|
Ray Witlin
Where women are the majority of smallholder farmers, failure
to release their full potential in agriculture is a contributing factor
to low growth and food insecurity.
Agriculture for Development. The 2008 World Development
Report
It is now widely acknowledged that one of the most critical
factors in revitalizing rural development is to raise the productivity of
women farmers.
Reaching the Rural Poor: A Renewed Strategy for Rural
Development
|
Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook
"A timely and extremely important document as the
criticality of increased agricultural investment is never more so clear
as today with the potential crisis facing the world's poor with soaring
food
prices."
Nata Duvvury, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
|
|
World Bank Resources
Gender in
Agricultural and Rural Operations
Gender and
Development at the World Bank
Projects
Publications
- Regional
Gender Sites
- Sub-Saharan
Africa
- East Asia and
the Pacific
- Europe and
Central Asia
- Latin America
and the Caribbean
- Middle East
and North Africa
- South Asia
Women play a vital role as agricultural producers and as
agents of food and nutritional security. Yet relative to men, they have
less access to productive assets such as land and services such as
finance and extension. A variety of constraints impinge upon their
ability to participate in collective action as members of agricultural
cooperative or water user associations. In both centralized and
decentralized governance systems, women tend to lack political voice.
Gender inequalities result in less food being grown, less
income being earned, and higher levels of poverty and food insecurity.
Agriculture in low-income developing countries is a sector with
exceptionally high impact in terms of its potential to reduce poverty.
Yet for agricultural growth to fulfill this potential,
gender disparities must be addressed and effectively reduced. Investing
in agriculture should mean investing in the people who farm, and these
are largely women. However women farmers receive only a tiny
proportion of official development assistance (ODA). Of the roughly 10
percent of total ODA that is directed at agricultural development, an
estimated 8 percent goes to projects and programs with explicit gender
components based on a review by the OECD.
|
Partners
- IFAD Rural Poverty Portal: Gender
- FAO SD
Dimensions: Gender and Development
- CGIAR
Participatory Research and Gender Analysis
- CGIAR Gender Research Network
- UNDP Women's Empowerment
- UNIFEM Women,
Poverty and Economics
- ILO Rural
Development, Training and Gender
- ILO SEAPAT
Online Gender Learning and Information Module
- International
Women's Tribune Center
- Inter-American Development Bank:
Gender Equality and Development
- Technical Center for Agricultural
and Rural Cooperation (CTA)
- USAID Women
in Development
- Wiring up a Knowledge Revolution in
Rural India
Rural poverty is deeply rooted in the imbalance between what
women do and what they have.
The International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD)
The full and equal participation of women and men in, and
their full enjoyment of the benefits from agricultural and rural
development are essential for eradicating food insecurity and rural
poverty and enhancing agricultural and rural development.
The FAO Gender Action
Plan 2002-2007
Without a significant investment in improving the
livelihoods, assets and decision-making of rural women, the Millennium
Goals to reduce poverty and food insecurity are unlikely to be achieved.
The Network
of Women Agriculture Ministers and Leaders
|
