WUNRN
United Nations Commission on the Status of Women 53
Panel – RURAL WOMEN – FAO-IAW-Ad Hoc Group of INGOs
Lois A. Herman Presentation – WILPF - WUNRN
This Panel is focusing on issues of RURAL WOMEN. Grassroots rural women are conspicuously absent at CSW, and in UN, economic, government, and business power circles, conferences, events. Significant factors in the disempowerment of rural women relate to male control, money, power, reflecting a significant need for women’s equality, more social protections including legislation, policies, and community support, as well as sharing of gender roles, even dignity and respect.
FACTS
ON RURAL WOMEN & GIRLS
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/idrw/index.html
http://www.woman.ch/women/2-introduction.php
* Rural women, mainly farmers, are at least 1.6 billion and represent more than a quarter of the total world population.
* Women produce on
average more than half of all the food that is grown: up to 8O per cent in
Africa, 6O per cent in Asia, between 3O and 4O per cent in
* Women own only 2 per cent of the land, and receive only one per cent of all agricultural credit.
* Only 5 per cent of all agricultural extension resources are directed to women.
* Women represent
two third of all illiterate people.
*In developing countries, 25% of rural children do not attend primary school compared to 16% of urban children, and gender inequalities exist. 69% of rural girls attend primary school comparted to 73% of rural boys. Girls are heavily relied on for work and care. There is often unequal access to education in rural areas, including a lack of a safe means of transportation, poor security in schools, lack of teachers, lack of separate sanitation facilities, and preference for boys’ school with conditions of rural poverty.
*
The number of rural women living in poverty has doubled since 197O.
THOUGH
LIFE AND CHALLENGES FOR RURAL WOMEN DIFFER IN THEIR OWN GEOGRAPHICAL AND
CULTURAL CONTEXTS, THERE ARE DISTINCT UNIVERSALITIES OF THE ISSUES OF RURAL
WOMEN
AND INTERSECTIONALITIES OF ISSUES OF RURAL WOMEN AND GIRLS IN ANY LOCATION – as
poverty impacting education, health, disempowerment general.
The
crisis rural women face are even more serious in times of:
*Wars
and Conflicts
*Refugee
and Internally Displaced Women Status
*Economic
Crisis
*Political
Instability
*Climate
Change
*Natural
Disasters as floods, draught, even crop failure
*Food
crisis, hunger, malnutrition
*Lack
of safe and nearby water for drinking, household use, farm animals, crop
production. Now, increasingly corporations are using water in developing
countries, for bioenergy and other production, for profit. Water is
increasingly scarce for rural women, who in many parts of the world spend
countless hours every day carrying water.
__________________________________________________________________
What
are some of the factors that are most dramatic in the struggles for rights of
rural women, especially in developing countries:
*Poverty
– extreme poverty. There are some 1.4 billlion extremely poor people in the
world, struggling to survive on less than US$1.25 a day. 75% live in rural
areas, especially in developing countries.
*Lack
of ownership of land, property, housing. Women are particularly discriminated
on rights to land and housing, from lack of laws, traditions and because women
often obtain access to land through men. If the male link is severed for any
reason, women may lose their land privileges. Women are especially vulnerable
to land grabbing, and in increasing forced evictions.
IFAD,
the International Fund for Agricultural Development, says:
“Land
is fundamental to the lives of poor rural people. It is a source of food,
shelter, income, and social identity. Secure access to land reduces
vulnerability and poverty. But,especially in developing countries, competition
for land has ever been greater.”
*Illiteracy,
lower levels of education, even as reflected in the Millennium Development
Goals reports.
*Lack
of inheritance rights, as for land, and very much for widows (of any age!)
*Informal
economy status – lack of awareness of rights – national, and international
rights – often a void of knowledge, an d assuredly of advocacy.
*Male
power and domination in families, households, communities, countries.
*Violence
against women, particular issues related to the isolation of rural women and
lack of access to support systems, often even phones.
*Rural
women have disadvantages in health services, care, and high rates of maternal
and infant mortality. Rural women are absolutely impacted by the AIDS crisis,
both as HIV/AIDS victims, and as AIDS caregivers.
*Child
marriages and child motherhood, forced marriages, honor killings, female
infanticide, female genital mutilation, all more prevalent in rural areas where
traditions may be stronger, progress slower, and even religious and/or tribal
law vs. civil law.
*Cultural
patterns that keep women inferior such as in times of food crisis, the men and
boys being fed though women may not have adequate food.
*Few
statistics on rural women. Data drives social policies.
*Rare
engagement with associations, advocacy groups, media, ICT, lobbying, higher
powers.
*Lack
of direct wages, pensions, social benefits, as rural women are considered in
many countries, to be in the Informal Economy.
*Burden
of household and family responsibilities as well as agricultural work,
caregiving for children, ill, elderly.
Article
14 of CEDAW begins with the following statement: States Parties shall take into
account the particular problems faced by rural women and the significant roles
which rural women play in the economic survival of their families, including
their work in the non-monetized sectors of the economy, and shall take all
appropriate measures to ensure the application of the provisions of the present
Convention to women in rural areas.
BUT,
what if the government of a country has signed CEDAW but chooses not to be
attentive to rural people general, especially women. What if the government is
dictatorial, militant, corrupt. The CEDAW Committee Reports are important, but
Shadow Reports can be enlightening to present the realities of rural women.
But, it takes skills to follow UN instrument responses as CEDAW Reports, even
collaboration, some budget, and time and energy, often which all are elusive to
rural women.
CEDAW
Article 14 calls for programs and resources to be directed to rural women, but
this is often not the case. Monitoring such attention and follow up of a
country to Article 14, and even donor and development conditionality for same,
could be significant. If there were pressures, incentives, for aid and
development projects to include components for rural women, potentially
progress for rights and livelihoods, and quality of life could improve.
It
would be interesting if donations as for the Food Crisis, from UN Agencies as
FAO, could specifically call for accountability for receipt, in making steps
forward for implementation of Article 14 of CEDAW, and allowing evaluation by
the UN donor.
The
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has generously provided funds for
agriculture, requires a GENDER IMPACT STRATEGY FOR ALL PROJECTS OF AGRICULTURAL
DEVELOPMENT. The Gates Foundation believes that agricultural development must
address gender to achieve significant impact in the reduction of hunger and
poverty. Gates also notes that participation of smallholder farmers is highly
important. Women comprise the vast majority of smallholder farmers and food
producers. The Gates Foundation emphasizes that
beneficiaries of development aid – women and men, girls and boys, are
essential to achieving impact and project success. Equity for women and men is
vital, including equal access to land, rights, loans, resources, income,
transportation, education, and more. A Gender Impact Statement is required for
all projects/programs/development initiatives.
It
would be interesting to incorporate such a Gender Impact Statement in other
development programs as well. SIDA of Sweden has had such gender dimensions in
projects for many years. But, the Gender Impact must be part of all phases of a
program, and objectively monitored, with indicators, for accountability.
Many
corporate driven programs for profit, do not include human rights, especially
gender components, and take over the land, water, and markets so vital to rural
people, especially women, and very much in developing countries. Transnational
companies are moving into southern countries on a huge scale and starting to
purchase millions of hectares of land for agro-fuel and food production for
international markets. Such corporate interests are very visible at UN
Conferences.
Bioenergy
and its globalized dimensions, have a significant impact on rural women, women
in agriculture, especially in developing countries. A significant share of
bioenergy is produced from agricultural crops traditionally used for food and
feed. The cultivation of non-food energy crops requires land and water, and in
direct competition for the resources to feed the world’s population. The
effects of agrofuel production, however profitable, on the enjoyment of the
human right to adequate food, should be considered before implementing policies
and programs that promote investment, trade, and use of bioenergy, agrofuels.
States
must enforce policies that foster adequate food supply at local and national
levels and must guarantee that food is economically accessible for all persons,
and assuredly those most vulnerable as rural women, and children.
The
World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank are
pushing for more trade liberalization, more support for large agribusiness, and
increased sales of fertilizers and genetically modified seeds. All these
factors endanger the livelihoods and security of small farmers, especially
rural women in agriculture.
Imports
from industrialized countries, with prize advantages, can destroy the markets
of small farmers in developing nations.
The
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Mr. Olivier De Schutter, entitled
his 2009 Report to the United Nations: “The Role of Development Cooperation and
Food Aid in Realizing the Right to Adequate Food: Moving from Charity to
Obligation.” Assuredly the issues of aid and development significantly affect
rural women in many countries. In his Report, the Special Rapporteur on the
Right to Food recommends that donors “Promote the right to food as a priority
for cooperation with partner countries where hunger or malnutrition are
significant problems, focusing on the most vulnerable groups of the society. We
can reasonable infer that rural women are a “vulnerable group.”
__________________________________________________________________
How
can rural women learn more about their rights, including CEDAW Article 14. In
remote areas, amidst extreme poverty, this is an enormous challenge, but
creative opportunities might include:
*Community
radio
*Midwife
information programs
*Girls
rights education in schools
*Microloan
programs
*Development
programs providing gender empowerment compon ents as women’s and girls’
literacy
*Women’s
agricultural cooperatives learning additionally about gender rights
*Incorporating
rural women’s participation, WITH rural men, for community
programs
creating more partnering, sharing of power and purpose, building rural
communities by valued joint male and female participation. Example: Roma
community program with the UN and an NGO in rural
*Programs
that highlight best practices of rural women as the Women’s World Summit
Foundation Annual Awards for Creativity in Rural Life
*Programs
for women’s empowerment in developing countries as Huairou Commission, and
GROOTS
*Rural
mobile libraries carrying information on legal rights, human rights
*
*Examples
of Habitat for Humanity, ActionAid, Project for the People of
*Faith-based
resources on rights of women, including possible advocacy and international
links
*International
Day of Rural Women - October 15 – Established by the UN General Assembly – an
opportunity to recognize, even honor rural women, and highlight the role of
rural women. The UN text recognizes “the critical role and contribution of
rural women, including indigenous women, in enhancing agricultural and rural
development, improving food security, and eradicating rural poverty.”
__________________________________________________________________
The
voice and advocacy by small farmers, very much including rural women, is often
missing, absent in power structures such as formation of trade policies. In
reality, in today’s world, profit is prioritized over human rights.
The
Dhaka Declaration on Food Sovereignty states:
“We
the members of social movements, peasant organizations, labor unions, fisher
folks, women’s groups, and civil society organizations and human rights groups
from different South Asian countries, have gathered to share experiences and
develop collective strategies to face the challenge of the ongoing food crisis
and imminent threats of global warming. Our nation states have failed to
mainstream the principles of food sovereignty in policies and programs to
ensure the right to food and livelihoods of people. Particularly,
non-implementation of genuine agrarian reform and reforms in other sectors have
affected dramatically the vulnerable groups as poor peasants, especially women,
fisher folk, and minorities. This discrimination is rooted in structural
inequity existing in our society for generations, and is further intensified in
this era of neo-liberalization.
Sustainable
agriculture practices have systematically discouraged, and traditional
knowledge and practices have been dismantled, in the name of modernization of
agriculture and increase in food production. Further, state policies should
ensure that poor peasants do not become victims of land alienation and
displacements due to unproductive usages of land, privatization, and
commercialized processes in agriculture.
Public
distribution systems and other efforts by governments to meet the present food
crisis challenges, must be inclusive, with a focus on the most vulnerable
communities and should be implemented in a transparent and accountable manner
at grassroots.”
It
is important to note at this Panel, that FOOD IS A HUMAN RIGHT, and that Food
Sovereignty best be enshrined in national constitutions, as in Nepal. This
fundamental constitutional right must then be enforced, and very much for rural
women.
It
is a goal that UN FAO, also other UN agencies related as the World Health
Organization, international financial institutions, donors, global aid
organizations and others, be particularly attentive to rights, needs, and
issues of rural women. NGO and Civil Society actions, such as the Women’s
Working Group of the Ad Hoc Group of International NGO’s at FAO, can have a
very positive impact in presence, advocacy, information dissemination, and
actions, to support rural women, and particularly poor rural women in
agriculture.
The
FAO Global Conference on the Food Crisis, Climate Change, Agrofuels, and Food
Sovereignty, was a major event, of extremely high significance. WILPF was
there. But, there was a dramatic difference between this high level conference
participation and setting vs. the Terra Preta Forum, held concurrently, with
grass roots agricultural organizations, peasant and family farmers,
pastoralists, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, agriculture workers and migrants,
and more. Those present for the much more humbly structured and less media
covered Terra Preta Forum, were mostly not UN NGO’s, except for some as
ActionAid and WILPF. Their platform and calls for action focused on civil
society social movements directed to the victims of the current food emergency,
food sovereignty. Their statement included the following: “Small scale food
producers are feeding the planet, and we demand respect and support to
continue. Only food sovereignty can offer long-term, sustainable, equitable,
and just solutions to the urgent food and climate crises.”
Where
are the rural women, the women in agriculture at powerful gatherings, where
food issues are addressed at high level, and where funding solutions develop
that may not reach the grass roots women so desparately in need of support
during the food, water, and climate change crises.
A
report of Eurodad (European Network on Debt & Development), ActionAid
International, and Bic (
We
convene now in the
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