The Rural Women’s Assembly was named a 2026 Right Livelihood laureate on September 30, bringing new attention to a network of small-scale farmers who organize across Southern Africa to protect local seeds and strengthen women’s place in food-growing communities. The announcement recognizes years of collective work, not a single event or one person’s achievement.
Right Livelihood describes the Rural Women’s Assembly, or RWA, as a self-organized movement of more than 178,000 small-scale farmers in 11 Southern African countries. The Associated Press reported the same scale, attributing the figure to the Swedish foundation. Both reports attribute the figure to the foundation; the cited materials do not describe an independent audit.
The award announcement points to practical work behind that scale. RWA has established 24 sites where farmers reproduce and preserve seeds for future planting, and it has documented hundreds of local seed varieties, according to Right Livelihood and AP. RWA’s June declaration says members preserve, multiply and share seeds adapted to local soils, climates and communities.
RWA traces its beginnings to a 2009 gathering in Limpopo, South Africa, where 250 rural women from across the region convened. The assembly says the Land Access Movement of South Africa, Women on Farms Project and Trust for Community Outreach and Education were instrumental in organizing the meeting. RWA describes the gathering as the start of a larger regional network and shared platform for action. Its timeline records more than 2,000 members by 2010 and more than 90,000 by 2017, figures published by the organization itself.
RWA describes itself as a self-organized, transnational movement working across countries and communities. Its public materials describe members as farmers, seed custodians, food producers and organizers. In June 2026, a three-day dialogue brought together rural women leaders, small-scale farmers, fishers, researchers and public officials under the theme “We Have Answers: Building Resilient Food Systems,” according to RWA’s declaration.
Participants came from 11 Southern African countries, the declaration says. It calls rural women knowledge holders and leaders, and it describes farmer-managed seed systems as part of building resilient food systems. That framing makes the award’s recognition more specific: the story is about a network of farmers sharing practices and maintaining locally adapted seed varieties, as well as a group receiving international attention.
In its declaration, RWA members described traditional seeds as knowledge passed down through generations, adapted to local soils, climates and communities. They said seed saving, multiplying and sharing support food security and help communities respond to changing conditions. Those are the assembly’s own stated aims; the award announcement separately confirms the existence of its seed sites and documentation project.
RWA’s own materials place seed work alongside priorities that include food sovereignty, seed sovereignty, land rights and climate justice. In the June declaration, the assembly describes rural women as producers, seed custodians and knowledge holders. The award announcement offers practical examples: seed sites, locally adapted varieties and the work of preserving them.
The four 2026 laureates were selected after Right Livelihood considered 200 nominations from 72 countries, according to the foundation. It says the award includes long-term support to highlight and expand laureates’ work. For RWA, the recognition places new attention on a network whose members have spent years connecting farming communities and protecting seeds for future planting.
The award was announced September 30. A televised presentation for the 2026 laureates is scheduled for December 1 in Stockholm, according to Right Livelihood. The interval between those dates leaves the central story where it began: with farmers preserving seed varieties, sharing knowledge and building connections across borders.
For the Rural Women’s Assembly, the honor is attached to work done by many people over time. Its record—from the 2009 gathering to seed multiplication sites and shared documentation—shows how community work can grow through repeated, practical contributions. The award puts a spotlight on that network; the seeds and knowledge it works to keep in circulation remain rooted in the communities where members farm.
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