Delivering as One: Rome-based UN agencies and UN-Women discuss ways to consolidate efforts to achieve gender equality and empower rural women

“It is our responsibility, as representatives of the United Nations, to make sure the human rights of rural women and girls are recognised and fulfilled. If we fail to act for the empowerment of rural women and girls, we will not fulfil our commitments to meet the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Cornelia Richter, Vice-President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), delivering a joint statement on behalf of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and IFAD during the high-level side event “Delivering as One: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals with and for rural women and girls” on 13 March in New York.

Jointly organized by UN-Women and the three Rome-based Agencies, the event brought together UN leaders, government officials as a panel to engage with a diverse audience to assess the opportunities for strengthening collaboration and strategize how to reinforce sustainable development with and for rural women and girls.

The panellists addressed the guiding question of how each organization or sector can build on their experiences and comparative advantage to enhance efficient and effective partnership and collaboration for gender-responsive rural transformation in the context of the SDGs.

Citing the finding that women are more likely than men to be food insecure in every region of the world, Richter shared some of the work of the Rome based Agencies in efforts to reduce rural poverty, achieve Zero Hunger and meet the nutritional needs of women and girls. Examples included the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forestry in the Context of Food Security (VGGTs), which the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) adopted with technical support from FAO, IFAD and WFP to improve gender equality in both formal and customary systems.

Richter also noted that FAO, IFAD, WFP, and UN Women supported the adoption of

General Recommendation 34 on the rights of rural women under the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Recommendation 34 recognizes the significant contributions that women make and provides practical guidance on mainstreaming rural women’s empowerment issues in policies and programmes.

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN-Women, stressed that the empowerment of women who are furthest in the queue are the ones who will determine our success and that rural women need to be targeted because they are at the highest risk of being left behind.

Subandi Sardjoko, Deputy Minister of National Planning and Development of Indonesia, emphasized the importance of political will, concrete plans and action for rural women to play a greater role in decision-making.

Joan Carling, Co-convener of the Indigenous Peoples' Major Group on SDGs, noted the difficulties rural women face in securing livelihoods and basic rights such as land tenure and education, underscoring the need for culturally-sensitive measures and programmes to enhance traditional knowledge and practices for sustainable management as well as to engage them in decision-making processes.