600 rural women from South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Malawi, Botswana, Kenya; Lesotho; Senegal, Sierra Leone, Burundi and Uganda gathered in Durban from the 30 November to 4th December 2011 at the Southern African Rural Women's Assembly.

The Rural Women's Assembly recognises that the present system of greed is not compatible to addressing climate change. This system is based on never ending economic growth, competition and overconsumption for its survival. Today we can see that this growth model has brought extreme wealth to a few who are the owners of capital, excessive material prosperity to some especially in the global North and extreme misery and impoverishment to millions of poor, especially rural women and those in the many rural villages throughout the world. This is a system that plunders our land, our water, our trees, our seeds, our rivers, our mountains, our entire ecosystem and saps the life blood of our people. It is a system that does not respect life! Bringing about real and meaningful change is urgent and we cannot rely on our governments to find a just transition – the past 16 COP's have shown that our governments continue to put profits before people, therefore demanding change is in our hands!

This Rural Women's Assembly resolves the following:

Knowing that climate change impacts rural women very specifically, and that we share common problems, we will:

• Stand together in solidarity and lead the struggle against these powerful polluting forces

• Continue to struggle for justice for rural women and hold our own governments accountable to representing our interests in negotiations such as this. We will specifically hold polluting countries accountable

• Put pressure on our governments to meet our 50/50 land ownership for women demand and adopt policies that will address climate change and support rural women farmers. Specifically, we demand 50 per cent of funding for agriculture and agricultural adaptation go to women farmers

• Work to create real alternatives on the ground and in our villages that help us achieve sovereignty over our land, natural resources and the food we produce. Specifically, we will:

o Keep, preserve and exchange our own seeds

o Adopt and grow herbs to improve our farming and ensure our own health and well-being and that of our families

o Fully take up an agro-ecological approach to agricultural production

o Pursue alternative energy sources

• Struggle against false climate solutions which lead to the destruction of our land and seas, and the grabbing of our resources by companies. We reject the participation of our governments in carbon markets, GMO projects and biofuels farming. Climate change can only be addressed by a change in our current economic system which encourages unsustainable resource extraction and consumption

• Work with others to ensure that our voices are heard inside the negotiations at COP 17 and beyond

Going home to our countries we commit to:

• Building our movement at all levels by bringing women together, strengthening leadership, building awareness amongst members etc. We will specifically:

o Build local forums

o Inform our sister farmers and train members on a range of issues, including on climate change

o Take up climate change issues in all of our work

o Organise farmer days

o Build wider public awareness

o Build a regional African platform that can monitor our governments and hold them accountable and responsive to our demands and issues.

• Ask for support from other trusted NGOs and organizations to assist in building awareness about, and taking action to address climate change

• Network and exchange with other organizations nationally, regionally and internationally

We will build the RWA by:

• Conducting ourselves and working together as a team in ways that reflect the type of world we want to live in; we specifically commit to struggle together with love and care, and continue to openly exchange our experiences and knowledge

• Supporting the national RWAs, and rotate the hosting of regional assemblies

• Strengthen the forum of rural women set up at the last assembly

• Ensure that conference coordination includes women from all participating countries