United Nations Radio

Women attend garden

PRES: Women play a vital role in supporting their families, and the community by providing food. In developing countries, the majority of women in rural areas are the ones producing the food, in addition to their roles as mothers and caretakers. It is in recognition of their key role that October 15 has designated this special day in honor of rural women, to empower them, commit to easing their workload and improving the quality of their lives. Jocelyne Sambira has the story.

NARR: "Mama farms and Papa cuts wood" are words written in a text book and taught to generations of children in Burundi, a Central African country whose only source of income is from agriculture. This reality is also true for the majority of developing countries, where according to the International Labor Organization, ILO, over 400 million women work in the agricultural sector compared to around 600 million men, making it the first sector of employment for women. Most often, the contribution of rural women is overlooked, and this perception needs to be changed, says Eve Crowley, Principal Advisor in the Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO. She believes it is critical to increase investments in rural areas, and use that money to address gender inequalities.

CROWLEY: If we actually re-distributed resources in Africa between men and women more effectively, productivity would increase by 20%. And we also know that by putting money in the hand of a woman in the household, the whole family benefits, those resources are distributed in terms of food and health care, education to the whole family, it isn't put into the pocket of an individual so the gains are significant. We know that when a woman manages the budget of a household, a child's chances of survival beyond the age of five in Africa, increases by 20%.

NARR: The International Day of Rural Women shines a light on their contribution, but it also draws attention to the many problems they face. According to the UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-moon, in many parts of the world, rural women continue to face obstacles to enjoying their rights. One of them is the right to education, and decision-making, meaning that their voices are not heard. But in some places, like Africa, women also face challenges linked to tradition. Eve Crowley of FAO explains.

CROWLEY: In Africa we find in many systems a form of food discrimination, where within households the man eats first, then the children, and then the woman. It is no coincidence that when you look at the mortality rates, you find that female mortality rates and hunger often overlap. So, it is partly a question of addressing these questions of food discrimination but also finding ways of getting the right kinds of food to the people who need them at different stages of in their life cycle. Women have needs for iron for example, and different types of protein during pregnancy and lactation so those are very important dimensions particularly since they are the ones who are going to be socializing the world's future farmers and the children where a lot of the malnutrition and hunger currently lies.

NARR: Eve Crowley, Principal Advisor for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO. Jocelyne Sambira, for UN Radio.

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