Invitation: Female Food Heroes - public forum on women's role in the food system

28th April 2016 from 09.30 am to 01.00 pm Western Province Aesthetic Resort Stanley Wijesundara Mawatha, Colombo 7 Women play an integral role in food production in Sri Lanka. Female food producers provide immense contribution to ensuring the country’s food security, economic growth and the practice of fair and sustainable food production mechanisms. Despite all this, the active contribution of women to the local food system remains invisible. Female food producers are not given any significance in national level policies. There is an overall absence of a public discourse on the importance of women farmers. Development practices at local and international levels have proven that acknowledging and recognizing the role of women in food production whilst providing them with safeguards of favourable policies and programs would not only uplift women’s livelihoods, but also fortifies the country’s overall economy and food security status. Especially at a juncture where Sri Lanka is shifting to a more environmentally friendly sustainable agricultural system, women have the capacity to be active agents of change in this process. Female Food Heroes is a campaign launched by Oxfam with number of other civil society organizations like MONLAR, NAFSO and Savistri to recognize and support women’s role in the food system (https://www.facebook.com/femalefoodheroesSL) . Campaign has held a series of island wide community consultations and discussions with female food producers of different sectors. As a result, we have formulated a list of recommendations to provide a more stable and favourable context for women farmers at policy and program levels. We are organizing a public forum to present the aforementioned recommendations to the Ministers of Agriculture, Women’s Affairs and Fisheries on 28th April 2016 from 09.30 am to 01.00 pm at The Western Province Aesthetic Resort on Stanley Wijesundara Mawatha, Colombo 7. We would greatly value your participation for this event. Attached herewith are the recommendations that will be handed over tomorrow.

Workshop held at Tamarind tree hotel 06-07 April 2016

PA steering Committee meeting held in Negombo

Praja Abhilasha Network's steering committee meeting was held on 01st April 2016 at the NAFSO premises in Negombo. 11 members were present for the meeting.