FBiH Minister of Agriculture, Water Management and Forestry, Šemsudin Dedić, spoke with representatives of UN Women and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), organizations working on the implementation of the project ‘Women as Drivers of Development in Agriculture and Rural Areas’.
Deputy Head of the UN Women Office Amna Muharemović and FAO Program Coordinator Vlado Pijunović expressed their gratitude to the Minister and the FBiH Ministry for their support in the implementation of this important project, and emphasized that the project builds on the gender assessment for BiH conducted by UN Women and FAO, entitled “National gender profile of agriculture and rural livelihoods”.
The project is financed by the Swedish Agency for International Development and Cooperation (SIDA) and aims to remove structural barriers by introducing technologies that would save time and work, and innovative sources of financing. The goal is also to train women to better cope with challenges, improving their living standards and socioeconomic position, as well as the lives of their families in rural areas.
“We are pleased to continue cooperation with these international organizations and jointly improve the status of women in the environments where they live and work. One of our goals is certainly to strengthen and create a greater presence and role of women in agriculture and to strive through concrete measures to improve their position as women owners and members of family farms,” said Minister Dedić.
According to the data of the Ministry, there is a noticeable trend of increasing the number of registered women owners of family farms. In 2019, that number was 13,908, while in 2022 it was 17,888. The Ministry supported 2,339 women with different incentive models in 2022, which represents an increase of 17 percent compared to 2021.
