asset to support production and provide for food, nutrition and income security. An international comparison of agricultural census data shows that due to a range of legal and cultural constraints in land inheritance, ownership and use, less than 20% of landholders are women. This drops to less than 15% in sub-Saharan Africa.
In most sub-Saharan countries, information problems surround the use or ownership of land. In many places, it is not clear who owns what land; how long they have used the land; or if they have any claim to the land. Historically, land titles were registered in the name of a male household head, regardless of women's contribution to the household. Traditional customary law can have the effect of counterbalancing equality legislation. Women are generally not represented on traditional rural structures and many traditional customs do not allow women to inherit land, making it difficult for them to be owners and producers.
In addition, the traditional barriers to land ownership increase the risk profile of women by financial institutions. Tradition can therefore compound the vulnerability of rural women. Ownership rights are critical to securing a sustainable livelihood and income. The lack of these rights is one of the main sources of women's insecurity. When women own and control resources and family assets, they have increased decision-making power in the household and are more like to allocate resources to support the welfare of all family members, so reducing poverty and hunger.
Another key to ensuring rural women's empowerment and eradicating poverty is to address power relations and persistent norms and beliefs that maintain gender-based violence. According to a multicountry study conducted by the World Health Organisation, rural women report more experiences of physical abuse than urban women. Police, counselling and legal services may be more difficult for women to access in rural areas than urban areas, due to distance, lack of transport and distance to services.
In conclusion, our Constitution contains many rights that are meant to benefit all women and will improve the quality of life for even the poorest woman in rural areas. It is therefore our collective responsibility to ensure the implementation of programmes aimed to empower women of South Africa in an attempt to reduce poverty and hunger. [Applause.]