FOOD AND ECONOMIC SECURITY | Monday,March 20th 2023

STRENGTHENING THE RESILIENCE OF INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND YOUTH OF MWENGA

Lush's donation enabled PIFEVA to sustain and consolidate the capacity building system for 114 indigenous women and young people (57 women and 57 indigenous young people) from forest communities, by placing climate resilience at the heart of their agricultural practices and facilitated the identification and dissemination of indigenous seeds and plants that are resilient to climate change through exchanges between women and young people from communities in Mwenga territory.

This project strengthened the capacities of beneficiaries in traditional agro forestry to improve the soil and supported the identification, production and dissemination of traditional techniques and seeds that are resilient to climate change, as well as the promotion of indigenous crops and foods. This project ultimately contributes to improving the livelihoods of beneficiaries and promotes the sharing of valuable climate-resilient indigenous knowledge among women, youth and next generations in Mwenga territory in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

CHALLENGES AND LESSONS

The great challenge for this project was the one that centers the actions carried out on an approach based on the rights of indigenous peoples and this allowed us on the one hand to fight against discrimination and the failure to take into account indigenous agricultural knowledge and practices of adaptation climate change which is unfortunately underestimated, despised, because belonging to the past and presented as the knowledge of the poor women and indigenous populations of Mwenga and, on the other hand, to strengthen the consideration of the specific rights of indigenous young people and women in sectoral policies linked to the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The fact of seeing the young and indigenous women of Mwenga appropriate and actively participate in the identification, production and dissemination of traditional techniques and seeds resilient to climate change as well as the promotion of indigenous crops and foods constitutes a qualitative indicator of reduction of inequalities and the inclusion of traditionally marginalized groups and which contributes to strengthening the participation of young people and women in the search for solutions to climatic and socio-environmental problems within their communities in the territory of Mwenga.

PIFEVA learned two main lessons from this project:

1) Adopting an approach based on the best available traditional and indigenous knowledge can greatly contribute to food security as indigenous and local knowledge can inform us about the drivers of soil depletion, traditional seeds resilient to climate change and effective methods to achieve improved agricultural resilience and behavioral change for next generations.

2) Indigenous and local populations are often well placed to observe and understand local ecosystems. As a result, indigenous, traditional and local knowledge systems constitute one of the largest bodies of human knowledge about agriculture and ecosystems. However, these knowledge systems are rarely recognized as resources for understanding and adapting farming practices to climate change.

Veronique Bulaya

Project Coordinator

Phone: +243 975155579

Email: [email protected] , [email protected]

Web site: https://www.pifeva.org/en/