On the occasion of the International Day of Rural Women, it is imperative to recognize and value women’s leading role in agri-food systems. From farming to distribution and consumption, women are at the heart of the food supply chain, and their contribution is invaluable. However, despite their importance, they face daily challenges and inequalities that must be urgently addressed to end hunger and achieve sustainable development.
In its recent report on the situation of women in agri-food systems, FAO found that women’s work in these systems tends to be irregular, informal, and, in many cases, precarious. Despite being the backbone of these systems, women’s working conditions are unequal, and they face significant wage gaps compared to men. These inequalities are perpetuated by discrimination rooted in the sexual division of labor, cultural norms, and stereotypes that limit their opportunities.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the situation is worsening. The gender gap in food insecurity has widened considerably to 11.3 percentage points, disproportionately affecting women. In addition, women in our region face an excessive burden of unpaid
work, which further limits their opportunities for education and decent employment, with indigenous and Afro-descendant women most affected, experiencing not only gender disparities but also ethnic and racial gaps.
Despite the discouraging figures, the report emphasizes that by closing these gender gaps and empowering women, we can create a sure and effective path to reducing hunger, boosting economies, and strengthening resilience. There is an urgent need to ensure women have equitable access to land, water, training, technical assistance, services, markets, and technology.
In addition to implementing legal reforms and empowerment policies in countries, it is crucial to adopt innovative approaches that accurately capture rural women’s realities, needs, and aspirations in Latin America and the Caribbean. With this understanding,
acting more effectively on their behalf and seeking to transform the current landscape will be possible.
In this context, transformative gender approaches make it possible to go beyond traditional interventions and address the roots of gender inequalities. At the same time, adopting an intersectional perspective that includes dimensions such as age and ethnicity, among others, is essential to understand and address the multidimensionality of inequalities faced by rural women and to achieve a more significant impact on public policies aimed at eradicating hunger and poverty in the region.
Recently, FAO, UN-Women, and UNFPA launched a plan to reduce disparities in access to productive resources and strengthen coverage of social protection services, care, and gender-based violence prevention. This initiative is a coordinated and collaborative effort that will maximize the results and reach of interventions aimed at empowering rural women in the countries of the region. International Rural Women’s Day is the best time for us to recognize their invaluable contribution and to work with and for them to build a better life. It is clear that the transformation of agri-food systems, accompanied by the empowerment of rural women, is the key to a more prosperous future that leaves no one behind.
“No woman deserves to be working in agriculture in a place like Dominica
It’s all misery!” Garsan, you are a special case.
Why not just say empowering rural PEOPLE. why must it be relegated to women? i thought women got the equality they wanted. It seems like men and young boys have been forgotten.
The FAO, WTO, World bank etc and all those U.N orgs have failed the world miserably. They all work for and controlled by the big countries exclusively. They can only encourage you to do agriculture using hoe and pickaxe in order to fail to feed yourself, while they sell you cutlass and fork from their companies. Its all trick. Everything they do is geared to benefit those said countries creating poverty all over. They are the other side of the coin of missionaries. Our heads of state have to be more knowledgeable in ways of the world.
When will we see a headline that encourages young men to live a healthy, productive, rewarding family life? This gender bias has become nauseating.
Young men today are more at risk than any other demographic. They are the ones most likely to get gunned down, end up in jail, addicted to drugs, drop out of school, to be unemployed, walking the streets aimlessly. Where is the concern for them.?
@Ibo France – It’s becoming increasingly clear that these so-called Gender Equality agendas are nothing more than smokescreens to hide the real goal ie attempts to socially engineer the male figure out of society and into irrelevance. (Thankfully, this is doomed to fail).
Look they now have International Day of Rural Women. I myself want to know when the International Day of Rural Men will be held.
I wonder what International Day will these people conjure up next out of their imaginations for women? International Day for Princesses, Mermaids & Fairies?
In Dominica that’s the case for sure.
I don’t know who you are, and I don’t care who you are; but I would like you to move from your comfort zone, and take your behind to Dominica on what are called Farms and labor for one day, and see how much you like it.
It is one thing to put a crook on the back of Jack… farm and how long you would survive on a farm in Dominica or anywhere in the Windward islands.
We babble crap until we find ourselves exposed and experiencing the pain as the unfortunate.
No woman deserves to be working in agriculture in a place like Dominica
It’s all misery!