According to former World Food Prize Laureate Catherine Bertini, the single most important factor in agricultural development is the education of girls.
Introduced by Clinton School student Britney Sink (‘13), Bertini spoke to an audience at the Clinton School on Thursday afternoon about the role women and girls play in agricultural development.
Agriculture supports the livelihood of 80 percent of Africa’s population, Bertini said. In addition, 43 percent of the world’s agriculture workers are women.
The laureate, Bertini discussed Feed the Future, a program that places emphasis on the importance of paying attention to and helping women reach their potentials. Steps have been taken to make this happen, Bertini said, such as African governments pledging to spend 10 percent of their GDP on agriculture.
Additionally, Girls Grow, a program designed by Bertini in partnership with Nike, speaks of the need to expand opportunities for rural girls to attend secondary school and to equip girls to be entrepreneurs, managers and business leaders, among other jobs.
Laureate Bertini said women and girls can transform rural economies, but they need to have the same access to agricultural resources as men. For the most part, women and girls are in charge of gathering natural resources and therefore need to be empowered to be leaders in natural resource management, Bertini said.
She also mentioned the importance of providing opportunities to rural girls to have an active voice and to offer health information and services.
Video of Bertini’s lecture will be posted soon at www.clintonschoolspeakers.com.
This post was written by Clinton School student Veena Rangaswami (’13).
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