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The Yara Prize Laureates 2006
The Yara Prize 2006 Laureates are Celina Cossa of Mozambique and Fidelis Wainanina of Kenya. The second Yara Prize was awarded Cossa for her endeavours to organize women, and Wainaina for her efforts to help children at risk due to hunger and poverty both within the realm of small-scale farming,
The Reason The Board of the Yara Foundation has decided to award the Yara prize for an African Green revolution for 2006 jointly to Ms. Celina Cossa and Ms. Fidelis Wainaina for their grassroots work with small-scale farmers and their contribution to building a sustainable selfsufficient food supply in some of the poorest communities in Mozambique and Kenya respectively. The Yara Foundation noted that women produce 80% of Africa’s food, yet receive less than 10% of the credit given to small-scale farmers, receive less than 7% of farm extension services and own only 1% of the land. African women food farmers are meeting the basic survival needs of an entire continent, but instead of being recognized for this extraordinary achievement they have the lowest socio-economic status in all of African society. For Africa to achieve a green revolution, this situation must change – African women food farmers must be empowered. As UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said “A Green Revolution in Africa will happen only if it is also a gender revolution.” Two winners share the Yara Prize for 2006: Celina Cossa, Founder and President of the General Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, Mozambique, and Fidelis Wainaina, Founder of the Maseno Interchristian Child Self Help Group, Kenya. In its decision, the Yara Foundation Board noted its´ desire to honor the sustained contribution of the two winners in the fight against hunger and poverty in their respective countries, in the case of Ms. Cossa driven by the need to rebuild Mozambique after a devastating civil war, and in the case of Ms. Wainaina as part of an effort to help children at risk due to hunger and poverty, and aggravated by HIV/AIDS. The Yara Foundation Board expressed hope that the award will underpin the significant progress that has been achieved by the two winners in their grassroots work and serve as a source of inspiration to African women in their efforts to end poverty and hunger and create development at village level throughout the continent. The Persons
Celina Cossa is a source of inspiration for everyone fighting for an African Green Revolution and an important role model for women in Africa. For more than a quarter of a century, Ms. Cossa, a former schoolteacher, has helped empower small-hold farmers in Mozambique and built a sustainable food supply for thousands of people. In 1980, she founded a network of six cooperatives that grew vegetables for sale in the Mozambican capital Maputo. The General Union of Agricultural Cooperatives now consists of 10,000 small-hold farmers organized in over 200 cooperatives. The activities have expanded and cover financial services, construction, industrial and agricultural production. Women have formed the backbone of Ms. Cossa’s efforts, and today these women play a key role on the national stage as accountants, bankers, teachers and politicians.Celina Cossa has been driven by the need to rebuild Mozambique after a devastating civil war.
Fidelis Wainaina originally founded the Maseno Interchristian Child Self Help Group (MICH) to support orphans and street children. In order to keep children away from the streets, she is working at village level to enable families led by widows or orphans to continue to farm their land and cater for themselves in a sustainable way. Agricultural innovations and new low cost technologies developed by agricultural research programs active in the area are transmitted through MICH that has developed into a network between communities where best practice and resources are shared. Approximately 80 demonstration sites have been set up in over 20 villages in the Kisumu-Maseno area near Lake Victoria in Western Kenya. Over the past decade, malnourishment has been eradicated within the communities served and income has increased significantly |
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The Yara Prize Laureates 2006
