A CASE STUDY OF CAPACITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT AT EL-ZAFIRYAH ASSOCIATION FOR RURAL WOMEN DEVELOPMENT - QUFT DISTRICT - QENA GOVERNORATE تقییم القدرات المؤسسیة لجمعیة تنمیة المرأة الریفیة بالظافریة مرکز قفط- محافظة قنا (دراسة حالة)

The agency of women in most African countries is often affected by the socio-economic and political policies that are almost always disadvantageous to women, especially women who have little to no knowledge of their rights. Using the shea industry in Ghana as a case study, I chronicle the challenges as recounted by rural women involved in this home-based work in the Northern Region of Ghana and critically analyse these challenges and their implications. Focusing mainly on the results of my recent field work, I present some of the accounts relating to the lack and exclusion of recognition of and respect for the experiences of rural women who are in fact the linchpin of the shea industry in Ghana. Initiatives and strategies of non-governmental organisations and some governmental policies have attempted to address these challenges that have implications for the livelihoods of rural women. Research and policies have only offered â€œband-aid solutionsâ€ to the economic disempowerment of rural women in the shea industry in Ghana as they have not dealt with the causes. This article seeks to refute the claim that equity exists by indicating the lack of equity and justice in the policies in the shea industry. In an attempt to provide an understanding of the economic disempowerment of women in this industry, I consider my field work as a good source as it exposes the experiences and everyday practices as narrated by rural women in the industry. This article seeks to analyse the existing discourses especially those pertaining to the contributions and experiences of rural women in the shea industry.

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RURAL WOMEN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A CASE STUDY IN HERAKLION CRETE PREFECTURE, GREECE

Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship ◽

10.1142/s1084946711001835 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 16 (02) ◽

pp. 269-284 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

AIKATERINI LASSITHIOTAKI

Keyword(s):

Rural Women ◽

Production Systems ◽

Traditional Food ◽

Enterprise Risk ◽

Enterprise Model ◽

Control Production ◽

Modern Business ◽

Domestic Roles ◽

Entrepreneurial Beliefs

This article investigates the entrepreneurial beliefs/attitudes, ambitions, expectations, goals and visions of rural women who choose to cooperate and found Women's Rural cooperatives in the Prefecture of Heraklion on the island of Crete. The results of a qualitative study involving a sample of eight chairwomen of rural women's established Traditional Food Production cooperatives indicated that the traditional domestic roles (housewife, mother), the low level of education, the lack of professional skills, enterprise experience and mostly the unwillingness of rural women to undertake enterprise risk, have turned them toward an enterprise model that lacks modern business methods in the use of quality control production systems, in the production of Protected Geographical Identification Goods and/or Certified Local Traditional Food and/or Organic Products, in the use of new organizing and managing technologies, in advertising and promoting products and in administrative renewal.

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