INTRODUCTION

Rural sector in Slovenia

1. The share of agriculture and forestry in GDP in Slovenia decreased from 7 to 4.5 percent in the period from 1971 to 1991 and reached less than 4 percent by 1997. Despite these figures, the country is still strongly characterized by the rural sector, because of:

• land use - 94 percent of the total land area is agricultural land and forests;
• population and settlement - more than 60 percent of the total population lives in rural areas, in a number of small villages in mountains, small local centres and in the outskirts of the regional centres and towns;
• employment - 12 percent of the total active population is directly engaged in agriculture and forestry, while almost one-third of the active population is connected to and dependent on the rural sector (processing, machinery industry, services, tourism, etc).

2. The general characteristics of the state of the rural sector are very similar to the situation in other countries:

• population trends - decrease in number and ageing of the population. Depopulation trends, though not as intensive as before the 1990s, are still strong in mountainous and less developed border regions. The number of people living on farms decreased by 11.5 percent in the period 1981-1991.
• socio-economic structure - part time farming and lack of jobs in other sectors. A total of 112.000 farms are registered in Slovenia. Almost one half of them are part-time farms, combining income from agriculture and full-time employment in other sectors. Another 19 percent are supplementary farms with basic income from non-farm activities. Only 21 percent of the total are full-time farms. This is a reflection on the land tenure structure. The average farm size is 7.8 ha in all land categories. 28 percent of farms have less than 1 ha of land and only 17 percent have more than 10 ha. Employment opportunities outside agriculture are traditionally available in services and mostly labour intensive industry in larger local centres.
• living conditions - low quality of physical infrastructure, especially roads, communications and low access to public services, especially in the field of education, health care and development support institutions.

3. With the global transition process at the end of 1980s, two main problems arose and influenced the rural areas:

• market disparities - limited market outlets, loss of markets in former Yugoslavia and new marketing trends for agricultural products which did not give small producers a chance to compete;
• growing unemployment. The average unemployment rate in Slovenia is 15.2 percent (1997), the share of women among all unemployed is 48.6 percent.

4. The unemployment rate in rural areas does not differ significantly from the rate in urban areas. What is significant is the structure of the unemployed:

• the percentage of women is higher and represents in some typical rural regions up to 60 percent of the total;
• the educational structure of unemployed people is lower than the average. The share of unemployed with no qualifications in rural areas is 62 percent and in urban areas 45 percent;
• in rural areas in general, there is a much higher percentage of young people (up to 26 years) amongst the unemployed. Especially significant is the higher percentage of young people seeking their first job;
• 8 percent of all unemployed in Slovenia are farmers and farm family members, which in the last five years, represents a growth of 150 percent. In some regions, this percentage is up to 20 percent of all unemployed [ Data from Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, Labour Market - Labour Force Survey Results, 1997] .

Rural women

5. Rural women, as elsewhere, play multiple roles. In the domestic sphere they are household managers, mothers and wives; in the community they maintain social and cultural services, predominately on a voluntary basis; and in the economy, if they are not formally engaged as employees or entrepreneurs, they are active in family businesses and farms.

There is substantial evidence to suggest that rising levels of unemployment have especially effected rural women and reduced levels of social security in the transition process.

6. As mentioned earlier, the share of women among all unemployed is significant and much higher in rural areas than in urban areas.

7. In addition, another important phenomenon emerged in the last years: women who are seeking paid work are not formally counted as being unemployed. In general, the percentage of people seeking work after a period of inactivity (those who were not employed before) is growing very fast in Slovenia and represents 32 percent of all unemployed in 1997. The majority are young people, seeking their first job, but the group of women more than 26 years old is also significant in this category.

8. Many women are not active in the formal labour market, even though they have an essential role in farm economy. Traditionally they have the "status" of farm-wives or housekeepers. In total, farm women are owners of only 27 percent of the farms and only 30 percent of them are registered as farmers which entitles them to retirement and health insurance. Statistics show a substantial decrease (almost 30 percent) in total insurance payments for farmers in the last five years. This has been shown to be the way farm families are reducing their basic costs in the difficult situation caused by unemployment and changes in the market. In the majority of the farm families, the income allows only one member of the family to pay retirement and health insurance. And this is usually not farm women. This situation is especially hard for young women.

9. In conclusion, growing unemployment in general and changing market conditions for agricultural products worsened the income situation, particularly for part-time farms. Farm families are now seeking new income generation opportunities and farm women who are not formally unemployed are also coming to the labour market.

ILLUSTRATION Research was conducted in the Charintia region as part of a rural development project. The share of registered unemployed people from farms is 6 percent. But the number of people actually seeking jobs and new income opportunities has doubled. Among them, women represent more than 80 percent! 10. The position of this group of farm women on the labour market is much more difficult for several reasons: they are not registered us unemployed; they have no working experience in other sectors; their educational level in general is low; they have less access to education and information services. 11. The sector that traditionally provided job opportunities for rural women is the services sector. Economic recession influenced this sector in rural areas significantly. Current trends aggravate the already difficult situation of rural women. The cutbacks in public services and in public sector employment as well as further trends of centralisation of the location of both public and private services, affected rural women in two ways: job loss and by putting new limitations on their active economic and political role (reducing the level and access to the necessary social services like child care, health care, education, transportation). INVOLVEMENT OF RURAL WOMEN IN DECISION-MAKING Introduction 12. Slovenia faced all of the problems and challenges of countries transforming from centrally planned to market-oriented economies. Political and economic changes influenced the rural sector. 13. A very important change in this content is the decentralisation process, which began with the transformation of the regional system and establishment of smaller local communities and administration units. This process was followed by the preparation of the regional development strategy and the introduction of new policy instruments, including; dissemination of power and direct support for local development (budget); decentralisation and transformation of support institutions i.e. agricultural advisory service and labour offices; development of new programmes and development instruments to support more harmonised regional development, like the national programme for rural development and village renewal, the national programme for development of local development centres for small business support, etc. 14. Local communities and regions are much more autonomous now and have the responsibility to plan their own future. 15. Rural women are traditionally less involved in decision-making at all levels. Their position on family farms was presented earlier. Their important role is not recognised and therefore still not accepted in decision-making. 16. Participation of women in political structures on local and regional levels was always very weak. Research has shown that political and structural changes did not improve this [ Data from B.Èebulj; Farm Women Private, in the Family and in Public Life - Research Study, 1997] . The share of women in community decision-making structures is still very low and their participation is mostly stressed by political parties more as an element of their own publicity and proof of democratization, than as a real interest and need. For example, only 3 percent of the rural women are members of political parties. 17. They are also less active in professional associations and bodies. A special association of farm women has formed nationally, organized by local community groups, called the National Association of Farm Women. It was initiated and is professionally supported by the Agricultural Advisory Service (50 advisors are employed and are working all over Slovenia to support farm families and women), but only 14 percent of farm women are actually active in this association. 18. Co-operatives, traditionally the most important production and marketing links for farmers, which also play very important roles in political and cultural life in rural areas, were transformed. The new co-operative structures are slowly building up again on a new organizational basis, but the number of women in management structures is extremely low. Research and data lead to the conclusion that the key problem and cause for the lower participation of women in decision making at all levels lies in their present economic position! In order to increase their involvement in decision-making we need to strengthen their economic position and independence, which requires; Better access to education and information services Development support for self-employment and job creation for women on farms and in rural areas Support in the development of social services to reduce isolation and assure greater mobility of rural women. Positive examples of improvements 19. New orientations and strategies in the 1990s brought some structural changes and development mechanisms, that are positively effecting the position of rural women on the labour market and through that their position in general. Some of them can already be seen to have made a significant contribution to increasing the role of rural women in decision-making on the local and regional levels. Decentralisation and transformation of development support institutions and measures 20. Important changes have been introduced in the structure of support institutions, like agricultural advisory service and labour offices. They are more decentralised and adopted to local and regional needs. The national agricultural advisory service, for instance, is reorganized according to the new communal system and, what is especially important, has developed a new service of professional support for farm family businesses, with special emphasis on the improvement of the economic position of farm women. 21. Since 1991, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food has been running a special programme called "Rural Development and Village Renewal". The aim of the programme is to initiate and support the preparation and implementation of comprehensive rural development plans in different areas. The principle objective of the programme is to motivate people and assure their active participation in the planning and decision-making processes. In the first stage of the program, local people are invited to join different working groups to analyse and set the development objectives on different fields - economic development, social development, development of infrastructure, environmental protection, etc. Development of a long-term community programme and an action plan for the implementation is the next step, where all groups are involved under the supervision of advisors. The third step of the programme is direct (financial and professional) support for the implementation of the jointly defined priority activities. ILLUSTRATION More than 100 rural communities have benefited from this programme since 1991. The evaluations show very high participation of rural women in the working groups organized under this program, on average about 55 percent. In the first phase of the program, they were especially active in the working groups discussing the social sector. In the implementation phase, they are really becoming equal leaders and managers of the economic development projects and activities. One of the very top priorities for programmes all over Slovenia is job creation for farm family members with emphasis on the development of supplementary activities on farms, like farm tourism, home processing, crafts shops, etc. Women have proven themselves to be very entrepreneurial and are in general the real initiators and managers of the economic activities in this field. Establishment of the Local Development Support Centres 22. This national program, supported by different sectors (ministries of labour and social affairs, agriculture and forestry, economic affairs, small business development, environment) aims to support development of local development partnerships, bringing together public services and decentralised development institutions as well as the private sector on a regional plan and support local development initiatives in a comprehensive matter. The programme has been successfully implemented since 1995. 40 development centres are being developed all over Slovenia. 23. The principle objective of the programme is to integrate all the development efforts and instruments in local communities and regions in order to assure better access to information, training programmes and start-up capital and to build the necessary infrastructure in the area for development of new economic activities. CASE STUDY A positive contribution of these initiatives to the improvement of the role of rural women in the planning and decision-making process on a local level can be illustrated with the activities of the local development centre in Charintia region, named A.L.P. Peca (A.L.P. stands for Activating Local Potential). The company was established at the end of 1994 and was the first local development partnership organization in Slovenia. It brought together three local communities, 18 private companies and entrepreneurs and decentralised public institutions (Labour Office, Agricultural Advisory Service, Chamber of Economy and Craftsman Chamber). Small Business Information Centres are organized in every local community on the principle of one-stop-shop, to offer all the information and support for individuals and community groups in implementation of their development initiatives: professional support in business planning; information about available financial support; labour-market information and support measures for the unemployed; education and training programmes; social services. A direct result is 8 new, quality jobs created in these centres, mostly for women. Even more important are the indirect effects. Development projects are designed in A.L.P. to meet special needs of community groups. The lack of job opportunities for women was found to be one of the biggest problems from the very beginning. Namely, the share of women among unemployed people in the region at the end of 1997 was still 52 percent. As a response to that, special training programmes were designed for this group and some of them already resulted in new community enterprises, i.e.: • services for elderly people at home - the initiative started in 1996 with a training programme for unemployed women for the care of elderly people. By 1997, five women were employed full-time in the service. New programmes to provide care for disabled people, children with special needs, and other groups, are being developed; • household service - a group of unemployed women were trained and are starting a housekeeping service. The programme started at the beginning of 1998 and 11 women are involved, currently still under the support of the National Employment Office; • business service - a special opportunity for employment for women was found in the needs of small business, especially those that are family run. A business service was organized, involving 16 unemployed women, trained as business secretaries, offering small businesses flexible secretarial support according to their needs and financial possibilities. Entrepreneurship and self-employment in rural areas 24. The initiative that is especially important in this context is the programme "Entrepreneurship and self-employment in rural areas", run jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food and the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, which started in two pilot regions in 1997. 25. The programme aims to support sustainable development of rural areas by promoting entrepreneurship and the development of economic activities based on local development potentials and market needs. Special development support is given through this programme to communities and individuals for: Development of supplementary activities on farms as an opportunity for self-employment of the unemployed farm family members. Small business development and job creation for non-farm population. Development of services to increase employment opportunities for women. 26. The programme design is very innovative. It offers, for the first time in Slovenia, groups of unemployed people from rural areas professional and financial support in the whole process of development of business ideas - from idea generation, start-up and support institution building: groups of unemployed people are organized to define, under the supervision of experts, job and income generating opportunities in their area; members of the groups with business ideas, both for private and community enterprises, are involved in the Public Work Programme of the National Employment Office, where they are assured their social insurance and minimum salaries for the period up to one year. They are also supported with training programmes and consultancies for the development of their business ideas; special support is organized for the groups to define and develop infrastructure and services in the area which are necessary for successful development of new economic activities; start-up support is assured for both individual businesses and services; support from the programme is available for organized groups for a period of three years. CASE STUDY: The pilot project "Self-employment in rural areas" in Charintia region started in 1997. The objective was to motivate unemployed people from rural areas, both registered and unregistered, to take an active role in creating new employment opportunities. Several initiatives were developed within the groups of unemployed people. More than 60 people are already actively involved. The most progressive programme is on the field of home processing and marketing of food products, which was recognised as an important job creation opportunity. Activities are organized to support development of supplementary activities on farms and development of support services in the community. This programme is a very good example of the results of group work and idea generation and is especially focused on rural women: Self-employment on farms - first group of women already registered their own business on farms, production of the traditional home-made bread. About ten more are now involved in the project, developing supplementary activities, fruit, milk and meat processing. Another group of women (12) is developing family tourism businesses. Community enterprise - another group initiated development of a production and marketing network among farmers in fruit production. 19 farmers are involved in the development of a community enterprise, fruit drying and bottling facility, which will support the members of the network to increase income on the farm and will at the same time create new jobs. Marketing service - marketing of the farm products was defined as the major problem because of the small-scale production on farms. The idea is to develop a brand mark for all food products in the area and the marketing service, including the facility for packaging and quality control. 7 unemployed women are directly engaged in the development of the service. Domestic craft workshop - another idea was developed as a result of the group work. 6 women are involved in the crafts workshop for design and production of the traditional crafts that will be used for packaging the food products. CONCLUSION 27. This paper is build on the hypothesis that rural women’s participation in decision-making depends strongly on their economic position and position within the labour market. 28. Special development support is needed to increase their position on the labour market, improving their access to information and services and supporting development of traditional activities into formal economic/employment opportunities. 29. Development support, as described in the examples presented, based on active participation of women in the planning process and the creation of income and job opportunities in the community, is crucial. Involvement of rural women in the community development programmes on the principle of group work also: improves their position on the labour market, giving them the opportunity to define business ideas, to access information and to gain specific knowledge and skills; gives them the opportunity to initiate and influence the development of important social services and institutions that are reducing the limitations to their greater participation in decision-making - increasing their mobility, reducing their time engaged by the family and housekeeping; builds their self-esteem and develops their managerial skills for the participation in the development of family businesses and their communities. LITERATURE Cebulj, B. 1997. Farm women Private, in the Family and in Public Life. Research Study. University of Ljubljana. Braithwaite, M. 1996. Equal partners in Development; EU Quarterly Journal of the Community Programme, Leader II. Mesl, M. 1996. Entrepreneurship in Rural Development, Background and Experiences from Slovenia. Presented at FAO Rural Development International Workshop, Gödöllö Hungary, 1996. Mesl M. & Stupar A. 1996. Self-employment in Rural areas; Research Study. Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs. Ljubljana. Lokar S. 1997. Farm women in Slovenia. Paper presented at the National Conference on Opportunities for Rural Areas in Slovenia, Ptuj 1997. Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia. 1997. Labour Market - Labour Force Survey Results. Ljubljana. Petrin T. 1997. Entrepreneurship as an Economic Force in Rural Development. , REU Technical Series 41. Rome. FAO Petrin T. & Mesl M. 1997. Rural Development - New Trends in Slovenia and in General. Paper presented at the National Conference on Opportunities for Rural Areas in Slovenia, Ptuj 1997.