WUNRN
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 13, 2012 (IPS) - When the United
Nations concluded a two-week session highlighting the plight of rural women
last week, the meetings singled out both the achievements and shortcomings of
the ongoing relentless battle for gender equality in a world still dominated -
and overwhelmingly ruled - by men.
The 45-member Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the
global policy-making body fighting for women's rights, focused its priorities
on the empowerment of rural women, including ownership rights, gender
disparities in land holdings and the unequal access to productive resources in
agriculture.
According to U.N. estimates, the international community
contributed 7.5 billion dollars in official development assistance (ODA) to
rural development during 2008-2009, but only a paltry three percent of that
amount was earmarked for programmes where gender equality was the primary
object.
Judging by the inherent shortcomings, the corresponding
figures for 2010 and 2011 are not expected to be any better.
As Ann Tutwiler, deputy director-general of the Rome-based Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO), points out, the gap in agricultural
production and productivity exists not because rural women were incapable of
farming, but because of social constraints.
"Female famers produced less than their male
counterparts because they lacked access to seeds and credits," she said.
Simple investments in water pumps alone could save women
billions of hours a year, she added.
In short, she argued, 100 to 150 million people are still
hungry and a significant share of agricultural production is missing primarily
because rural women's economic potential is being squandered.
Tutwiler said African women spend a staggering 40 billion
hours a year just collecting water.
But apparently all is not lost.
Cheryl Morden, director of
However, while microcredit had lead to women's empowerment,
it has its limitations.
"To enable rural women to get a stronger foothold on
the pathway out of poverty, they need a broad range of financial services,
along with other kinds of support," she added.
Asked what the United Nations has achieved so far in terms
of gender empowerment over the last two decades, Anwarul K. Chowdhury, a former
U.N. under-secretary-general and currently a senior special advisor to the
president of the General Assembly, pointed to U.N. Security Council resolution 1325 adopted in October 2000.
"It has been the most significant decision of the U.N.
in terms of asserting that peace is inextricably linked to equality between
women and men, and also calling for equal participation of women at all
decision-making levels along with equal access to policy processes,"
Chowdhury told IPS.
"The political and conceptual breakthrough for 1325
was achieved eight months before in March of that year for the first time in
the Security Council when as its president, I could lead the Council's 15
members to reach consensus on the statement that outlined the elements of
1325."
The main thrust of that statement was participation of
women on equal footing. "However, we have to be more determined to achieve
that objective both nationally and internationally," he added.
A strong advocate of women's rights, Chowdhury said the
"agreed conclusions" of the just-concluded CSW's 56th session could
have brought out more forcefully the debilitating negative impact of war,
conflict and violence on rural women.
"It failed to recognise that rural women still face
enduring challenges to their human security which continues to exacerbate where
there is proliferation of weapons, particularly small arms and light
weapons," he said.
Rural women's natural ability to mobilise the community in
times of conflict and disaster was not recognised and supported. Experience has
shown that 1325 is very relevant in this context for rural women, Chowdhury
noted.
He said a strong focus should have been on the improvement
of the human security of women in conflict zones.
As the statement by the Association for Women's Rights in
Development (AWID) released last month has underscored, building on
the potential of rural women to improve their human security through active
involvement within policy processes and political decision-making is a
precondition for achieving lasting peace and security.
It also called for implementation of gender-sensitive
security measures developed together with rural women.
Asked what needs to be done to advance the cause of gender
empowerment over the next decade, Chowdhury told IPS, "I strongly believe
that the adoption of 1325 National Action Plan (NAP) by each of the U.N.'s 193
member-states is potentially the single-most significant step that could be
taken for women's empowerment and participation in general and in the area of
peace and security in particular."
As of now, he pointed out, only 35 countries have their
respective NAP's ready.
"But there should be concerted time-bound efforts made
in that direction, particularly by U.N. Women which has accepted 1325
implementation as one of its priority mandates," he said.
Meanwhile, the most comprehensive and potent opportunity to
advance the equality, empowerment and participation of women would come from
the Fifth Global Conference on Women in 2015 as proposed by the president of
the U.N. General Assembly and the secretary-general in a joint announcement
made last week on International Women's Day.
"This is a remarkable initiative, first-ever jointly
presented by the two leaders of the U.N. system, and it would be 20 years since
the last summit in
The 2015 conference would not only review the
implementation of the
Resolution 1325, which was adopted five years after
The intergenerational transition with greater role and
involvement of young people would also be a key element of deliberations there.
A significant new dimension of the 2015 gathering would be
to take advantage of new technology to connect with and listen to women in
various parts of the world who would not be physically present in the
conference.
Meanwhile, the CSW approved several draft resolutions
Friday, including on women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS; an end to the harmful
practice of female genital mutilation; release of women and children taken
hostage in war zones; indigenous women as key actors in poverty and hunger
eradication; the elimination of maternal mortality and morbidity through
empowerment of women; and gender equality and the empowerment of women in
natural disasters.
But the only draft resolution put to a vote was on the
situation of, and assistance to, Palestinian women, which was adopted by a
recorded vote of 29 in favour to two against (Israel, United States), with 10
abstentions (Belgium, Colombia, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands,
Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden).