Oct 11, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA)- As development of the woman is an important step on the way of comprehensive development, the government has spared no efforts towards the economic empowerment of rural woman in particular given that this contributes to improving her and her family's situation and enhancing her role as a main partner in the economic development process.

In cooperation with the various parties concerned, the government is working on resuming rural woman projects which upgrade the economic, social, health, educational and cultural situation of the families in these areas.

In this context, a  national workshop, attended by the FAO Representative in Syria, Abdullah Tahir Bin Yehia, was held on Wednesday by the Rural Development Directorate at the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, during which discussions focused on coordinating work among all the parties concerned to achieve the goal of fully engaging the woman in the planning and decision making processes of the development process.

Assistant Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Nabi Rashid Mohammad, said the aim of the two-day workshop was to reach a participatory work pattern that targets the areas affected by the recent events with focus placed on the woman "being an important pillar for the stability and security of the rural family."

Mohammad called for suggesting an integrated executive work plan to be adopted as the pattern for development of all fields in the affected areas.

He pointed out that, in the framework of its efforts in this regard, the Ministry has already targeted 17850 poor rural families with loans through the rural women empowerment projects.

Insaf Hamad, Chairperson of the Syrian Commission for Family Affairs, said the Commission has programs of the poorest areas by development standards which have the highest rates of fertility, truancy, illiteracy and unemployment and the lowest rates of health indicators.

Within its programs, the Commission has targeted 6 provinces in the northern, eastern and southern regions in which the aforementioned problems are clearly manifested.

In its reports prepared on the features of population problems in Syria, the Commission registered a very high increase in population growth rates, amounting to 75 % of Syria's population, who are growing with fertility rates that are among the highest in the world, in addition to the moderate pattern of 15 % and the low one of 10 %.

The reports also indicated the other aspect of the problem; that is the imbalance in population distribution and the drop in qualitative characteristics of population.

Hamad indicated long-term projects for the areas with these features that are related to family planning, literacy, employment and settling people in their areas.

She highlighted the signing of two agreements with the Minsitry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform on exchanging cooperation in rural women empowerment field, with the Ministry offering its technical and administrative cadres and headquarters and the Commission providing SYP 70 million in loans.

Director of the Planning and International Cooperation Department at the Local Administration Ministry, Midyan Diyab, pointed out that the Ministry has established funds for micro-finance of projects in the most poorest villages.

The Ministry also established a bank for the administrative units to provide loans for the projects in these units, Diyab added.

He asserted that establishing popular markets for marketing the products of the rural women's projects was included in the Ministry's budget, as they are scheduled to be established in the Eastern area and later in all the provinces.

The General Union of Syrian Women and the Project Development Department at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor played a significant role in empowering women in terms of establishing small and permanent enterprises in the needed villages and developing micro enterprises to help in the economic integration of poor families and individuals.

Director of Rural Women Development Department at the Agriculture Ministry, Raeda Ayoub, reviewed the economic and social impact of the empowerment project on the women who benefited from it through a field search which included all those who were granted loans.

Ayoub said 97 % of the families achieved an income increase after the project's establishment, 93 % of them witnessed food quality improvement, 51 % improved their housing conditions, 81 % improved quality of their clothing and 35 % of project owners have got private ownership.

On the Health Ministry's role in enhancing the heath awareness of the women who are project owners, Director of the Health Care Department at the Ministry, Ahmad al-Abboud, said that the healthy villages program, which the Ministry is working on since 1996, targeted 13 provinces except Damascus, asserting that the number of the healthy villages will reach 513 by the end of the current year.

For her part, Head of the Committee for Children, Women and Family Rights, Nahed al-Moallem, called for establishing a large project to be an incubator of the small projects and family consultation centers to follow up on the status of the families affected by the latest events.

Member of the Executive Bureau of the General Peasants' Union, Akaber Kiwan, noted that the Union has established a training and rehabilitating office at the Union's headquarters and branches which aim at training and rehabilitating the rural women on the agricultural and animal production, in addition to holding courses in health care, first aid and motherhood.

The Union has also adopted a package of measures to activate the projects of the rural women, mainly the foundation of a committee under the title 'Agricultural Businesswomen Committee' for developing the women agricultural work.

The Union also founded 'The Mother Syria' company which aims at developing the concepts of the household economy.

© SANA (Syria Arab News Agency) 2012