In Focus: International Day of Rural Women
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The theme for the International Day of Rural Women (15 October), “Rural Women Cultivating Good Food for All”, highlights the essential role that rural women and girls play in the food systems of the world.
From production of crops to processing, preparing and distributing foods, women’s labour – paid and unpaid – feeds their families, communities and the world. Yet, they do not wield equal power with men, and as a result, they earn less income and experience higher food insecurity.
Despite our planet’s capacity to provide sufficient and good food for all, hunger, malnourishment, and food insecurity are rising in many parts of the world. The COVID-19 pandemic, along with climate crises, have made matters worse: some 2.37 billion people did not have enough to eat in 2020 –that’s 20 per cent more than the year before.
UN Women’s latest report, Beyond COVID-19: A feminist plan for sustainability and social justice, calls for rebuilding the broken global food system from the bottom-up by supporting rural women’s livelihoods to produce and distribute diverse and healthy food crops. With less than 10 years to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, including Zero Hunger (Goal 2) and Gender Equality (Goal 5), UN Women is working to support rural women and girls around the world, to build their resilience, skills and leadership.
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As part of UN Women’s continuous support to empower vulnerable women, the partnership with RRP+, Reseau Rwandais des Personnes vivant avec le VIH/SIDA, an organization supporting people living with HIV, contributed to improving the lives of three hundred members from eight cooperatives.
In Tanzania, women make up more than half of the workforce in the agriculture sector, but remain poor, says Mariamu Rasidi Tungu. Most of them work in family farms without any payment and lack access to land ownership.
Meet Kebbeh Monger, 67, the President of the National Rural Women Structure of Liberia, a grassroots organization championing women’s economic empowerment in rural Liberia.
Women farmers in Rwanda improve post-harvest handling
Post-harvest handling remains the number one problem for farmers in Rwanda due to old fashioned methods and the use of rudimentary tools.
MA year after the launch of the Realizing Gender Equality through Empowering Women and Adolescent Girls programme in Tanzania’s Singida and Shinyanga Regions, UN Women has made significant strides in improving the lives of women smallholder farmers./figcaption>
Women farmers in Rwanda improve post-harvest handling
Georgina Eunice Gama, 39, is one of 10,100 Malawian women farmers who has adopted climate smart modern farming technology with support from UN Women.
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- Use #ruralwomen on social media to show the world that you stand in solidarity with rural women and their organizations everywhere as they seek to influence the decisions that shape their lives.
- Spread the message with GIFs, infographics and other visuals that you can download from our social media package with images and messages in English, Spanish and French, available here: https://trello.com/b/dBdEjpGk
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See our coverage of International Day for Rural Women from previous years: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011