WUNRN
Improvement
of the Situation of Women in Rural Areas: 2009 Report of the UN
Secretary-General (A/64/190) - Full
19-Page Report Is Attached.
_______________________________________________________________
Rural Women Key to
Economic Growth - UN +
Women's Empowerment
& Employment Conference - Copenhagen
23 March 2010 – Women farmers
are often the chief executives of their rural areas and supporting their
economic development is crucial for economic growth and poverty reduction, a
senior United Nations official said today ahead of an international conference
on women’s empowerment.
“Women farmers grow, buy, sell, cook food and feed their children. They perform the majority of the agricultural work and, on a global scale, women cultivate more than half of all the food that is grown,” said Yukiko Omura, Vice-President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
“Despite
their contribution to global food security, women farmers are frequently
underestimated and overlooked in development strategies,” Ms. Omura added.
The
statement comes two days ahead of the “Women’s Empowerment and Employment”
Conference in
The
conference has been organized by the Danish Government to find ways to
accelerate and enhance employment for women to achieve the third Millennium
Development Goal (MDG), which is related to women’s empowerment and
international development.
The
eight MDGs were adopted by world leaders in 2000 as a blueprint for development
by 2015.
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon will host a conference on the MDGs this September in
In
a message to an IFAD conference last month, the Secretary-General noted that
with more than 1 billion people hungry, smallholders and rural producers have a
vital role to play in overcoming global hunger and poverty, and new and varied
partnerships are needed, with particular emphasis on the interests of women.
IFAD
has said it prioritizes women’s economic empowerment by providing support in
enterprise development, income-generation activities and access to
microfinance, education and training. “Women have strong motivation for
learning and are open to engage in new activities, such as marketing and
exporting products, which can create a better livelihood for themselves and for
their families,” Ms. Omura said.
“These
traits need to be developed and supported in order to help them feed their
families and communities,” she added.
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