labour of women in Congo between social reality and marginalization of economic representation in agriculture

labour of women in Congo between social reality and marginalization of economic representation in agriculture
By: Faten khater
In September 2012, the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which addresses 17 global and cross-cutting challenges to poor and marginalized communities, including poverty, climate, environmental degradation, health care, and education.
We re not all in the same boat.
According to Oxfam s "Climate Change and Inequality in the Middle East and North Africa" report, the MENA region is one of the world s most unequal regions, with six countries topping the list of the world s 20 most unequal, reflecting a rapid deterioration in economic justice. These rates do not reveal the widening of the economic gap, but are also reflected in emissions disparities, confirming that the climate and inequality crises are deeply intertwined.
This data drives us to the conflict-ridden Central African region to take a look at the reality of marginalized groups such as women and children in the human labour sectors.
The report 2003 for the African Development Bank notes that 216 million children are malnourished and that women s participation and active role in developing and making food security a reality is more central than ever.
Congo The newly independent Democratic Republic of the Congo 1960 after decades of Belgian colonialism suffers a political power struggle and serious upheaval affecting all aspects of social, economic, scientific and cultural life, affecting the issue of conscious resource management. It is appropriate to the geographical and social nature of the country. Looking at the most vital sector of any society, agriculture and livestock production, agricultural land is about 107,000 km2 for 2021, 31% of Congo s land area, and agricultural exports of raw materials account for about 4% of national income.

The World Trade Organization indicates in the report issued for the year 2024 that the Congo has 80 million hectares of arable agricultural land, while the actual area exploited is not more than 4 million hectares, agricultural employment accounts for 60% and agriculture accounts for 19.7% of GDP, but it has not yet achieved food security, sustainable employment opportunities,´-or-export at rates that contribute to good revenues, although the Congo has many rivers and important fishery resources, which qualifies it to be a global agricultural power،

Congolese women and labor
Congolese women represent the most important pillars of the agricultural society, as they form a vital axis in the agricultural workforce in the Congo and contribute significantly to food production.

According to the ISIC division, labor is defined as persons of working age who have been engaged in any activity for the production of goods´-or-the provision of services for remuneration´-or-profit, and work in the agricultural sphere is divided into agriculture, forestry, hunting, agriculture. Congolese women s employment in the agricultural sector is about 29% for 2023, more than 95% of rural women are divided by gender in the field of Agriculture compared to almost 64% of men.
Women spend from 8 to 9 hours in agricultural work, where women bear the main responsibility of agricultural production, while men help in clearing and preparing the land and, to a small extent, in harvesting.they also bear full responsibility in domestic work, where cleaning the house, preparing food and preparing it consumes from 3 to 4 hours. also, work at home includes fetching water, collecting firewood, which consumes at least two hours of the Congolese woman s day.
Mutual relations in decision-making in general in all life, social and economic sectors of society is necessary, insufficient information is available about gender relations with regard to decision-making in agricultural activities in Congo.
In a report on income issued by the Congolese Ministry of labor in 1992 indicates that the responsibility is shared between men and women in supporting the family in different ways, where the family consumes the entire income of women is in food and clothing, while a man s income is -dir-ected to the purchase of goods, travel and a new marriage.

The marginalization and restriction of the role of women on paid work
some studies have shown a decline in the percentage of women heading to own agricultural land in the Congo, despite the fact that women farmers are the backbone of rural economies.That is including several reasons-;- including, the gender inequality associated with land is rooted in cultural norms, as well as the lack of equity in women s access to´-or-ownership of agricultural land, although this is one of the various ways to achieve the quality of agricultural production and land conservation, finally, the impact of social life, family size and income level significantly on women s desire to acquire land, where 11% of women expressed their desire to own land agriculture, but Previous factors prevent this, which in turn leads to a decline and poor agricultural performance.
Some studies look at that one of the reasons for the stagnation of agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa is the slow adoption of modern agricultural technologies in the region, which were the main drivers of increasing agricultural production in other contexts.
conducted between the Congolese Ministry of Agriculture in partnership with the World Bank act on how to improve seeds and their accessibility to smallholder farmers to improve short-term agricultural productivity to achieve the greatest welfare of the Congolese family suffering from high poverty rates, up to the latest local hand-in-hand initiatives to improve agricultural productivity.
All studies, researches and reports have concluded to enhance the empowerment of Congolese women s role, giving them priority access to productive resources, in addition to improving the conditions of agricultural work, whether private´-or-public, raising wages and improving family and health care mechanisms for women and Congolese society in general.

Crops in the Congo are divided into local subsistence crops such as bananas, cassava, corn.
And cash crops that include: palm oil, rubber, tea, cocoa, cotton, sugar, coffee.
coffee as an object of exchange
One of the sustainable economic methods related to the production of coffee
The Spanish researcher Miria Gambardella began to study the strategies implemented by coffee producers inspired by decolonization and post-development theories that apply political ontology from an anthropological participatory perspective-;- with the condition of solidarity to build economic and cognitive alternatives to the current capitalist society, and delivered and governed our market values, realizing that "it is not possible to dominate the world if one does not control ideas".
The research aims to investigate how domestic, social and ethical norms are needed to conquer, penetrate the economic arena in order to make trade possible, observing how international solidarity activities are listed.
Coffee production policies, cultural and aesthetic knowledge that build job opportunities are being investigated in a highly politicized economic field, coffee is a source of income but also a tool of struggle in which perspectives of change towards possible pluralism are promoted. The flows in it revolve around solidarity ties that crystallize in coffee as an object of exchange, as well as a radical space of conflict, the meanings conveyed by the product are built on a symbolic level, making coffee a relational political arena in which the legitimacy of transactions is built cognitively, ethically and aesthetically.

Resources:
1- https://www.agenziacoesione.gov.it/comunicazione/agenda-2030-per-lo-sviluppo-sostenibile/?lang=en#:~:text=Signed%20on%2025%20September%202015%20by%20the,economic%2C%20social%20and%20institutional%20domains%20by%202030
2-
https://alsifr.org/inequality-and-emissions-mena
3- https://tradingeconomics.com/republic-of-the-congo/agricultural-land-percent-of-land-area-wb-data.html
4-
https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/democratic-republic-congo-agriculture
5-
https://www.science-dir-ect.com/science/article/pii/S2590291123003777
6-
https://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/providing-agricultural-inputs-democratic-republic-congo
7-
https://www.fao.org/hand-in-hand/previous-editions/hih-IF-2023/congo/en
8-
https://www.academia.edu/120969817/_Un_mundo_en_el_que_quepan_muchos_mundos_exceeding_coloniality_of_power_through_economic_alternatives_contested_epistemologies_and_political_ontology

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