Inaugural Address to the High-Level
Consultation on Rural Women and Information
Rome, Italy, 4 October 1999
Madam Elizabeth Diouf, First Lady of Senegal,
Madam Angela King, Representative of the
Secretary-General of the United Nations,
Ministers,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great honour for me to welcome this assembly
of high-level representatives of FAO Member Nations, the
United Nations system and other intergovernmental
organizations, non-governmental organizations and civil
society. The focus of this consultation is information
and especially the fundamental - yet too often
unrecognized, when not forgotten - role of rural women in
food production and food security.
It was in this very hall, in November 1996, that the
Heads of State and Government and representatives of 186
countries, gathered here for the World Food Summit,
declared it unacceptable that over 800 million human
beings should still suffer hunger and malnutrition on the
eve of the third millennium, when humanity was
experiencing the most formidable technological progress
of its history.
If the immediate objective of the Summit to halve this
figure by the year 2015 is to be achieved, and if - in 30
years' time - an additional world population of just over
2 billion people is to be fed, then the contribution of
rural women will be crucial. They already in fact account
for a large proportion of food production: 80 to 90
percent in sub-Saharan Africa, 50 to 90 percent in Asia,
30 percent in Central and Eastern Europe.
We can therefore affirm that there will be no food
security without rural women. So we need to know and
understand the precise conditions in which they work and
the specific problems they are up against. How are we to
discover this so that the technical experts and
policy-makers can take the right decisions? How are we to
make sure that the role and difficulties of rural women
in agricultural production and food security are
understood by the general public, particularly in the
large urban areas and developed countries? How are we to
see that all this information is available and that it
reaches those that need it? Those are just some of the
issues you will be discussing.
FAO chose Women Feed the World as its theme for World
Food Day in 1998 to draw attention to the multifaceted
role of women in agriculture and food security, and to
encourage consideration of this role in national and
international policies and programmes.
Not so very long ago, the term "invisible half" was
often used when referring to the contribution of women to
social and economic development, even more so in the case
of rural women. Now, however, thanks to the efforts of
policy makers, researchers, development workers,
journalists and women activists, the vital contribution
of rural women to social and economic development has
been widely documented. So what we now need to do is to
translate this broader knowledge into tangible
acknowledgement and removal of the problems obstructing
their further contribution to food production and food
security.
Today's meeting falls within the executive framework
of the FAO Plan of Action for the Integration of Women in
Development, which was adopted in November 1995 in the
wake of the World Conference on Women in Beijing.
This Consultation is also taking place at a time when
the whole United Nations system is preparing to
celebrate, next year, the fifth anniversary of the
adoption in Beijing of the Platform for Action in favour
of women. In this connection, the General Assembly will
be holding a special session to examine related progress.
The Conference of Beijing, and in fact the World Food
Summit one year later, recognized:
- that the limited access of rural women to
production resources and their restricted role in
policy and economic decision-making contribute to
poverty, and are an obstacle to food security;
- that policies and programmes in many countries pay
little heed to equality between men and women;
- that the absence of gender-disaggregated
information and data prevents informed social and
economic decision-making.
I am sure that these observations have been - and will
continue to be &endash; taken to heart by those
responsible for gathering, collating and disseminating
data and information, and by the end-users.
As regards statistics, the Beijing Platform for Action
advocates specific actions for the collection of
sex-disaggregated data on poverty and all aspects of
economic activity. It also recommends the selection of
qualitative and quantitative statistical indicators to
measure the impact of development actions and
policies.
The compilation of valid statistics on women will
provide a clear and accurate picture of their
contribution to the economy and society. Such a task is
notably difficult in rural areas where this is usually a
non-remunerated informal sector, often confined to the
domestic sphere and difficult to apprehend. This is where
there is wide disparity in participation of women and men
in decision-making and in their respective access to
production resources. But this is also where there is
huge potential, on condition that constraints are removed
and that gender specificities are integrated into a new
vision of development policies and programmes.
Gender-disaggregated information is essential if
appropriate policy recommendations are to be made. The
household was long considered the unit of analysis, on
the assumption that its members enjoyed equitable
distribution of food and income, and equal access to
resources. Unfortunately, such an approach results in
major conceptual and operational deficiencies. A
gender-based differentiation of allocation of labour and
resources must be taken into account if technologies are
to be developed, targeted and transferred
appropriately.
This invisible veil distorting our vision of the world
needs to be lifted if we are to accept a plurality that
calls for differentiated strategies. A number of basic
elements can already be put forward for the rural
sector:
- we need to know who has access to and control over
land;
- we need to know who, of the men and women, benefit
from development actions, training sessions and new
technologies;
- we need to know who has access to credit, without
which there can be no significant improvement to
production systems;
- we need to understand the impact of agricultural
policies on each population group so that
interventions can be properly focused and geared to
specific needs.
These are just some aspects that reflect the need for
urgent and systematic intervention to secure
gender-disaggregated information. FAO is already working
on these inadequacies, notably by formulating
methodologies that will help countries gather and collate
such information.
However, having the information is not enough; it also
needs to be disseminated. Databases need to be made
accessible to the widest possible audience, using all the
means provided by the information revolution. This is
another area where FAO has made significant progress, by
setting up an information system that makes all its
statistical and textual databases readily accessible to
users throughout the world, and which will facilitate the
dissemination of information on the role, problems and
condition of rural women.
At the same time, we need to consider the fundamental
role of the media. We need to make sure that
communication with these powerful instruments of
dissemination functions effectively, and that information
is disseminated in a language and format that is
accessible to everyone, including policy makers. And the
media have an impact on public opinion, which is
essentially urban, and therefore a not insignificant
influence over policy formulation. So the media can help
inform public opinion, in a correct and balanced manner,
of the conditions of life and work of the rural
population, and in particular of the contribution of
rural women to the economy and food security.
The Organization has drafted a Strategy for Action
which is before you for discussion. This is a
contribution to the debate and FAO will no doubt benefit
richly from your ideas, comments and experiences. Two
technical panels have been organized as part of the
meeting to provide in-depth discussion of the concrete
aspects of information on rural women and its
dissemination. These panels will comprise leading
international experts in the fields of development,
social sciences, communication and the media. I attach
great importance to these panels and am convinced that
your contributions and those of our guest experts will be
very useful to the continuation of FAO's work in this
area.
I cannot conclude without first paying tribute to Ms
Elisabeth Diouf, First Lady of Senegal and Chair of the
International Steering Committee on the Economic
Advancement of Rural Women, who honours us with her
presence here today. Ms Diouf and the other members of
the Steering Committee have long been urging governments
and international organizations to be alive to the
essential role of rural women in food security.
I also extend my greetings to the representatives of
the first ladies, members of the International Steering
Committee on the Economic Advancement of Rural Women, who
honour us with their presence at this event.
I also thank Her Excellency Ms Laura Balbo, Minister
of Equality of Opportunity of Italy, who readily and
enthusiastically supported this initiative and who also
honours us with her presence here today. May I take this
opportunity to reiterate - through her good offices - my
appreciation to the Italian Government for its unstinting
support to the Organization.
I am also indebted to Her Excellency Ms Margareta
Winberg, Minister of Agriculture and Equality of
Opportunity of Sweden, who has agreed to chair one of the
technical panels and who, despite engagements that
prevent her from being with us at this inauguration, has
managed to arrange to be with us from this evening. My
thanks also to Ms Angela King, special adviser to the
Secretary-General of the United Nations on gender issues,
who has agreed to chair the other technical panel. I know
that the expertise and experience of both Ms Winberg and
Ms King will lead to fruitful discussions.
Finally, I should like to thank the ministers and
representatives of the Member Nations who have accepted
to participate in this Consultation, as well as the
representatives of the United Nations agencies, other
intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental
organizations, whose active presence at this meeting
demonstrates the importance they attach to the question
of information on the role of rural women.
I am sure that these three days of discussions will be
rewarding to all those working towards food security, and
wish to convey to you my deepest gratitude for having
agreed to share your expertise and experience for the
enhancement of the condition of rural women.
I hereby declare open the High-Level Consultation on
Rural Women and Information.
Thank you.
