Déogratias Niyonkuru ADISCO Chairman “The majority of the Burundi population is fed thanks to female farmers. However, the latter are neglected and sometimes forgotten in agriculture development programs…”
On the occasion of the International Day for Poverty Eradication celebrated on 17 October every year, UNDP Burundi declared that 82.1% of the Burundian population live on $ 1.25 a day.
For Natalie Boucly, the UNDP-Burundi Director, poverty does not only mean the absence of income or access to material to ensure everyone’s well-being – such as food, housing, land, etc. To fully understand poverty in all its dimensions, this involves consideration of humiliation and exclusion that many poor people are forced to endure.
“Building a sustainable future requires to intensify our efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and discrimination, to ensure that everyone may fully exercise their fundamental rights. The full participation of people living in poverty, particularly their participation in taking decisions that affect their lives and communities must be at the center of the policies and strategies to build a sustainable future,” says Boucly.
Gabriel Rufyiri, the chairman of theAnti-corruption and Economic Embezzlement Organization (OLUCOM), also member of the collective of civil society organizations fighting against high cost of living in Burundi, Burundi politicians’ selfishness is the main cause of poverty in the country. “IMF has recently released a report showing that Burundi is the poorest country in the world. And UNDP reported that 82% of the population live below the poverty line”, says Rufyiri. According to him, politicians should negotiate so that they can restore peace in the country to solve poverty related problems.
He speaks of negotiations to resolve the crisis prevailing in Burundi since April 2015 when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he would run for a controversial third term.
For Déogratias Niyonkuru, the President of the association for the Support to Integral Development and Solidarity on the Hills (ADISCO), no country in the world can eradicate poverty without developing the agricultural sector. He said that the sector has experienced many problems in Burundi. “It is therefore difficult to eliminate poverty especially when more than 90% of the Burundian population lives exclusively or essentially on agriculture”.
He states that many farmers say that climate change, lack of fertilizers, selected seeds and financial means are the main challenges of promoting the agricultural sector in Burundi. But for him, the main obstacle is the discrimination of rural women in the society.
“The majority of the Burundi population is fed thanks to female farmers.
However, the latter are neglected and sometimes forgotten in agriculture development programs”, deplores Niyonkuru. He is pessimistic because the Burundian youth are not interested in agriculture.
IWACU Open Data
