By Emma Kakololo
WINDHOEK
A total of 44 percent of women have lost all livestock and 41 percent have lost tools for agriculture following disputes over inheritance after the deaths of their husbands.
When it comes to selling products in general, men decide in 32 percent of cases while women in 12 percent cases decide, according to a recent report by Equilibri.
Equilibri is an independent observatory that researches on health, education, work and employment, quality of life, youth issues and cultural issues of countries, amongst others.
The report that looked at the role of women in the economic development of Sub-Saharan Africa, says that gender differences are the main obstacle for the growth of the region and recommends that in order to boost harmonious development, it is necessary to find a strategy which follows social and cultural traditions but working away their negative effects.
Women represent 42 percent of the actual workforce on an overall figure of 299 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Major gaps between males and females concern education, legal employment and access to technologies, inputs (land, fertilizers, seeds, micro credit, government consultancy services) and property rights.
Some other distortions are to be found inside the family economy, where gender distinctions mark differences in the sustenance production (woman) and profit production (man).
“Women are controlling the sustenance agriculture, but their activities are considered to be only domestic and therefore they are not included in official surveys nor considered for possible investments or technological improvements.”
According to the report, investments are generally used for introducing technological improvements for ‘male’ activities, which are aimed at producing money profits.
In this way the phase of preparation of ground is mechanized (through animal-drawn ploughs or tractors) and consequently the cultivated lands increase as well as the surfaces where women will have to collect crops (by hand) and the quantity of cereals to beat and mill (always by hand).”
In addition, investments on a macro level and family level support the female workforce which is considered useful only for the internal consumption and therefore not really relevant, and can lead to harmful situations for their own health and that of children, due to the increase in working hours outside their home, reads the report.
It concludes that in order to fill this gender gap, the incentive to the access to female work could be favoured following the example of eastern Asian countries by boosting a manufacturing industry oriented towards exports with a mostly female recruitment.
“In this way the growth would be boosted and the displacement of an inefficient workforce in most favourable sectors as well, encouraging new technologies to increase the efficiency of agricultural workforce.”