COVID-19 in traditional farming communities in Pakistan: Challenges and adaptations

Perspectives in International Development Seminar Series: Spring 2021

Most farming communities in Pakistan are comprised of small landholders with limited access to literacy, emergency assets, climate change information and linkages with disaster relief services. Agricultural output is often insufficient for family sustenance, so men leave villages for extra work and women carry on double burdens of household and agricultural work. When Covid-19 struck sharply, the government of Pakistan imposed a total lockdown from March to August, 2020 that resulted in unprecedented challenges for farming communities. This seminar will highlight how these challenges were handled with innovative adaptations and propose longer term strategies needed to address the on-going challenges of life with Covid-19.

About the presenter

Sameena Nazir is the founder and president of PODA, a women’s rights organization that works for the promotion and protection of human rights in rural Pakistan. As a Gender and Development Specialist, she  designs programs that empower rural communities to articulate issues and amplify voices through  advocacy for economic, social and civil rights. Under her leadership, PODA has developed a network of 3000 Pakistani women that works locally and has shared its knowledge and strength collectively at the annual Rural Women Leadership Conference in Islamabad since 2008. Sameena has also worked in Afghanistan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Ghana, Morocco, Nicaragua and Yemen. In 2005, she directed a comparative study on “Citizenship and Justice: Women’s Rights in the Middle East and North Africa”(available at Amazon). Her current work contributes to the realization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through projects on organic agriculture and sustainable livelihoods that can protect our climate, water and support biodiversity. Sameena Nazir has an MPS in International Agriculture and Rural Development from Cornell University, USA and degrees in English Language and Law from Punjab University, Pakistan.  

Follow Sameena on Twitter.

About the seminar series

The "Perspectives in International Development Seminar Series" is co-sponsored by the Department of Global Development, the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, and the School of Integrative Plant Science as part of courses IARD 6960, NTRES 6960, PLSCS 6960 and AEM 6960. For additional questions, contact course teaching assistant Khusel Avirmed at ta346 [at] cornell.edu (ta346[at]cornell[dot]edu).