Focusing on Rural Women in a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Framework
"Globally and with only a few exceptions, rural women fare worse than rural men and urban women and men for every MDG indicator for which data are available.” (Interagency Task Force on Rural Women, Fact Sheet on Rural Women, 2012)
On Thursday 6 February, the Rome-based Agencies (Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), World Food Programme (WFP), hosted a side-event focusing on rural women in an SDG Framework at the Eighth session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals held in New York.
This online discussion is aimed at stimulating wider discussion on the topic of rural women. While the exchange is not designed to feed information directly into the event itself, the inclusive approach of the Open Working Group encourages debate on subjects related to each session.
Rural women everywhere play a key role in supporting their households and communities in achieving food and nutrition security, generating income, and improving rural livelihoods and overall well-being. They contribute to agriculture and rural enterprises and fuel local and global economies. As such, they are active players in achieving the MDGs.
Yet, every day, around the world, rural women and girls face persistent structural constraints that prevent them from fully enjoying their human rights and hamper their efforts to improve their lives as well as those of others around them.
Poor rural people face multiple forms of deprivations and discrimination. Rural women, in particular, face major barriers to access productive resources and face disadvantages and exclusion rooted in the power inequalities associated with gender roles, leaving them disproportionately represented among the rural poor.
This side event will support the Eighth Session of the OWG’s focus on “Promoting equality, including social equity, gender equality and women’s empowerment”. It will explore ways to ensure that a post-2015 development agenda improves the status of rural women through a rights based approach and the implementation of improved policies, strategies and targeted interventions, underpinned by strengthening governance and relevant institutions. It will discuss, inter alia, priorities for improving rural women’s livelihoods, access to justice and legal rights, economic empowerment, and access to decision making at all levels, and thus show how improved conditions of women in rural areas can help to achieve all development goals. Emphasis will be put on targets and indicators supported by gender disaggregated data to better monitor progress in rural women's lives.
The Panel will include senior representatives of the three organizing partners, an organization of rural women, and at least one representative of a national government.
Your thoughts and views addressing the subject of rural women would be a valuable addition to the online discussion ahead of the side-event at the Open Working Group. We are eager to receive your responses on the following questions:
1. If you had made an intervention at the side event on rural women at the 8th session of the Open Working Group in New York, what would have been its key message?
2. Rural women are often described as critical agents of change in discussions on sustainable development goals. To what extent would the achievement of food and nutrition security for rural women help accelerate sustainable development?
3. Of the many facts or stats recorded on rural women, which one do you consider to be the most revealing?
FAO's Post 2015 Development Agenda team
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La educación en las mujeres del área rural es uno de los factores claves, para ello se pueden usar diferentes tecnologías , como las TIC, La información que se puede brindar es muy variada , se puede educar en salud !!
atención primaria en salud dirigida a la comunidad y a las personas que se encargan del cuidado de las mujeres.
Saludos
Ana Carvajal
Caracas
Venezuela
Our organization would like to post the following comment in the online discussion:
In many homes, and especially in rural communities, women form a vital link to food security for their families. Often they are responsible for agricultural cultivation, harvesting as well as food preparation. All women, regardless of income, should be able to prepare food safely without exposure to toxic cooking smoke harmful to health. Exposure to partially combusted biofuels, as is common in most open cookstoves, can deprive women as well as those they live with of access to clean indoor air.
The Public Health Institute (PHI) generates and promotes research, leadership and partnerships to build capacity for strong public health policy, programs, systems and practices. PHI staff believe that health is a fundamental human right and that just societies ensure equitable health outcomes for everyone.
Jeff Meer
Special Advisor, Global Health Policy and Development
Public Health Institute
1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20004
Dear Colleagues,
Undoubtedly, the role of Rural Women in a Sustainable Development is very critical. But, still they are in the rearguard of process of changes, though their commitments and responsibilities in sustaining families are very high. Acknowledging this by society and development continuum is very important prerequisite for increasing the role and empowerment of women in development.
“In order to awaken the people, it is the women who have to be awakened. Once she is on the move, the family moves, the village moves, the nation moves.” was saying Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister.
1. If you could make an intervention at the side event on rural women at the 8th session of the Open Working Group in New York, what would be its key message?
There is diversity of issues: ideological, social, religious, ethnic, economic, cultural etc., and no approach could be universal to address them. Cases vary country by country. And one approach to empower women in sustainable development in a certain country or community that could be efficient might be not efficient in other country or case. There are range of issues and causes and consequences. For instance, female-headed households differ from male-headed ones by social and cultural aspects in different extent across many countries. Therefore, multi-stakeholders process of identifying, characterization and clustering of women-related issues across regions and countries would be a good step towards creating tools, formulating actions in case-by-case approach to empower rural women in sustainable development.
2. Rural women are often described as critical agents of change in discussions on sustainable development goals. To what extent would the achievement of food and nutrition security for rural women help accelerate sustainable development?
Considering that 43 percent of the agricultural labor force in developing countries (FAO, 2011), obtaining food and nutrition security for rural women definitely help accelerate sustainable development. Additionally, GDP growth in agriculture is four times more effective than GDP growth originating outside the sector in raising incomes of extremely poor people (FAO, World bank). While we talk ‘why food security and nutrition is essential’ first of all with think about the poor and vulnerable people, mostly rural, who lack the access to food and nutrition. On the other hand, in many developing countries smallholders produce the most portion of agricultural commodities. Women usually do unskilled work in agriculture, but still grassroots activities, which are first of all important for sustaining vital activities of their families and children. ‘De-facto’ women are critical contributors to sustainable development.
3. Of the many facts or stats recorded on rural women, which one do you consider to be the most revealing?
FAO report on the State of Food And Agriculture, Women in agriculture: Closing the gender gap for development. Rome, 2011. Increasing women’s access to the resources, services, innovation would increase productivity and generate gains in terms of agricultural production, food security, economic growth and social welfare.
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With due respect, here are my thinking about Rural Women in sustainable Goals
Women, Water and Family Farming
Beside significant role of women in Sanitation section, women are also participating in family farming sector. Year 2013 was declared as year of Family farming. I think family based vegetable gardening; indoor fish farming at Rooftop, Indoor, and Veranda in urban and rural area. Domestic wastage could be used there. This model will help influence kids to do in future large scale environment friendly activities.
In this context, I want to talk about keeping Tilapia fish at aquarium which can play positive role in economy of Bangladesh rather than amateur fishes in aquarium. Please see the attachments about this. We can campaign for to make a habit to producing fishes on rooftop tank, indoor tank/aquarium beside as usual fish production. If we able to do
that I think within short time, it will be product of international trade from indoor aquarium.
Large scale activities of Rural Women
Rural women can contribute significantly to the domestic Biogas, solar panel, earth worm fertilizer, vegetable gardening, and etc activities. To support them more needed online based home economics teaching besides manual teaching. Financial institute can finance them by interest free loan or by CSR.
Thank you
Muhammad Ariful Haque
CEO, Kamfisht Universe Engineering
Partner, Global Water Partnership
Partner, Global Soil Partnership of FAO, UN
Member, International Desalination Association
Point 1: First I would suggest processing of agriculture products. Women often have a weak position with regard to agriculture production, the main reason being land rights issues. But they often dominate the local processing of agriculture products. However when it comes to abscaling their business then there is little support and often bigger processing units are run and owned by men.
Second : women have a fairly strong role with regard to livestock, in some cases owning more livestock than men in particular smallstock. There again they have little support for their operations, are little considered by extension services, again something to look in.
- If you could make an intervention at the side event on rural women at the 8th session of the Open Working Group in New York, what would be its key message?
Women are GOOD.
First and foremost, I must salute FSN for coming up with this forum.
I wish to contribute on this topic that a woman is the cornerstone, the foundation, the custodian of social, cultural economic, spiritual and even political development. To achieve the development goals for rural women need favourable government policies that allows and supports their programmes.
Many scholars of women activism and development observe that women are viewed not only as development "ends" but also a means of reaching project goals. Therefore, investing in women women should be regarded as an effective use of scarce development resources. These actions should be guided by the basic principles of seeing women for what they are as economic and social agents, and not mere passive recipients of welfare.
For the development goals to be realized, this will require effective involvement of both women and men. For that case women are a vital force in national development . They support economic growth through agricultural and food production and play a vital role in the education and management of the community, as well as management of the environment.
We are all equal before God and have been gifted with the brains, intellect and wit such as; if women are given the opportunity, would enable them transform societies and make it a better place for all of us. Women have proved that they are lead managers within the households for providing food, nutrition, water, health, education among others.
From that arguement, governments should give support to rural women in terms of service as well as economic support because no nation can develop when a part of it is either marginalized or suffers from discrimination. And there is no greater injustice than that wholesomely inflicted on those that bring forth humanity. He who seeks to endanger, exploit, discriminate and oppress womanhood seeks to endanger all that dwell the earth, and there can be no valuable respect for a nation that does not treasure her mothers.
- If you could make an intervention at the side event on rural women at the 8th session of the Open Working Group in New York, what would be its key message?
Visibility of rural women’s work: work that is not recognized as there economic value of cash flow added eg work in own agricultural field , fetching water, wood etc where she spends adequate time
- Rural women are often described as critical agents of change in discussions on sustainable development goals. To what extent would the achievement of food and nutrition security for rural women help accelerate sustainable development?
At present: The household responsibilities of women for family are prioritised as her husband, in-laws, children and then herself for health and nutrition. This needs to be changed along with the F & N security then only it can be made sustainable.
- Of the many facts or stats recorded on rural women, which one do you consider to be the most revealing?
Research evidence based on systematic qualitative and quantitative methods are far more reliable . eg the ILO study on Rural women in UP, India measured women’s roles by using time-use data in 4 rural sites of selected families every fortnight for one year and then measured it to understand the actual time contributed by women and men and the cost benefit analysis of work put in and benefits. Similar studies have been done in tribal areas where eg it is reported that a 7 year old girl child could not attend school as was ‘responsible” for babysitting her younger sib as mother away for fetching wood, water for family. Mawar etal 1993 Social Change,India. Mawar, N., Jain, D.C., Verma, A., Kaushik, A., Karmahe, M. and Tiwary, R.S. Understanding the Employment, income in relation to the status of women: A case study of Gonds in M.P. Soc Change 1993, 23(4):87-94
Similarly many intervention projects have shown improvements in women’s decision making when financial literacy was given to rural women in Maharashtra. (Gokhale and Lavlekar 2013 IFUW Conference, Istanbul).
Regards,
Dr Nita Mawar, M.Sc. Ph.D.
Scientist ‘F’/Deputy Director-Senior Grade and HOD,
Social and Behavioural Research Division
National AIDS Research Institute (ICMR)
Department of Health Research, Min. of Health and Family welfare, Government of India
Gender inequalities in both, urban and rural areas, are a major obstacle to sustainable development including poverty eradication, a healthy environment and economic growth because they lower women’s and girls’ opportunities to meaningful participation to social, political and economic life. In rural areas women and girls form the majority of those living in poverty, face greater likelihood of living with domestic violence and have unequal opportunity of access to resources and assets, including land tenure rights, and are more vulnerable to negative effects of fluctuations in food prices and food insecurity. These inequalities obstruct economic growth while perpetuating the unequal distribution of resources, rights and duties between men and women. To achieve gender equality is thus key and must be placed at the center of the new framework, as well as mainstreamed across all goals.
In consequence, Switzerland suggests a stand-alone goal titled Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women and Girls with three sub-goals, which are considered as key to overcoming structural impediments to gender equality. The stand-alone goal needs to go in conjunction with consequent mainstreaming of gender into all other relevant sustainable development goals. For the stand-alone goal three sub-goals are proposed:
1. Equal Economic Opportunities
- Ensure equal access to education
- Ensure equal access to employment and promote decent work
- Ensure equal access to and control over productive assets and resources
- Ensure equal social security and distribution of care work
2. Freedom from violence against women and girls
- Prevent violence against women and girls
- Ensure protection from and response to violence against women and girls
- Eliminate sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in conflicts & disasters
- Ensure access to justice and end impunity
3. Equal participation and leadership
- Ensure equal participation in political institutions
- Ensure equal participation in the private sector
- Ensure women’s participation in peace and security
- Strengthen women’s collective action
The complete Swiss position on Gender Equality can be downloaded under: www.post2015.ch/post2015/en/home/topics/gender.html
A contribution from the SDC's thematic networks on Gender and on Agriculture and Food Security, Bern, Switzerland
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