Yesterday, 15 October, the world commemorated the International Day of Rural Women. Today, on World Food Day, we are reminded why rural women’s leadership and the collective action of farmers and civic movements is so central to the future of our food systems.
For TrustAfrica, these two commemorations carry special meaning in 2026, the International Year of the Woman Farmer, as we celebrate 20 years of Sustaining African Agency to Shape the Future.
We warmly congratulate the Southern Africa Rural Women’s Assembly on receiving the 2026 Right Livelihood Award, recognizing years of collective organizing to defend land, seeds, livelihoods and bodily autonomy.
The Rural Women’s Assembly’s recognition is a celebration of that collective power. This is innovation rooted in community knowledge, collective action and lived experience.
This week, TrustAfrica joins the Rural Women’s Assembly in Malawi for its Feminist School, an important space for strengthening women’s leadership, political consciousness, solidarity and collective agency.
Across Africa, rural women are doing more than demanding change. They are building alternatives — saving indigenous seeds, protecting biodiversity, advancing agroecology, advocating for inclusion and reclaiming control over their food systems. TrustAfrica’s work across the continent with women has been
- Women advocating for inclusive and equitable policies in tea, cocoa and cotton value chains, strengthening their voice, participation and economic opportunities.
- Advancing women’s land, property and inheritance rights, including access to and control over productive resources.
- Recognising and valuing unpaid care work as integral to women’s economic contributions, livelihoods and food systems.
- Strengthening women’s leadership in shaping gender-responsive continental agricultural policies, including a more inclusive, transformative and gender-just CAADP and national budgets.
- Supporting women’s organisations and civil society health advocacy to advance equitable access to healthcare, women’s health rights, nutrition and the connections between health, food security and livelihoods.
- Supporting women-led seed saving, community seed systems, biodiversity protection and agroecological alternatives that strengthen food sovereignty and climate resilience.
As TrustAfrica reflects on two decades of accompanying African movements, this moment reminds us why patient solidarity matters. Grants, capacity strengthening and convening are important, but their lasting value lies in the power they help communities build and sustain.
The Rural Women’ssemblys A’s recognition is a celebration of that collective power.
On World Food Day, we celebrate rural women not only for feeding communities, but for shaping the alternatives that can nourish Africa’s future.
Congratulations to the Rural Women’s Assembly and all the women whose organising continues to inspire change.
