This weeks SoroptiVoice Blog comes from International Programme Director Hilary Ratcliffe. Hilary spent a week at the FAO in Rome, celebrating both World Food Day and International Day of Rural Women. Hilary attended a series of meetings at the FAO and gave a talk on the importance of women in key decision making on sustainable development within a large roundtable meeting including many Government officials and public sector representatives.
International Day of Rural Women, October 15th
“Accelerating progress towards the economic empowerment of rural women”
We were welcomed to this session by a video link from Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director UN women. She reminded us that women work to “Fill empty plates and empty bellies “. She described how we can change equal rights and opportunities so that rural women can lift themselves out of poverty . Key issues being land rights, leadership and ownership.
These opening words were followed by a key note speech from HE Zenebu Tadesse from the Ministry of Women in Ethiopia. He said that 80% of food production in Africa is managed by women and that rural women are the most vulnerable to food insecurity. He stated that change needs real commitment from governments. This view was echoed by the next two speakers from Pakistan and Indonesia. Both made the point that rural women suffer most from poverty. Climate change is affecting them particularly because they are the ones collecting the water and growing the crops.
All speakers stressed the centrality of women to food production and sustainabilty. The session was concluded by Kanayo Nwanze, President of IFAD, (International Fund for Agricultural Development) who said we must listen to the voiceless and give money, self-esteem and decision making power to rural women.
World Food Day, October 16th
Agricultural Cooperatives: Key to feeding the world
ZERO HUNGER CHALLENGE
Ban Ki- Moon opened this special day by reiterating the Zero Hunger Challenge. Every man woman and child, he stated, should enjoy the right to adequate food. He expressed that women should be empowered and priority be given to family farming food systems. Worldwide, systems need to be in place that are both sustainable and resilient.
"There is enough food in this world to feed every single person, if only one person doesn’t have enough food in a world where there is plenty then that is NOT acceptable".
Round table on climate change and food security
Two keynote speakers from the non for profit sector talked about the fact that the world population is predicted to grow to 9 million by 2050.The problem of adequate food production will be worsened by climate change; for example potatoes are vulnerable to night time heat and rice to daytime heat. Wild fruits and foods could be affected, and scarce water supplies would mean that women will have further to go to fetch water.
Five recommendations made:
1. Build resilience
2. Develop lower emissions strategy
3. Encourage participation of civil society
4. Refocus research
5. Manage water
Elizabeth from Cameroon stressed the importance of the rural economy which essentially means women.She said the women are best placed to preserve the ecosystems and the environment. So we should build capacity in rural women,develop leadership skills and work with cooperatives.
Seems to me that this is exactly what we are advocating!
Interventions from the floor
40 were allowed including one from Soroptimist International
We said: “In the opening plenary this morning Michelle Bachelet urged us all to “Fill the plates and empty bellies”.Nr Nelson in the food protection and climate study presented in this session shared with us an emphasis on the participation of stakeholders and civil society
Elizabeth from the Cameroon pointed out that 60%of their population are rural women they suffer severe problems including violence, prejudice, land tenure issues, an inability to obtain microcredit and a need to feed their families.
Our answer must be to build capacity through women`s organisations on the ground and Soroptimist International, as a key women`s organisation in 127 countries worldwide, would urge the CFS to encourage education for women on nutrition, crop production, marketing, and credit. Women also need to be part of the decision making in their local community.
Examples of projects we engage in are milk fish marketing in the Philippines; Fair trade production in the Caribbean; Tree planting paired with grants for solar lanterns in Kenya. These projects empower the women and through this they are enabled to achieve food security and to cope more effectively with the climate change challenges of our world.
Change has to come by working with grass roots based groups and the key element in this is to empower women who in the end will be key agents of change.
If we want to have a realistic solution to both food security and climate change we must work together-CFS and FAO and grass roots society. We must take bold action and say NO to hunger.
Our key challenge must be to enable women as the primary producers to “Fill those empty plates and empty bellies”
Read more about women and food security in February’s Monthly Focus
