Image: Woman carrying coffee in Timor Leste – UN Photo/Martine Perret

15th October was International Day of Rural Women; a few days before, Geneva

UN Representative Sina
Stiffler attended a UN event examining the major problems faced by many rural women, where she presented an oral statement on behalf of Soroptimist International. In this week’s blog, Sina reports from that meeting and highlights the need for Soroptimist action to educate, empower and enable opportunities for women in rural areas.

The situation of rural women has been at the forefront of the UN agenda for many
years. It is also linked to the effective and full implementation of the
Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). Rural women play a key role in supporting
their communities in achieving food and nutrition security. Yet they face
persistent structural constraints that hamper their efforts to improve their
lives as well as of those around them.  In its  56th session in October 2013, CEDAW (Committee
on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women)  put the situation of rural women on the agenda  in view of the problems that were presented at this
conference.

Did
you know that

• 70% of workers earning less than 1 US dollar a day are women (CEDAW 2011) – if they
  get paid at all. In most cases rural women don’t earn anything
  at all when they produce food for their families.
• Two-thirds of the roughly one billion illiterate people in the world are women
  and girls (CEDAW 2011).
• Women are consistently less likely to own or operate land; they are less
  likely to have access to rented land, and the land they do have access to is often
  of poorer quality and in smaller plots (FAO 2011)
• In some countries only 10 per cent credit allowances are extended to
  women, especially rural women, mainly because they are excluded form land
  entitlement schemes.
• Rural women often bear the major burden in armed conflict and
  post-conflict situations.
•  At least one billion people in the world have to  use open toilets – which means that these  women are more vulnerable to sex violence.

I was proud to present an oral statement from Soroptimist International at the conference in Geneva; it is actually the essence
of what  hundreds of SI clubs around the
globe experience when they do projects with rural women:

“Investing
in small scale farming, particularly through women is a vital step towards
meeting the challenges of food production in the future…Rural women still find
it more difficult to get access to a range of resources such as credit, land,
agricultural inputs, with obvious consequences for their food security. Land
ownership is a particular issue for women”.

SI mentioned some practical
examples. Soroptimists
in India worked to enable opportunities for women vegetable vendors
through knowledge sharing and microfinance, lending to increase their volume of
business on a sustainable basis. The Soroptimists helped them with their financial
management so that they don`t depend on borrowed income and are able to support
themselves and their families.

Another example is the second club in Mongolia,
Darkhan,  founded 10 years ago when I was working there. Gardening
doesn’t have a tradition in Mongolia, but the Soroptimists taught local women
how to grow vegetables. Already in the first year the women were able to sell
vegetables on the market, the only “price” they had to pay were seeds for the
next gardening course.

A
lot was said at the meeting about what has to be done. “We need data,” said Naela Gabr,
a member of CEDAW. “Laws have to be adapted” and “real political work cannot
neglect  invisible rural women.”

Yes, yes, yes – but when will rural women
profit of all this?  I think  Soroptimists’ practical approach of clubs  working together locally with rural women has
proved to be  much more helpful for the
time being.

Read more examples of Soroptimist projects with rural women in our news articles for International Day of Rural Women and World Food Day.