FAO stresses importance of gender equality and empowerment of rural women and girls at multistakeholder forum

“The empowerment of rural women and girls is key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDGs 1 and 2, on ending poverty and hunger,” said Carla Mucavi, Director of the FAO Liaison Office to the United Nations, during the Multi-Stakeholder Forum in preparation for the sixty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62) at the United Nations Headquarters on 25 January in New York.

Delivering remarks and introducing the discussion topics for the panel “Ensuring rural women’s land rights and tenure security and strengthening food security and nutrition for rural women and girls,” Mucavi noted that women function as the backbone of the rural economy but suffer a significant disadvantage in all dimensions of land tenure, often the most important household asset to support agricultural production and ensure food security and nutrition. She stressed the need for closing the gender gap in agriculture as it would generate significant gains for the agriculture sector and for society.

 “If women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by up to 30% and raise the total agricultural output in developing countries by up to 4%,” Mucavi informed the participants.

Convened by UN-Women, the Multi-Stakeholder Forum served to engage a range of stakeholders in preparation for CSW62, which will convene on the theme “Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls” in New York from 12 to 23 March. Specifically, the event sought to raise awareness of existing commitments and identify key areas and issues that should be considered by CSW62; create a platform for sharing approaches and strategies that bring results and highlighting areas that require enhanced commitments; and foster dialogue and galvanize partnerships that could accelerate the implementation of the expected outcomes of CSW62.