1. The Seventh Session of the Working Party on Women and the Agricultural Family in Rural Development was held in Athens, Greece from 18 to 21 October 1994 at the kind invitation of the Government of the Hellenic Republic.
2. The Session was attended by delegations from twelve countries of the European Region and Observers from intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. The list of participants and officers of the Session is attached in Annex I.
Opening of the Session
3. The Opening Ceremony was held in conjunction with the Joint Meeting of the Eightieth Session of the FAO/ECA Executive Committee and of the Bureau of the UN/ECE Committee on Agriculture.
4. The FAO Regional Representative for Europe, Mr. M. Zjalic, welcomed the participants on behalf of the Director-General of FAO and conveyed his best wishes for the success of both meetings. He thanked the Host Government for its invitation, for the excellent facilities provided and its strong and continuous support to FAO. He stated that the Seventh Session of the Working Party will review activities and programmes aimed at improving the social and economic position of women in rural areas and their more active, responsible and creative role in rural development. It will at the same time, produce proposal, ideas, recommendations and requests through which FAO can assist in the promotion of the social well being as well as the rights and equality of rural women.
5. The Minister for Agriculture, H.E. George Moraitis, on behalf of his Government, warmly welcomed the participants to the Session. He referred to the significant changes made in the agricultural structure and in particular to the new opportunities accruing from these changes and their implications for rural women. He stressed the important role of the family in development, noting that the family is the cornerstone of society. As 1994 is proclaimed the International Year of the Family, it is necessary to create an awareness of the key role of the family and its contribution to society. He also stated that sound family policy should be the base for general equality and family welfare. The full text of the Minister's statement is provided in Annex II.
6. The Chairperson of the Working Party, Dr. G. Pichler, in her opening address welcomed the participants to the Seventh Session. She expressed her gratitude to the Greek Government for their kind invitation and to the Regional Representative for Europe for the constant support of REUR to the activities of the Working Party.
7. She underlined the importance of holding the two meetings at the same time thus affording an opportunity for an exchange of ideas and information.
8. She referred to the significant role of rural women in coping with the difficulties pertaining to rural areas and to society and outlined the contribution of rural women to family and enterprise development and their potential as managers and entrepreneurs. She stressed the importance of the development of pluriactivity in order to secure the income of rural people and how this Session could contribute to this development.
9. The Chairman of the ECA Executive Committee, Prof. S. Kyritsis thanked the Minister for his interesting statement and welcomed the delegates and the guests to the Opening Ceremony.
Summary of Recommendations from the Session
10. The main recommendations from the Seventh Session were:
- The Working Party on Women should continue to initiate activities to empower rural women to become active in the socio-economic development of the country and in activities to stimulate rural development. Specific attention should be given to:
(1) development of effective mechanisms (policies and training) for addressing critical issues concerning rural women;
(2) development of effective mechanisms (market and non-market) to cope with high level of unemployment in rural areas;
(3) development of effective mechanisms (training and technical) to support community leaders and facilitators of change in rural areas;
(4) development of special assistance to rural women in Eastern European, countries by facilitating partnership and networks with Western European countries, and by providing training programmes, workshops and dissemination of relevant information.
- That the next session of the Working Party focuses either on environment or on mechanisms to mobilize rural youth.
- That the theme of the Eighth International Summer School should be decided by the Board.
- That a workshop on the findings from the project" Analysis of the Socio-Economic Status of Rural Women in Central and Eastern Europe" should be organized.
- That the European Community and national governments establish effective policies to address the urgent needs of rural women.
- That FAO Secretariat should obtain verification of the results of the project "Analysis of the Socio-Economic Status of Rural Women in Central and Eastern European Countries" from the respective governments.
- That the governments of Eastern Europe transform the recommendations of the 7th Session which emerged from the Analysis of the Socio-Economic Status of Rural Women in Central and Eastern European Countries into national plans of action to address the problems identified and priority needs of rural women.
- That the governments of Eastern European countries develop effective strategies to change the behaviour and attitude of rural women by combining a bottom up with top down approach to rural development.
- That the FAO Secretariat should start the administrative procedures to change the title of the Working Party into "Working Party on Women and the Family in Rural Development".
Closing of the Session
11. In closing the Session, the Chairperson extended warm thanks and words of appreciation on behalf of the Session to the Host Government and to the local authorities for their excellent facilities and organization which had contributed to the success of the meeting.
Adoption of the Agenda
12. The Chairperson introduced the items and gave reasons for the proposed changes introduced in the provisional agenda and timetable. The amended Agenda was adopted by the Session (Annex III).
