BGA to Observe International Day of Rural Women on October 15

The Bureau of Gender Affairs (BGA) within the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport will observe International Day of Rural Women (IDRW) on October 15 under the local theme ‘She Invests: Turning Challenges into Opportunities’.

This year’s observance seeks to highlight the resilience and ingenuity of rural Jamaican women, who continue to convert environmental and economic challenges into meaningful opportunities for growth and development.

The BGA will host a suite of activities before, during, and after October 15, aimed at empowering rural women and highlighting their vital contributions to national life and development.

The first activity will be a health fair, scheduled for Wednesday, October 8, at Portland Cottage Primary School in Clarendon.

In recognition of International Day of the Girl Child, an event will be held at Melody House, Montego Bay Community House for Girls, in St. James, on Friday, October 10, beginning at 11:00 a.m.

To commemorate International Day for Rural Women, a church service will be held at the First Assembly of God in Falmouth, Trelawny, on Sunday, October 12, beginning at 10:00 a.m.

Principal Director of the BGA, Sharon Coburn Robinson, told JIS News that the observance of IDRW aligns with Article 14 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which mandates State parties, including Jamaica, to take targeted actions in support of rural women.

“We are part of a global platform that understands rural women have significant challenges, and so they need to be celebrated,” she stated.

Mrs. Coburn Robinson noted that rural women frequently contend with geographic isolation, heightened vulnerability to natural disasters, and limited access to essential resources such as capital for starting and sustaining businesses.

“Sometimes they have a range of woes because of where they live. In some cases where they are geographically located, they are prone to flooding and loss of lives, livelihood, property, and so on, when we have natural disasters.

“The idea of engaging and celebrating rural women allows for several things – first of all, for them to be recognised and to get them to understand that, as a Government, we value their contribution, because without their contribution, we would have significant fallout in the agricultural sector,” she said.

Mrs. Coburn Robinson added that, “we want them to understand that their concerns are no less than those persons who live in the urban town centres”.

The Principal Director noted that the theme reflects the Bureau’s commitment to empowering rural women through access to land, capital, and technology.

“We have recognised that when you invest in anyone, especially women, those investments that are made become return on investment; we want to have these women become return on investment. So the investment is designed to ensure that they understand that we value their contributions and their roles,” she said.

Mrs. Coburn Robinson further emphasised that, “we want to assist them to shore up or ramp up whatever it is that they are doing in their space, to allow them to become more resilient and to see their role as very pivotal to national development”.

“This observance of International Day for Rural Women and all the other activities that we do around engaging and mobilising women also allows them to feel empowered and to recognise that once they are empowered and they become a powerful force, they can also now become an agent of change, empower their families, empower the members of their community… helping us to champion the gender equality, the equity, socioeconomic empowerment and the social justice that we are known for, as the largest piece of the gender machinery,” she added.