FAO Women's Committee first anniversary celebration

 

 

FAO Women's Committee first anniversary celebration

Carla Mucavi, Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the United Nations in New York

Thank you Beth for the opportunty and let congratulate ourselves  for the First Anniversary of  the Women's Committee, this unique FAO platform that brings us together with gender in perspective.

All through this particularly challenging year, the Committee has been a safe and meaningful space for women to voice concerns, express interests, and form tighter bonds.

I also would like to thank the FAO Director-General for his vision that has led to the establishment of this important space.

The virtual 75^th session of the UN General Assembly has just concluded in New York with high level of attendance of 190 Heads of States and Governments, of which only nine were women.

That shows that we have a long way to go. We need more women at the decision-making table to ensure that policies that are designed at all levels take into account women’s needs, experiences, challenges and opportunities.

Our experience of the Dimitra Clubs is one that should be emulated and replicated in different contexts.

In New York where our main objective is to advocate for the FAO mandate and work to ensure that food and agriculture are well positioned in the global agenda. We need more voices from the field, successful and transformative stories that give concrete evidence and examples of the differing challenges facing women and men, and which demonstrate how gender-sensitive interventions can deliver a real and sustained impact.

This will help governments to design the right policies that can transform lives, if implemented.  And implementation means capacity-development, innovation, technologies, financial resources, disaggregated data on rural women and girls, to better target those who are left behind.

We all know that if women have the same access to resources compared to men, their productivity increases and the contribution they give to their families, societies and development will be much more significant.

FAO Women’s Committee can help identify these inspiring voices that make us believe that gender equality and women empowerment are possible in our lifetime.