Statement to Enhance the Role of Women in Agriculture and Rural Development
[Brussels,
01 July 2011] The European Women’s Lobby supports the statement of the Civil
Society Organisations on Women in Agriculture to the UN Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) and urges FAO member governments to support women in
agriculture and rural development.
Statement
On Behalf of Women Organizing for
Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN), Action Aid International,
Oxfam International, the Huairou Commission, Pesticide Action Network Asia and
the Pacific (PANAP) and la Plateforme Paysanne du Niger (PFPN).
In the midst of this food crisis,
characterized by market volatility and an increase of the world’s hungry by 44
million since June 2010, women and children living in rural areas are
struggling disproportionately despite the huge contribution they make to
agriculture. The FAO State of Food and Agriculture Report 2010-2011 writes that
investing in women in agriculture could increase yields and decrease global
hunger by 12-17 per cent, or by between 100 and 150 million people. At the
recent IV LDC Conference in Istanbul,
UN Women’s Executive Director Michelle Bachelet addressed governments, saying
that “investments in rural women’s access to productive resources and financial
services can have critical multiplier effects on rural development.” She asked
the obvious question: why isn’t this kind of investment happening?
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) member governments and newly appointed Director General must respond to
this question by acting now to provide leadership through a commitment to
support women in agriculture and rural development. In particular, we urge the
new Director General and Member States to pledge to take these actions:
- Support
gender mainstreaming in FAO’s Program of Work, allocating the necessary
resources from FAO’s regular budget for this to happen, and also setting
clear targets as well as processes to monitor its effectiveness.
- Invest
in more research and gender disaggregated data as the basis for better
programs targeted to rural women in all regions.
- Hire
more women experts in all areas of work to create a more gender-equitable
institution.
- Require
all FAO staff to incorporate a strong women’s rights and empowerment
perspective to design and implement programs at the institutional and
country level.
- Regularly
engage with women civil society leaders, including organized groups of
women producers and market women, to strengthen the direction and
implementation of its work as implied in FAO’s Medium Term Plan 2010-13
(Reviewed)-Effective Collaboration with Member States and Stakeholders
(Doc. C 2011/3).
- Ensure
that women’s leadership and expertise feed into thematic areas of work
such as guidelines and initiatives related to land, investment, and food
security that support a stronger CFS.
- Promote
the adoption and implementation, among member countries, of policies that
protect women’s rights to land and other productive resources, access to
markets, finance, information and technologies, their capacity to organize
themselves and participate in policy process, as well as protect rural
women worker’s wages and labour conditions.
In addition to procedural and
budgetary matters, the new Director General upon taking office should position
the FAO as a leader on rural women, food security and agriculture by
prioritizing these concrete actions at all high-level events, including the
next UN Commission on the Status of Women that will take place in March, 2012
focusing on ‘The empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and
hunger eradication, development and current challenges.’
If we do not invest in rural
women’s livelihoods, assets and decision making power, the Millennium
Development Goals of reduced poverty and food insecurity will not be achieved.
On the flip side, if we shift course to and take positive steps in this
direction, we will see benefits today and in the future. Let us take urgent
action.
LIST OF
ENDORSEES
International
- Women
Organizing for Change in Agriculture and NRM (WOCAN)
- Action
Aid International (AAI)
- Oxfam
International (OI)
- The
Huairou Commission
- International
Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM)
- World
Farmers Organization (WFO)
- Ecumenical
association for sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development (ECASARD)
- World
Rural Forum (WRF)
- International
Movement Against Discrimination and Racism (IMADR)
- International
Food Security Network (IFSN)
Regional
- Organisation
Régionale des Organisation Paysannes d’Afrique Centrale (PROPAC)
- Windward
Islands Farmers Association (WINFA)
- Women’s
Committee of COPA
- European
Women’s Lobby
- Asian
Farmers’ Association (AFA)
- Asian
Rural Women’s Coalition (ARWC)
- Pesticide
Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PANAP)
- Asia
Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)
- Committee
for Asian Women
National
- Women
on Farms Project (WFP), South Africa
- REACH
OUT, Cameroun
- Collectif
des ONG pour la Sécurité Alimentaire et le Développement Rural (COSADER),
- Cameroun
- Support
for Women in Agriculture and the Environment (SWAGEN), Uganda
- Women
Farmers Trust, Zimbabwe
- Confédération
des producteurs agricoles pour le développement (CAPAD), Burundi
- La
Plateforme Paysanne du Niger (PFPN)
- Confédération
Paysanne du Congo (COPACO-PRP), Democratic Republic of Congo
- Pan
African Climate Education (PACE) Centre, Ghana
- Women
Environment Climate Action Network (WECAN), Ghana
- Foundation
for Sustainable Development (FSD), Thailand
- Khushi
Kabir, Bangladesh
- Nijera
Kori, Bangladesh
- Self
Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), India
- Tamil
Nadu Women’s Forum, India
- GREEN
Foundation, India
- Rural
Agency for Social and Technological Advancement (RASTA), India
- Society
for Rural Education and Development, India
- Penn
Thozhilalargal Sangam, India
- Beej
Bachao Aandolan, India
- Community
Awareness Centre, India
- ARPAN,
India
- Tenaganita,
Malaysia
- AMIHAN,
National Federation of Peasant Women, Philippines
- Guimaras
Indigenous People’s Network, Philippines
- SIBAT
(Sibol ng Agham at Teknolohiya), Philippines
- Dagsaw
Panay, Philippines
- GABRIELA,
Philippines
- National
Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO), Sri
Lanka
- Mothers
and Daughters of Sri Lanka
- Vikalpani
National Women’s Federation, Sri Lanka
- Human
Development Organization, Sri Lanka
- Federación
Agraria Argentina, Argentina
- El
Centro de la Mujer Peruana Flora Tristán, Peru
- Programa
de Apoyo a la Mujer, A.C, Mexico
- Fédération
nationale des syndicats d’exploitants agricoles (FNSEA), France
- Food
and Climate Consulting, Italy
- Women’s
Earth Alliance, USA