CSW62 Side-event: The voice of rural women for a sustainable and healthy future

Thank you for giving me the floor. Excellencies, Ambassadors, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to begin by thanking the Governments of Italy and Zambia and the WHO for organizing this event and the winners of the De@Terra Award for their inspiring stories.

Empowering and investing in rural women translates into improved overall well-being for children, households and communities. And rural women play a key role in creating sustainable and resilient food systems indispensable for a healthy and sustainable future. As the Vice-President of Zambia highlighted, investing in and empowering rural women means investing in our collective future.

It is our responsibility to explore pathways that allow women to fulfil their potential. And as the Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Italy said, this effort must consider all dimensions of sustainable development. The Decade of Action on Nutrition, established by the UN General Assembly in 2016, provides such a pathway.

The work program for the Decade of Action calls for countries to establish Action Networks, that are informal coalitions designed to accelerate action and align efforts to improve nutrition. In this context, I would like to propose the formation of a rural women action network, with the aim to advance the well-being and nutritional outcomes of rural women and girls and empower them as agents of change in rural communities.

This action network would allow for a constructive dialogue between rural women, policy makers and technical experts from governments, academia and multilateral organizations, and business partners, giving rural women a voice and foster their participation in the policy making process, as called for the by Vice-President of Zambia. The action network would also create a space to share good practices and identify concrete gender-sensitive solutions to improve the well-being and nutritional outcomes among rural women and girls and enhance the contribution they can give to sustainable rural development.

I would like to end by recall a quote from FAO Director-General: “Achieving gender equality and empowering women is not only the right thing to do: it is a crucial ingredient in the fight against poverty and hunger”.

Thank you for your attention.