We're Worth it

“ We're Worth It” is the title of an inspirational Women in Rural Development Seminar organized by the Northern Irish Rural Network which took place on the 7th of June 2012.

The audience witnessed a keynote address delivered by Minister O'Neill MLA along with a series of speeches from female entrepreneurs who have taken up the challenge of establishing a rural business.  A range of exhibitors, combining rural entrepreneurs and support organizations, also participated in the event.

One of the key tasks of the Rural Network NI (RNNI) is to establish and support Thematic Working on key topics within the NI Rural Development Programme.

Thematic working provides an effective method for sharing practice, and exposing members to new ideas and approaches.  It offers a forum for collaborative working and problemsolving of issues identified across the RDP.  Thematic working can form the basis of specific activities/events around a particular theme or develop into time bound working groups with detailed Terms of Reference. Thematic Working Groups are an established model of working, adopted at a European level by the European Network for Rural Development and by individual Networks across Europe.  These groups can target issues which span the whole Programme whilst others can focus on specific thematic activities.

The Women in Rural Development Thematic Working Group was established to address the issue of female involvement in the NIRDP by examining the current role and participation of women. The group brings together representatives from Local Action Groups, Young Farmers Clubs of Ulster (YFCU), Northern Ireland Rural Women’s Network, Countryside Agri Rural Partnership (Countryside Services Ltd) and Local Rural Support Networks.

The aims of the group are to  examine the current levels of female participation in the NIRDP; identify good practice projects which have been implemented by women under the current rural development programme; identify approaches and good practices in rural women’s issues in other areas capable of delivering benefits to women in Northern Ireland; hold a series of seminars / workshops focusing on women in rural development specifically Rural Entrepreneurship; Women in Agriculture (Family Farms); Women on Local Action Groups; to record and report outcomes with the possibility of producing a good practice publication for dissemination to both the local and wider networks and to establish linkages with other rural women’s networks at a local, national and UK level.

All the documentation of this event can be found in the following link:

http://www.ruralnetworkni.org.uk/NEWS/Proceedings-from-Yes-We-re-Worth-It-