STOCKHOLM — Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA), a self-organised, transnational movement of over 178,000 small-scale farmers across eleven Southern African nations, is among this year’s Right Livelihood Laureates. Confronting corporate and patriarchal oppression head-on, the “rowdy” movement operates as “Guardians of Land, Life, Seed and Love.”
RWA will hold an online press conference today, September 30 at 11:00 CEST (09:00 GMT). Register now.
For 45 years, the Right Livelihood Award has honoured and supported courageous people leading the way to a just, peaceful and sustainable world for all. To date, 207 Laureates from 82 countries have received the Award, including Ukrainian human rights defender Oleksandra Matviichuk, Congolese gynaecologist and women’s rights advocate Dr Denis Mukwege and American public interest lawyer Bryan Stevenson.
Since its founding in 2009 by 250 rural women in Limpopo Province, South Africa, RWA has built one of the region’s largest autonomous platforms for women long excluded from land ownership. The movement currently organises across Angola, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Rejecting the traditional NGO model, the movement operates through a flat, volunteer-led structure, with roughly 95 per cent of expenditure directed straight to member activities.
“We cannot have strong and sufficient agency if we’re not organised from below,” Mercia Andrews, Regional Coordinator, said.
Two cornerstones of RWA’s work are its Agroecology and Feminist Schools, which educate on sustainable food systems while tackling the patriarchal structures within small-scale farming. That work extends to 24 seed multiplication sites, defending farmer-managed seed systems against corporate capture. It has also translated into concrete legal change: a 2016 Zambian law mandating equal land allocation to women, and Eswatini’s Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill, signed in 2018.
“If we can get control and access over land, the world will be a better place for women,” said Zakithi Sibandze, Eswatini Chapter Leader.
Commenting on the significance of receiving the Award, Andrews says:
“No single voice moves a mountain; it is the patient, collective weight of thousands of rural women organising together that has shifted what was once thought immovable. May this recognition help the struggles of rural women across our region to be seen as a living blueprint for the justice the whole world still owes the land and the people who tend it.”
Ole von Uexkull, Right Livelihood’s Executive Director, says:
“As corporations tighten their grip on the world’s seed systems, Rural Women’s Assembly shows what real resistance looks like: hundreds of thousands of rural women organising themselves — running seed multiplication sites to keep traditional varieties alive, dismantling patriarchal policies and traditions, and showing up for each other when the state does not.”
The other 2026 Right Livelihood Laureates are:
- Jalila Haider (Online press conference: 14:00 CEST/12:00 GMT)
- Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (Online press conference: 10:00 CEST/08:00 GMT)
- Timnit Gebru (Online press conference: 18:00 CEST/16:00 GMT)
Register for the press conferences here.
The 2026 Laureates will be honoured during a televised Award Presentation in Stockholm on December 1.
Nominations are now also open for next year’s Award!
Find more information about the 2026 Laureates.
Download photos and videos of the new Laureates
Media contacts
International media: Emoke Bebiak, emoke.bebiak@rightlivelihood.org, +41 78 333 84 84 and Sydney Söderqvist, sydney.soderqvist@rightlivelihood.org, +46 73 043 1301
German media: Julia Naumann and Nina Tesenfitz, presse@rightlivelihood.org, +49 170 5763 663
Spanish media: Nayla Azzinnari, nayla@rightlivelihood.org, +54 9 11 5460 9860
Scandinavian media: Vanessa Marko, vanessa.marko@arenaopinion.se, +46 76 321 6637
Photos, videos: Max-Michel Kolijn, maxmichel.kolijn@rightlivelihood.org
Short biography
The Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA) is a self-organised, transnational movement of over 178,000 small-scale farmers across eleven Southern African nations, united to defend land, seed and bodily autonomy against corporate agribusiness and patriarchal dispossession. Rejecting the traditional NGO model in favour of a flat, volunteer-led structure, it has built one of the region’s largest autonomous platforms for rural women, recognised as “Guardians of Land, Life, Seed and Love.”
Through feminist agroecology and food and seed sovereignty, RWA challenges corporate control over the region’s food systems while strengthening communities’ resilience to climate shocks. It has established 24 seed multiplication sites and documented hundreds of Indigenous seed varieties, defending traditional seed systems from commercialisation.
Through healing circles and cross-border mutual aid, RWA has turned women long excluded from land ownership into a united, persistent political voice — one that, in the words of its Regional Coordinator, Mercia Andrews, is more “rowdy” than “radical”. That voice helped secure a 2016 Zambian law mandating equal land allocation to women and Eswatini’s landmark 2018 Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill.
Biographical information
Headquarters: Cape Town, South Africa
Founded in: 2009
Website: https://www.ruralwomensassembly.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SARuralWomen/
About Right Livelihood
For over 45 years, Right Livelihood has honoured and supported courageous people solving global problems. Housed under the umbrella of a foundation, Right Livelihood is a courage-powered community for social change committed to peace, justice and sustainability for all.
Each year, Right Livelihood highlights change-makers through an Award. To date, 207 Laureates from 82 countries have received the distinction. By recognising the actions of brave visionaries and building impactful connections around the world, Right Livelihood boosts urgent and long-term social change.
The Award was founded in 1980 following the Nobel Foundation’s rejection of a proposal to create two new prizes to honour individuals committed to advancing social justice and environmental causes, especially highlighting change-makers from the Global South.
Today, the work of Right Livelihood goes beyond presenting the Award: the Foundation provides Laureates with long-term support. Right Livelihood is a megaphone and a shield: raising their profile, providing protection when their lives and liberty are in danger, and educating people on their innovative solutions.
Right Livelihood is headquartered in Stockholm, with an office in Geneva. The Foundation has Consultative Status with the UN.
