Abstract
Human development and empowerment are vital for sustainable development in communities. The empowerment of women is one of the important aspects towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG5). Women are good leaders if they get the necessary support and are treated as equal partners and beneficiaries of development. Good leaders have the commitment to serve others with integrity and humility and are characterised by their ability to influence others to bring about the necessary change in an organisation or community. Therefore, a value-based leadership has the potential to facilitate change and encourage teamwork to the benefit of the whole rather than the individual. The concept of Ubuntu was used to outline the different roles played by the rural women and their leadership attributes that can be aligned to the four core values of Ubuntu. These core values are: (1) Survival; (2) Solidarity; (3) Compassion; and (4) Respect and dignity. This chapter explores a case study of rural women in Sekhukhune District, Limpopo Province of South Africa, who participated in different community projects with the aim of generating income and ensuring household food security. The community projects included food production (such as crop and vegetable production), baking, sewing, dairy, brick making and chicken rearing. The women used other ways of ensuring household food security, such as food gathering, processing, and preservation, which they acquired through the process of socialisation from the elderly women in their families and community. The chapter ends with recommendations on how to continuously empower rural women as leaders in a changing world.
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Molotja, M.C., Masekoameng, M.R., Ntuli, C.H.S. (2023). Ubuntu: A Strategy for Empowering Rural Women and Transforming Lives Through Food Security Projects. In: Mayer, CH., et al. Women's Empowerment for a Sustainable Future. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25924-1_11
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