Senegal/Mbour - proven actors of local development: these barriers that still limit women's access to land

The land, a heritage not bequeathed to women. This is the terrible observation made in the rural area and mainly in the Petite Côte. The phenomenon is all the more disturbing with the changes taking place in the central coastal zone and its hinterland with the first projects of the inter-community expressed through the Agropole (Malicounda - Sandiara - Nguéniène) and the Entente de la Petite Côte.

The women, proven actors of the local development and yet very present in agricultural, apicultural, viticultural, piscicultural and oyster activities are still unable to access or own land,viticulture, pisciculture and oyster farming are still unable to access the land or to own it. Promises made are slow to be fulfilled in their fullness. Stereotypical considerations keep them away from it. In fact, for the tradition, sociological realities confine women to vegetable activities, in concentric circles around the houses. There, they produce only for consumption.

In Joal-Fadiouth, women, who are well versed in the activities mentioned above, have been resilient in practice, working the land under cover. Family farms in the Petite Côte area, across the three districts of Sindia, Séssène, and Malicounda, do not see any associations or groups with hectares of cleared land made available to women.

The few attempts to do so in Malicounda and Sandiara are found alongside Joal-Fadiouth, where the Association for the Integrated Management of Natural Resources and the Environment, largely run by women, is involved in beekeeping. They have spaces for this purpose and for how long? Within the framework of the fight against climate change, Dynamique Femmes, having fought for the erection of a dam to stop the salinization of the soil, has had convincing results, with the return of a certain flora to the edges of the bolongs adjacent to the Mama-Guedj.

Source: www.sudquotidien.sn