Havana, April 24.- The project Strengthening the Integrated Knowledge Management System for Food Security in Cuba (Consas) works with the purpose of empowering women in the country's agricultural system.
An important line of our work is to eliminate gender-based discrimination in national and local scientific and service entities, said the director of Consas, Yanaisy Sáez Sarría.
Stopping professional segregation, promoting work-family harmony, plus other aspects, is essential, Sáez Sarría commented to Prensa Latina at the end of the validation of the gender strategy at the Pig Research Institute (IIP).
According to her opinion, women with a high educational and scientific level work in the institutions, but more work is necessary to raise awareness about the issue because there are features of our culture deeply rooted in the rural context.
In Cuba we have made a lot of progress in this sense, although we must insist that women have the role capable of earning with their efforts and skills, to avoid facing disadvantages, the researcher alleged.
And she added that in agricultural institutions the awareness-raising work must be more intense, because they have a lot of male presence.
It is urgent to eliminate the gaps between women and men and to do so we must provide them with knowledge and skills, in addition to guaranteeing them access to technologies, she insisted.
There are examples where we apply the project to increase productivity and increase the sense of belonging, by creating equal access for women to tasks, inputs and processes, she stated.
There is still much to achieve, she asserted, and considered that there are deep-rooted stereotypes, about which we warn.
We will continue working, she stressed, because empowering women favors the economy, stability and social justice, in addition to being a human right, and helps achieve sustainable development goals.
This Tuesday, she noted, we carried out the first validation in the country, but we will extend that experience to other places, with the support of different teaching, research and productive entities.
Consas, of the Strategic Support for Sustainable Food Security (SAS-CUBA) program, is developed by the Ministry of Agriculture in the municipalities of Santa Clara, Remedios and Placetas, in Villa Clara, and Sancti Spíritus, Taguasco and Yaguajay, in the also central province of Sancti Spíritus.
The project has financing and technical support from the European Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Founded in 1972 and considered the leader of the science and technique of pig breeding, the IIP develops studies, projects and programs focused on responding to the demands of pig farming. (Text and photo: PL)
