The Role of Economic Empowerment of Rural Women and Enhancing the Active Participation in the Transition to Sustainable Farming System in Iraq

Abstract

The empowerment of rural women is one of the essential issues in the path of achieving development and a launching pad towards the switch to sustainable agricultural systems. The inclusion of rural women in the social, economic, and environmental plays a pivotal role in achieving food security. The research study aims at reconsidering the role of economically empowering rural women in order to consolidate her active contribution in the transformation process to sustainable agriculture in Iraq. The research population is from all over Iraq, apart from Kurdistan Region, added to all academics, government institutions, experts, and research tanks concerned with empowering women. Other NGOS interested in women empowerment in general, rural women in particular, were also included in the research population. The total number of the research subjects mounted up to 150 ones, whose data were collected through many methods such as questionnaire and in person interviews. They were later subject to analysis using (SPSS).The results showed that providing rural women with government or development organizations facilitated subsidized loans came first as of economic empowerment indexes showing the top score on the weighted mean of 4.56 with a percentage of 91.33. This conclusion is associated with ages of marginalizing rural women, their reduced access to financing, and insufficient collateral and weak bargaining power within the local market. From this perspective, the role of government directorates and agencies of development is essential, as far as the subsidized loans are concerned. It can partially enable country women to accomplish agricultural enterprises to enlarge their income levels and boost their independence. For that reason, Subsidized loans are not a financial tools only, but rather a comprehensive institutional one to upscale her economic empowerment, and bridge the gaps between the city and the countryside, lift up living standards, and enhance women’s economic contribution in achieving sustainable development. The paper came out eventually with a conclusion that easier access to affordable subsidized credits forms a direct strategy of supporting successful agricultural and economic initiatives, hence consolidating their decision-making potentials and resource management independence. The research study also came with the recommendation of boosting public-private partnerships for the immediate adopting of easier financing policies-aimed specifically at supporting rural women and widening funding opportunities. Accordingly, these steps, are essentially important for the accomplishment of agricultural sustainable development. Additionally, the collaboration with incubators specialized in business promotion with well-planned sustainable agricultural development is highly recommended. The reason behind that is they are not effective tools for harnessing the success and continuity of rural women projects only, but also good to boost income, increase of agricultural productivity, and full transition to eco-friendly farming systems.