{"id":20590,"date":"2021-03-24T09:32:21","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T09:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.highatlasfoundation.org\/?p=20590"},"modified":"2021-07-30T22:20:15","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T22:20:15","slug":"sustainable-agricultural-villages-as-a-panacea-to-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/sustainable-agricultural-villages-as-a-panacea-to-poverty\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainable Agricultural Villages as a Panacea to Poverty"},"content":{"rendered":"
Sustainable Agricultural Villages As a Panacea to Poverty<\/a>, By Olufunmilayo Aiyegbusi, <\/span>moroccoworldnews.<\/span><\/p>\n By Olufunmilayo Aiyegbusi <\/p>\n As a nursing mother some years ago, I would have given anything to have had a small business. Working in a highly structured law firm and handling several sensitive case files clashed significantly with that phase of my life. There were immunization appointments to keep and calls from daycare because the baby had developed a fever. There were also pressing meetings with clients and numerous pleadings to be drafted. A small business of my own would have afforded me the flexibility that is often difficult to get from a structured workplace.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When my son was diagnosed with pneumonia, I promptly resigned. It broke my boss\u2019 heart (as well as mine) so much so that he rejected my resignation letter and unilaterally converted it to a leave of absence in perpetuity. I was unimaginably broken while nursing my children and had to depend totally on my husband\u2019s income.<\/span><\/p>\n It is common to listen to conversations about how women are not sufficiently represented in the corporate world due to systemic discrimination and exclusion. While this holds some truth, I consider it a one-sided view. The fact is that there is a phase in a woman\u2019s life that is not well adapted to structured work. Every day of absence is costly for an employer of labour, and life in this system is not one where people are paid based on sentiment. This is the other side of the story that we need to tell.<\/span><\/p>\n The best business ideas are those that provide immediate solutions to the problems in a given community. According to a World Bank report, <\/span>Poverty in Morocco: Challenges and Opportunities<\/span><\/i><\/a>, Morocco has witnessed a significant decline in poverty. Despite this, it still faces high subjective poverty, especially in rural areas. The first indication of poverty is hunger, which derives from not having a reliable means of livelihood and mostly owing to a lack of different kinds of opportunities, such as in formal and informal education.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If I could have my own small business that employs one or two people who may have limited literacy, I would be solving two problems with one solution. First of all, I would have the flexibility to pace my work in such a way that it accommodates my domestic circumstances, and secondly, someone who otherwise did not have the necessary qualifications to be employed in the corporate labour market could have a satisfying means of livelihood.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Volunteer, High Atlas Foundation
\n<\/i>Nigeria<\/i><\/p>\n