Empowering Rural Women, Promoting Food Security

Image: SI Antananarivo Doyen "Seeds for All" project, part of the SI Union of Madagascar initiative to improve food security and benefit households headed by women. A Soroptimist International of Europe Best Practice Award winner, supported by the German Soroptimist Union.

On
the International Day of Rural Women, Soroptimist International focuses on the
role of rural women as vital agents for economic change and the actions needed
to advance their rights and enable their full participation in meeting the 21st
century’s global priority of improving food security.

Marked
annually, this day is intentionally celebrated on the eve of the UN’s World
Food Day and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October
to highlight rural women’s contribution to food production and their struggle
against hunger and poverty.

Awareness

Women farmers produce the majority of
food in developing countries and half of the world’s food. They are the foundation of community-level food security, often
farming small subsistence plots to provide food for the home, responsible also
for livestock supervision and long hours of unpaid care work.

Women make up a
significant proportion of the agricultural workforce – on average comprising 43
per cent of agricultural labourers worldwide and representing up to 70 per cent
in some parts of the world (UN Food and Agriculture Organization).

Yet the daily reality for too many rural
women is that they cannot buy or inherit the land they work, and they are
denied equal access to basic farming resources, training and the financial
services that could help lift them and those around them out of poverty. Financial and technological investments are
overwhelmingly focused on commercial farming – still a male dominated
enterprise.

Rural women often live without the
guarantee of basic nutrition, health services or amenities such as clean water
and sanitation. Around 900 million people are currently estimated to be
chronically hungry, and according to the World Food Programme, 60 percent of
them are women and girls. Furthermore, they have been hard hit by
recent financial crises, rising food prices and export driven agriculture
policies.

Despite some progress women’s contribution and needs
continue to be largely neglected by policy makers. The UN’s Expert Group Meeting on Rural Women found:

“.. rural women’s rights
and priorities remain insufficiently addressed in legal frameworks, national
and local development policies and investment strategies at all levels.” (2011)

The way
forward:

Eliminating discrimination to enable economic
empowerment of rural women is the cornerstone of Soroptimist International’s advocacy to
achieve justice and food security for all – a goal shared by the UN.

If
rural women get equal access to productive resources it’s calculated that
agricultural yields will increase by up to 17 per cent, enough to feed between
100 to 150 million people ( FAO).

70
per cent of the developing world’s 1.4 billion poorest people live in rural
areas, so improving rural women’s economic participation is pivotal to
achieving the eradication of poverty and the fulfillment of the UN’s Millennium
Goals.

"Empowering
rural women is crucial for ending hunger and poverty. By denying women rights
and opportunities, we deny their children and societies a better future.
" UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Image: SI Pune Metro East (India) worked with local NGO Ek Titli
to make children, particularly girls, aware of organic farming by
running a programme at the village middle school. Due to bad
agricultural practices and drought conditions, many farmers are selling
their lands and moving away with their families. The project aims to change attitudes among future
generations about how to revive the land and farm sustainably.

Soroptimist Advocacy for Rural Women

Speaking at at the CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women) session on rural women this month, SI’s UN
Representative Sina Stiffler delivered an oral statement demanding that governments commit to
the education, empowerment and enabling of
rural women and girls so that they can participate in decision and policy
making at local national and international levels to achieve sustainable
development.

Soroptimist
International is urging governments, civil society, the private sector, and
other relevant partners to:

recognise the important role of women
as the primary producers and purchasers of food.
eradicate discrimination at family,
community, and societal levels which negatively impacts access to food for
women and girls.
secure women’s rights to own land
ensure rural women’s equal treatment in
land reform and access to agricultural extension services, technology, credit
schemes and marketing facilities.
safeguard the right of women and girls
to obtain all forms of education and training, including vocational skills
which teach women and girls to farm, fish, and produce food.
ensure women farmers get fair financial
compensation for their work.

A recent strategy to be launched by the
UN is called “ Accelerating Progress Toward the Economic Empowerment
of Rural Women”

This five year initiative reflects widely held agreement on the
necessity to improve food security by increasing incomes, enhancing women’s
involvement in rural institutions, and creating a more responsive policy environment
at national and international levels.