(Ecofin Agency) - Dakar hosted on Sept. 27 and 28, 2016, a workshop to boost capabilities of agricultural actors. Organized by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Equipment and UN-Women, the workshop mainly aimed to find solutions to insure equal access to agricultural lands for women.

Tackling gender discrimination in Senegal where only 13% of women population has access to agricultural lands (while 50% of population is women), the session falls in line with the nation’s ongoing land reform. “Women must have access to lands and be able to control them,” Director of the Programme at UN-Women, Rokhaya Gueye, told Le Quotidien.

“The new land reform must be adjusted so women-farmers have the same advantages as men in terms of land access and tenure,” said Sokhna Mbaye Diop, technical advisor at Ministry of Agriculture.

She highlighted that women are often marginalized due to their insufficient understanding of administrative procedure, which is however relatively simple. “First, women must understand that procedure to acquire lands is not complex. They simply have to send a request to the local commission for land reform after which the council will give its approval therefore granting them access to lands, same as men,” she said.

Souha Touré