GENDER & AGRICULTURE

Database about gender disparities in land access

A new FAO database helps to understand the factors that prevent women from accessing land. Unfortunatly gender disparities in land access remain significant around the world. Women’s constitutional rights are frequently jeopardized by conflicting laws or long-standing traditional practices. But as FAO and others say, increasing women’s access to land is crucial to fight hunger and poverty.
This Database contains Country level information on social, economic, political and cultural issues related to the gender inequalities embedded in those rights. It offers informations about national legal frame, international treaties and conventions, customary law, land tenure and related institutions, civil society organizations and about selected land related statistics.
You can find the database here.

EU Agriculture Council discussed gender equality in rural areas

The Agriculture Council on 17 May discussed ways to promote gender equality in rural areas on the basis of a Spanish presidency document. Women represent over 50 % by the rural population and play a key role in local communities. The Agriculture Council reasons that women are important for developing their surrounding area. Nevertheless their contribution is often unnoticed and poorly rewarded. But equal opportunities and the presence of women are the best ways to keep the agricultural production alive and to protect the countryside against rural depopulation. Therefore, agriculture ministers debated the incorporation of gender aspects into the Common Agricultural Policy and considered ways of improving the situation of women. The debate touched on issues such as diversifying rural economy - in which women are already actively involved (manufacturing of cheese on dairy farms, running a farm guest house, etc.) - enhancing female representation in decision-making, promoting self-employment and business start-up among women as well as improving the use of information and communication technologies.

2009 Global Hunger Index: gender equality is very important for combating hunger

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2009 documents the relation between gender inequality and hunger. GHI is an instrument to calculate the global situation of hunger and nutrition and was developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). According to this research, hunger is widely spread, where the status of men and women isn´t equal. To reach this result, GHI 2009 was compared with the Global Gender Gap Index 2008, which shows the gender inequality in economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment, and health.

FSN-forum is discussing the „Food Security of Women Farmers in the Context to Climate Change“

„Food Security of Women Farmers in the Context to Climate Change“ was discussed from 02.12.2009 to 11.01.2010 by members of FAO´s  Food Security and Nutrition Forum (FSN Forum). Kanchan Lama from the international network WOCAN, which is promoting women’s rights and leadership in agriculture and natural resources management at all levels, introduced the discussion with some questions. A lot of people participated in this online-discussion about the special role of women farmers in combating climate change, about the special concerns of women regarding the consequences of climate change and about ways to empower women farmers and to help them fighting global warming.
You can find an english summery here.

First international day of rural women

As agreed by the UN General Assembly in 2007, the first celebration of a new International Day of Rural Women took place on 15 October 2008. One year later, in October 2009, the second celebration took place. The day is to recognize “the critical role and contribution of rural women, including indigenous women, in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty.” This can be seen as an adaptation of the “World Rural Women’s Day” which has been celebrated by civil society since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. In his speech, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recognized women's crucial role for food security and called for better health care and education opportunities for the rural poor. The DAW has prepared a special feature for the day, including the publication of a new issue of Women 2000 and Beyond named "Rural women in a changing world: Opportunities and challenges".

Strategies and tools for gender and agriculture

A conference held at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in cooperation with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in July 2008 addressed pressing issues relating to agricultural development and gender under the current food crisis. Presentations held at the conference can be downloaded via the ODI website.

CSD-News

From 5-16 May the Commission on Sustainable Development held the CSD-16 Review Session at UN Headquarters in New York. CSD-16 focused on agriculture, rural development, land, drought, desertification, and Africa. The Major Group Women has submitted a discussion paper that builds on the outcomes of the Africa and the Asia regional implementation meetings held in Addis Ababa and Jakarta in 2007. It contains government commitments to CEDAW, selected case studies on the situation of women's land rights and insights from pilot project on water resources management and technology access for women in agrobusiness. The paper names major obstacles on the way to gender equality in regard to agriculture and rural development, like lack of access to land and productive resources, lack of partizipation in decision-making, and special vulnurability to the hazards of climate change. Priority issues for intervention and possible strategies are proposed. For more information please download the paper or visit the CSD-Women-Blog.

Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook

This resource collection for practioners takes the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) as basis for focusing various topics in relation to gender and agriculture, including food security, financing, markets and land politics, agricultural innovation and education, water and resource management, evalu ation and infrastructure as well as gender and forestry, livestock and fishery. The sourcebook is aiming to assist project designs that highlight interrelations and synergies between gender justice, food security and poverty reduction strategies.

Gender in international agricultural politics

In regard to the World Bank's 2008 World Development Report on „Agriculture for Development“, Rebecca Holmes and Rachel Slater review the gender analysis provided there in comparison to the 1982 report on “Agriculture and Economic Development”. Published by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the paper outlines the progress made and show existing gaps, recommending the implementation of gender analysis as a central tool in rural development policies. The World Bank itself is providing an online learning module on gender and agriculture, including techniques, tools and case studies.

Agriculture: The spotlight on women

This study on behalf of the European Commission contains detailed figures on women in agriculture and rural areas in the EU. Focusing on work load distribution and land ownership, it gives an overview on gender relations in the rural industry.