UMW Mission June 2015 Palestine: Grassroots International Urban Projects augmenting food production and income in times of siege

Building Women's Leadership in Palestine Gaining independence and strength through food sovereignty

By Jonathan Leaning May 20th, 2014 A version of this piece originally appeared in Response: The magazine of women in mission.

The Women’s Empowerment and Food Sovereignty Project in Palestine, sponsored by Grassroots International and implemented with our Palestinian partner the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, works to bring practical, locally controlled food projects to various communities in the West Bank.

The project aims to increase women’s leadership in their communities while improving the standard of living for women farmers and strengthening their rights to land, water and food. It plans to continue building vibrant models of food sovereignty through the project’s successful women’s agricultural development enterprises, such as olive production, bee-keeping, poultry-raising and vegetable gardens.

The project offers hands-on activities that promote women’s engagement in leadership development, local agriculture and food sovereignty, including distributing 1,700 olive seedlings to 29 women’s cooperatives in 2013.

Confiscation of Palestinian farmland and barriers to farmland access create tremendous hardship for farmers.

Food Sovereignty, on the other hand, offers a different path. By promoting and building a thriving, locally controlled, family-based Palestinian farming sector, Food Sovereignty offers a path toward Palestinian self-determination and control over their own land and resources.

The project also offers assistance and training to women’s agricultural development enterprises, providing leadership and vocational skills, project management, marketing and establishing a cooperative model.

Being a member of this women’s cooperative is so much more than learning technical skills, which we do,” said Zeinab Mo’han, member of Beitin Women’s Cooperative in Palestine. “But we also learn about how to engage in discourse, how to negotiate, effective communication skills and, just as importantly, the role of the rights to land, food and water in our national struggle.”

In addition to the economic and cultural barriers faced by women in the region, residents of the West Bank face enormous challenges imposed by military law.

“Early last year, the occupation authorities demolished five sheep hangars, confiscated tractors and agricultural water tanks

and left notices for house demolitions,”

“[They are] preventing farmers from having access to their agricultural land after sunset. In addition to that, Palestinian farmers are under continuous harassment from the Israeli military occupation forces at the military checkpoints during their transport of agricultural products.”

Palestinians live under layers of laws that affect where they can live, how much water they can use and which roads they can access, among other things. Despite these obstacles, Palestinian farmers remain steadfast in their commitment to the land.

Technical assistance will continue to be provided, training and education on gender issues and leadership, along with spreading the practice of food sovereignty by amplifying the voices of rural women and farmers as they advocate for better agriculture and food production policies in Palestine.