FAO news > Women & gender http://www.fao.org/news/newsroom-home/en/ News from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization en FAO Newsroom RSS Newsfeed Export http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 2009 FAO FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) FAO’s support in transforming the agriculture sector in Uganda FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva met with Ugandan Vice-President Edward Sekandi to discuss ways to ensure food security for all Ugandans and reduce poverty by supporting rural smallholders in the country's agriculture sector. The agriculture sector employs more than 80 percent of Uganda's population. 8 March 2013, Kampala/Rome - FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva met with Ugandan Vice-President Edward Sekandi to discuss ways to ensure food security for all Ugandans and reduce poverty by supporting rural smallholders in the country's agriculture sector.


Sekandi met with Graziano da Silva on behalf of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, during the FAO chief's one-day visit to Uganda.


Graziano da Silva commended the government of Uganda for its leadership in the country's efforts to improve agricultural development and climate change mitigation. He also pointed out that Uganda needs a major boost in agriculture to accelerate development. The agriculture sector employs more than 80 percent of Uganda's population.


"We agreed that for the agriculture sector to grow, Ugandans need to support both the small-scale rural subsistence farmers as well as building the bridge for small scale farmers who want to go into commercial farming," said the Director-General, who pledged FAO's support in transforming the country's agriculture sector.


Although Uganda generally has food, its food security and nutrition situation continues to face challenges, such as unequal food distribution and pockets of food insecurity in areas like Karamoja, in the northeast. Efforts, therefore, need to be made to ensure that nutritious food is well distributed and consumed in all parts of Uganda.


Priority areas and activities


Since 1981, FAO has been working with the Government of Uganda to design and implement policies and programmes aimed at eradicating the root causes of hunger, malnutrition and poverty, develop farmer organizations, study storage capabilities, and improve integrated water management systems and water harvesting.


FAO is currently implementing the  Country Programming Framework (2010-2014), which outlines priority areas and activities for FAO's assistance to Uganda, in support of the government's national development policy objectives in the fields of agriculture, fisheries, forestry, natural resources, and rural development.

Women and food security


As the world community observed International Women's Day, Graziano da Silva lamented that, in spite of the major role played by women in producing food and feeding their families, little attention has been paid to the key role rural women play in ensuring decent livelihoods for their households. 


"We will continue to support FAO member governments, including Uganda, in helping cooperatives and producer organizations to thrive, by developing adequate policies, legal frameworks, economic incentives, capacity building, and forums for dialogue on policy making," the FAO Director-General declared in a press conference.


In fulfilling its mandate to eradicate hunger and reduce poverty in sustainable ways, FAO generates evidence, knowledge and good practices which support the emergence of more self-reliant, inclusive, gender-equitable, and market-oriented producer organizations and cooperatives.


While in Uganda, Graziano da Silva met government officials and representatives of the private sector, academia, farmer organizations, and civil society, with whom he discussed the status of Uganda's agricultural sector, their respective contributions and the need for further assistance, especially through FAO.


In discussions with ministers, he underscored the importance of multi-sectoral and inter-ministerial coordination in tackling obstacles to agricultural development.

In order to improve the performance of small-scale and commercial farmers in the agriculture sector, Graziano da Silva emphasized the importance of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, and said the country needs to urgently start a process of implementing the guidelines. This process would involve civil society and the private sector.


They agreed they should start this process with FAO's support.

]]> FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/171537/icode/http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/171537/icode/ Fri, 08 Mar 2013 10:00:00 GMT On International Women’s Day, FAO, IFAD, WFP and IDLO highlight link between women, violence and food security On International Women's Day this year, the global community is focusing on how to eliminate and prevent all forms of violence against women and girls. In spite of the major role played by women in producing food and feeding their families, little attention has been paid to the connection between gender, violence and food security. Joint statement from the leaders*of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Development Law Organization (IDLO).

* José Graziano da Silva, Director-General FAO; Kanayo F. Nwanze, President IFAD; Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director WFP; Irene Khan, Director-General IDLO.




8 March 2013, Rome - On International Women's Day this year, the global community is focusing on how to eliminate and prevent all forms of violence against women and girls. In spite of the major role played by women in producing food and feeding their families, little attention has been paid to the connection between gender, violence and food security.

Gender discrimination fuels female malnutrition and disempowerment. Very often, discriminatory practices in rural communities generate biases in intra-household food distribution, whereby women and girls usually have access to limited and less nutritious food.

Poor families may marry off under-age daughters during times of famine so there's one less mouth to feed. Refugee women may be forced to trade sex for food. Women spend hours collecting firewood to cook the family meal, leaving themselves vulnerable to rape and other attacks. Widows are persecuted over land ownership but, all too often, national laws favour men over women. Domestic violence has an overall negative impact on agricultural production and family well-being. For many women struggling to feed themselves and their children today, food security would mean personal and legal security.

If we unite to increase food security for women, we also nourish the minds and bodies of whole communities. If a girl can attend school in a safe environment, she can reach her full mental and physical potential. She can avoid early marriage, forced marriage or other forms of violence. If a woman can register the birth of her children, legally own land and the money she earns, she can contribute to the benefit of her society and its economic development.

Women make up more than 40 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries.  Improving equality in women's access to agricultural inputs (such as seeds, tools, fertilisers), education and public services would contribute significantly to achieving food security and better nutrition for all.  

Empowering women and girls legally and economically creates opportunities for development, enhances their political voice and reduces their vulnerability to violence. Food security links the diverse elements needed to build a peaceful and fair future for them.



FAO works to get at the root causes of hunger. Its mandate is to raise levels of nutrition, improve sustainable agricultural productivity, better the lives of rural populations, and contribute to the growth of the world economy.

IFAD works with poor rural people to enable them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD has invested about US$14.8 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries through projects empowering over 400 million people to break out of poverty. 

WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide.  Each year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in more than 70 countries.

IDLO enables governments and empowers people to reform laws and strengthen institutions to promote peace, justice, sustainable development and economic opportunity. It is the only intergovernmental organization with a mandate exclusively focused on the rule of law.]]> FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/171299/icode/http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/171299/icode/ Fri, 08 Mar 2013 07:00:00 GMT Women are main guardians of crucial livestock diversity Women livestock keepers worldwide must be recognized as the major actors in efforts to arrest the decline of indigenous breeds, crucial for rural food security and animal genetics, a new FAO study argues. Yet women’s contribution to indigenous livestock breeding and conservation is poorly documented and undervalued, the study Invisible Guardians: Women manage livestock diversity says. 5 November 2012, Rome - Women livestock keepers worldwide must be recognized as the major actors in efforts to arrest the decline of indigenous breeds, crucial for rural food security and animal genetics, a new FAO study argues.

Yet women's contribution to indigenous livestock breeding and conservation is poorly documented and undervalued, the study Invisible Guardians: Women manage livestock diversity says.

Of the 600 million poor livestock keepers in the world, around two-thirds are women, whose men often have migrated to the cities. Women stay at home with the children and live by cultivating crops and keeping indigenous smallstock such as chickens or goats, and perhaps a cow.

Indigenous breeds are adapted to often harsh local conditions, are disease resistent, thrive on easy to obtain local fodder or forage and generally take care of themselves. Such breeds may not produce a lot of meat, milk or eggs but they are low maintenance for run-off-their-feet poor rural women.

Such breeds are also a repository of irreplaceable genetic material. They often have traits such as disease-resistance that can be important for breeding programmes. And in a world threatened by climate change, breeds that are resistant to drought, extreme heat or tropical diseases are of major potential importance.

Problems may arise when projects or national authorities try to introduce exotic breeds or cross-breeds to try to increase production of meat, milk and eggs to meet booming worldwide food demand. These animals need special and often expensive feed, wait to be fed rather than foraging on their own, need expensive veterinary care and cannot survive prolonged drought or other extreme weather.

Poor rural livestock keepers, and women in particular, are often unable to obtain the inputs or spare the time needed to raise these animals successfully. In case such breed introductions and production intensification are successful and livestock becomes an important source of cash income, women often lose their role as livestock keepers.

Need to document women's role

The advantages of indigenous breeds have been long known. But the FAO study asserts that the role of women in safeguarding and defending indigenous breeds and improving their genetics through careful breeding has not been appreciated.

Women are the guardians of livestock diversity, says study author Ilse Köhler-Rollefson.

Meanwhile, according to the latest figures, about 22 percent of the world's livestock breeds are still classified as being at risk of extinction, although breed population figures are often unreported or out of date, making the true state of livestock diversity difficult to estimate.

Countries are beginning to put programmes into place to reverse the alarming decline in the numbers of indigenous livestock breeds. The new study suggests that these initiatives will not be successful if women's role as keepers of indigenous livestock is not taken into account. Women have to be the central players in such conservation campaigns, the study says, and to ensure that they are, more groundwork needs to be done.

The report recommends that gender issues are made central to projects, programmes and policies that focus on animal genetic resource management.

The following actions among others should be taken at the project level:
  • Collect gender- and age-disaggregated data and investigate the rights, needs, roles and responsibilities of women during surveys and before embarking on any project related to animal genetic resources.
  • Design extension, training and the introduction of new technologies so that they are accessible to women.
  • Investigate family structures and how they affect the ability of women to act and interact.
  • Investigate specific problems that women have in accessing markets for their animal products.

If governments really want their conservation programmes to bear fruit, they can:
  • Conduct economic studies of keeping locally adapted vs improved breeds.
  • Ensure that poor herders have sufficient access to common property like grazing lands.
  • Inform banks about the importance of providing credit to rural women and about the benefits of indigenous breeds; banks currently tend to lend to male farmers and people who want to stock improved breeds.
  • Support value-chain development for products from indigenous breeds as a means of creating income opportunities for rural women and reviving local economies.

International agencies can back up national efforts to empower women livestock keepers by collecting and disseminating gender-disaggregated data and putting the issue on the global agenda in appropriate forums.]]> FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/163456/icode/http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/163456/icode/ Sun, 04 Nov 2012 23:00:00 GMT UN launches new programme to empower rural women and girls UN Women and the three Rome-based United Nations agencies working on food and agriculture today launched a joint programme to empower poor rural women through economic integration and food security initiatives. New York/Rome, 27 September 2012 - UN Women and the three Rome-based United Nations agencies working on food and agriculture today launched a joint programme to empower poor rural women through economic integration and food security initiatives.

The programme, Accelerating Progress Toward the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women, is a five-year initiative of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Programme (WFP). It will be implemented initially in Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Nepal, Niger and Rwanda.

"When women are empowered and can claim their rights and access to land, leadership, opportunities and choices, economies grow, food security is enhanced and prospects are improved for current and future generations," said Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director.

Women are central to the development of rural areas and to national economies. They make up 43 per cent of the agricultural work force worldwide, and as much as 70 per cent in some countries. Often working longer hours than men, rural women are also the caregivers who look after children, the elderly, and the sick. In addition, many rural women are small business entrepreneurs and investors who dedicate most  of their earnings to the well-being of their families and societies.

But despite some progress, most rural women and girls are still struggling. They typically face more obstacles than men in gaining access to public services, social protection, decent employment opportunities, and markets and other institutions.

If women had the same access to resources as men, they could increase farm yields. When women are empowered - economically and socially - they become leaders and agents of change for economic growth, social progress and sustainable development.

To address these issues, the joint programme will focus on four goals: improving food and nutrition security, increasing incomes, enhancing leadership and participation in rural institutions, and creating a more responsive policy environment at national and international levels.

Together, UN Women, FAO, IFAD and WFP will generate synergies that capitalize on each agency's mandate to advance gender equality.

Gender equality and rural women's empowerment are central to FAO's mandate to achieve food security for all. FAO works with governments and other partners to raise levels of nutrition, better the lives of rural populations, and improve agricultural productivity while contributing to the growth of the world economy. With FAO's support to national governments, several countries have adopted national food and agricultural policies and action plans that fully integrate women's and men's needs.

FAO works with national statistical offices in the collection, analysis and use of gender disaggregated data to give more visibility to rural women's economic and agricultural contributions. As a leader of several global food and nutrition initiatives, such as the Committee on World Food Security, the Alliance Against Hunger and Malnutrition and the Improved Global Governance for Hunger Reduction, FAO works to ensure that gender equality and women's empowerment are prominently featured in international debates and actions.

Gender equality and women's empowerment have been at the core of IFAD's efforts to reduce rural poverty and improve food and nutrition security since its founding in 1978. Through its loans and grants portfolio, IFAD works with smallholder farmers, many of whom are women. Results reported in 2011 showed that 19 million poor rural women participated in IFAD-supported programmes and projects. Women made up 60 percent of all people trained in business and entrepreneurship, and in community management topics, and accounted for more than 50 percent of users of rural financial services.

IFAD's loan programme regularly works on a bi-lateral basis with initiatives of the other agencies, such as FAO's Farmer Field Schools, WFP's Purchase for Progress and Food for Work programmes, and UN Women's leadership and capacity-building efforts.

In 2011, WFP provided assistance to 83 million women and children. WFP puts women at the centre of its efforts to fight hunger and malnutrition emphasising the importance of nutrition in the critical, first 1,000 days of life from the moment of conception. Purchase for Progress (P4P) helps smallholder farmers, particularly women, become competitive players in the marketplace by producing food for sale and for use in WFP programmes. Projects such as cereal banks and village granaries, where women play an important role, help whole communities manage their resources and get through times when food is scarce.

WFP works in partnership to build capacity with national governments, non-governmental organisations, private sector companies, small-scale farmers and all members of the community to empower rural woman. For experience has shown that in the hands of women, food is most likely to reach the mouths of children in need.

UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. It stands behind women's equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on five priority areas: increasing women's leadership and participation; ending violence against women; engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes; enhancing women's economic empowerment; and making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting. UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system's work in advancing gender equality.

]]> FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/158377/icode/http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/158377/icode/ Thu, 27 Sep 2012 06:00:00 GMT International Women’s Day: FAO gender policy aims high One of the keys to eradicating hunger and extreme poverty is to increase social, educational and economic opportunities for women and girls. A new Gender Equality Policy launched today by FAO aims to place the improvement of gender equality at the center of the UN agency's work to boost sustainable agriculture and development. 8 March 2012, Rome – One of the keys to eradicating hunger and extreme poverty is to increase social, educational and economic opportunities for women and girls. A new Gender Equality Policy launched today by FAO aims to place the improvement of gender equality at the center of the UN agency’s work to boost sustainable agriculture and development.

FAO Director-General Graziano da Silva announced the new policy as he took part in this year’s International Women’s Day event, held at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Each year, on a rotating basis FAO, IFAD and the World Food Programme — all headquartered in Rome, Italy — mark the day in a joint observance.

“FAO's gender policy underscores the Organization’s commitment to addressing gender and women’s issues to eradicate hunger and poverty,” said Graziano da Silva.

FAO asserts that the empowerment of women could raise their farm productivity by 20-30 percent, increase national agricultural output by 2.5 to 4.0 percent, and ultimately, lift 100-150 million people out of hunger.

Gender equality objectives

FAO will work with countries, UN agencies, and bilateral civil society, private sector partners and academia to make progress toward achieving the following objectives by 2025:

1. Women and men participate equally as decision-makers in rural institutions and in shaping laws, policies and programs.

2. Women and men have equal access to and control over decent employment and income, land and other productive resources.

3. Women and men have equal access to goods and services for agricultural development  and to markets.

4. Women’s work burden is reduced by 20 percent through improved technologies, services and infrastructure.

5. The percentage of agricultural aid committed to women/gender-equality related projects is increased to 30 percent of total agricultural aid.

While countries themselves bear the main responsibility for achieving gender equality objectives, FAO will plan, implement and monitor its programmes and policies to ensure that they contribute to achieving those aims.

The new FAO policy recommends targets for increasing the organization’s effectiveness in addressing gender imbalances, including incorporating sex-disaggregated data into all major FAO statistical databases by 2015 (where relevant and available) and allocating 30 percent of FAO’s operational work and budget at the country and regional levels to targeted, women-specific interventions by 2017.

In a further bid to enhance its effectiveness, FAO is also in the process of finalizing a human resources plan designed to help achieve its corporate objective of 50 percent female representation among all internationally recruited, professional staff worldwide. The objective is in keeping with standards throughout the UN system.]]> FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/128104/icode/http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/128104/icode/ Thu, 08 Mar 2012 08:00:00 GMT Rural institutions, tools for social and economic progress Strong rural organizations like producer groups and cooperatives are crucial to hunger and poverty reduction. This thinking connects a series of case studies found in a new publication by FAO and IFAD. It highlights successful institutional innovations that have empowered small-scale producers, and contributed to food security in different regions of the world. 1 March 2012, Rome - Strong rural organizations like producer groups and cooperatives are crucial to hunger and poverty reduction. They allow small producers to play a greater role in meeting growing food demand on local, national and international markets, while improving their own economic, social and political opportunities.

This thinking connects a series of case studies found in a new publication by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

The publication, Good practices in building innovative rural institutions to increase food security, released during the International Year of Cooperatives, presents thirty-five cases of successful institutional innovations that have empowered small-scale producers, and contributed to food security in different regions in the world.

"In order to be fully productive, small farmers, fisher folk, livestock keepers and forest users in developing countries are in dire need of services that are lacking in rural areas," say FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze in the publication's foreword.

"There is a need to recognize the critical role of these innovative organizations and institutional arrangements in order to be more effective in poverty reduction and food security efforts," they continue.

The case studies describe some of the services and resources that these institutional arrangements and new models of public-private engagement can offer to small-scale producers. They include accessing and managing natural resources; providing inputs like seeds and equipment; enabling access to markets; improving information and communication, and helping small producers to have a voice in decision-making processes.

  • Farmer Field Schools developed by FAO in Asia, and subsequently in Africa, have enabled millions of small farmers to analyze their production systems; identify their risks and opportunities and test solutions, and adopt new practices that lead to improvements in their livelihoods and food security.
  • West African and Indian farmer groups have helped members to obtain short-term credit through a "warehouse receipt system". In collaboration with micro-finance institutions, they have provided storage facilities for agricultural products. The receipts are then used as guarantees to obtain short-term credit.
  • In India, where a disastrous harvest can lead poor people to mortgage their lands, a women's association has provided loans to release mortgaged land and free borrowers from dealing with money lenders.
  • In Cameroon, farmers' groups, collectors, buyers, resellers and researchers collaborated to select a new plantain variety that fetches a higher price than traditional plaintains. The new variety is also used to make specialty dishes and chips. This has led to the emergence of small groups, including dozens of women's groups, concerned not only with the production and sale of bunches, but also with processing the plantain into chips.
  • In the Gambia, the National Fisheries Post Harvest Operator Platform is a mechanism for dialogue where governments can learn about small producers' needs while producers express their concerns and preferences.
  • In Honduras, greater control over natural resources was transferred to local communities as part of the decentralization process, resulting in better land management and cropping practices. These Community Development Councils, representing rural families, participated in the Municipal Council and managed to ban slash-and-burn agriculture.


Some of the case studies also demonstrate the importance of including youth in small producer organizations and in decision-making processes.

"While highlighting the success factors for small producer organizations to thrive, these good practices can allow development practitioners and other stakeholders to learn from successful initiatives in various countries, to support them and replicate them. We hope that policy-makers and development practitioners in developing countries will build on insights from this set of case studies to promote innovative types of partnerships involving relevant stakeholders for effective food security strategies and rural development," write Graziano da Silva and Nwanze.

Support for women

Women in developing countries are among those who have benefited from rural organizations and other innovative institutions.

Women make up, on average, 43 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries, but tend to have lower-paid, less secure forms of employment and less access than men to agricultural resources like land, livestock, farm labour, education, extension services, credit, fertilizers and mechanical equipment.

The Good practices publication shows how rural organizations, including cooperatives, can help women farmers to overcome the social, economic and environmental constraints they face, by providing services such as access to markets, information, extension, and natural resources:

  • In India, members of a women's association increased their vegetable production through better management of natural resources. The women have used watershed development techniques, such as building stone bunds, or ridges, and vegetative barriers, to control soil erosion, and reclaimed 3 000 hectares of ravine lands in 73 villages.
  • In Burkina Faso, a microfinance network has provided short-term credit to women in order to support their development of parboiled rice, which tends to be more marketable due to its improved flavour and nutritional values.
  • A water-use association in Ghana helps women to gain access to land for vegetable production by collecting a fee for annual membership that entitles each woman to a vegetable plot.


Producer organizations combined with links to non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the research community, and public and private actors also help small-scale producers, both men and women, to voice their concerns and interests in order to influence policy-making processes.

]]> FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/124291/icode/http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/124291/icode/ Thu, 01 Mar 2012 09:00:00 GMT Reforming forest tenure systems Reforming forest tenure systems and securing forest ownership rights can significantly improve peoples’ livelihoods and enable them to gain income from forest products, said FAO in a newly published guide, Reforming Forest Tenure. The continuing demand for land, weak governance in many countries, and climate change add urgency to forest tenure reform. 13 July 2011, Rome – Reforming forest tenure systems and securing forest ownership rights can significantly improve peoples’ livelihoods and enable them to gain income from forest products, said FAO in a newly published guide, Reforming Forest Tenure. 

“The continuing demand for land, weak governance in many countries, and emerging global challenges such as climate change increase the urgency of addressing forest tenure reform,” said Eva Muller, FAO’s Chief Forest Policy Officer.  

The guide was launched at the Forest Tenure, Governance and Enterprise Conference taking place in Lombok, Indonesia, from 11 to 15 July. Attended by around 200 representatives from international and regional organizations, private sector, non-governmental organizations, civil society and researchers, the conference was co-organized by the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry (MOF), the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) and the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI).

In recent years, FAO has carried out extensive assessments of forest tenure systems in Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Central Asia and its impact on sustainable forest management and poverty reduction. Based on this analysis, the guide offers practical guidance for policy makers involved in forest tenure reforms.

State of ownership of the world’s forests
 
According to FAO, around 80 percent of the world’s forests are publicly owned, but forest ownership and management by communities, individuals and private companies are increasing – more in some countries than in others.  

In Venezuela and French Guiana, for example, almost all forests are under public ownership, whereas in Paraguay, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Chile more than 30 percent of forests are under private ownership. In Peru, Guyana and Costa Rica, more than ten percent of forests are owned by indigenous people. 

“A more diversified tenure system could result in improving forest management and local livelihoods, particularly where state capacities to manage forests are weak,” said Muller. 

Social equity and gender dimensions 

Forest tenure reforms should give attention to the empowerment of marginalized groups, particularly women and the poor. Research suggests that trees and forests are more important to rural women’s livelihoods than men’s. Poor women in one Madagascar community earned 37 percent of their income from forest products, compared with men’s 22 percent. In some areas of Andhra Pradesh, 77 percent of women’s income was derived from forests. 

Forests can be crucial to the survival strategies of farming women. In sub-Saharan Africa, responsibility for caring for household members afflicted by HIV/AIDS falls mainly on women, leaving them with less time for agricultural production. As a result, they become more reliant on forest foods and income from fuelwood. 

Enabling environment   

Without an enabling policy environment, forest tenure reform is unlikely to deliver the beneficial socio-economic outcomes, Muller stressed. Key stakeholders should be enabled to manage forests in a way that improves both their livelihoods and the condition of forests. Forest tenure should be as secure as possible, and overregulation should be avoided by keeping compliance procedures simple. Legislation should be coupled with responsible governance at all levels, including government agencies, the private sector and communities.  

Recognition of customary rights 

Many forests worldwide have been used, managed and even owned on the basis of traditional or customary tenure. Such informal tenure systems often operate in parallel with legal tenure. In such cases local people regard forests and forest products as belonging to specific people or groups, regardless of whether the rights have been recognized by the government or not.  

Informal tenure can be effective, unless other interests, such as privatization or converting to other land-uses encroach, which often results in conflict and frequently leads to forest degradation. Tenure reforms should take into consideration customary tenure systems that are not legally protected, Muller said.           ]]> FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/81859/icode/http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/81859/icode/ Wed, 13 Jul 2011 05:00:00 GMT Moving beyond subsistence farming in Sierra Leone Two-thirds of Sierra Leone's population depends on agriculture, while some 70 percent lives below the poverty line. By encouraging farmers to "farm for business", Sierra Leone hopes to lift annual agricultural growth to the 7.7 percent needed to halve poverty and hunger by 2015. To achieve this, the government is working with FAO and other partners. 12 April 2011, Sierra Leone - Fatmata Sesay means business.

"I hope within five years we are selling on the international market," says the 45-year-old farmer from Kailahun in eastern Sierra Leone.

As head of an organization of farmers - many of them women widowed during the country's brutal civil war - she knows there is strength in numbers.

Before, Sesay just grew enough to feed her family. If she sold, it was only in small quantities and usually at a low price.

But recently she has seen her profits from rice and cassava double - an increase made possible, she reckons, by using high-yielding seeds and by marketing collectively.

And she has seen a change in attitude.

Farmers, buoyed by better earnings, are growing more crops and "beginning to see that farming can be a profitable business," she says.

She hopes that momentum will continue and that farmers, like herself, will be supported in taking it to another level, one that could put them - and the country — on a path to greater prosperity.

Farming for business

The Government of Sierra Leone means business, too, which is why it is moving full speed ahead with its plan to help the country's smallholder farmers make the transition from subsistence to commercial farming.

Boiled down, the five-year, $403 million plan — known as the smallholder commercialisation programme — seeks to help farmers grow more and varied crops, process more of what they produce, and market their goods more effectively.

Around 3.5 million people — roughly two-thirds of the country — depend on agriculture, while some 70 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. By encouraging farmers to "farm for business", Sierra Leone hopes to lift annual agricultural growth to the 7.7 percent needed to halve poverty and hunger by 2015.

To achieve this, the Government is working with FAO and other partners to make sure farmers have better access to quality seeds, fertilizers and machinery as well as training — from improved cropping techniques and group governance to financial management and marketing skills.

It is also making a big push to develop irrigation systems, improve feeder roads so that farmers can get their goods to the market and make it easier for them to access financial services.

Agricultural business centres

The agricultural business centre is the centrepiece of the programme — a place in the community where farmers can buy seeds and fertilizers, rent equipment to cut down on labour costs and process, store and market what they harvest.

Efforts are under way to empower existing farmer-based organizations, many of which started out as farmer field schools, to operate these centres on a cost-recovery basis.

"The plan is for the centres eventually to be independent of Government support and external support," says Kevin Gallagher, former FAO Representative for Sierra Leone. "It is important to get them linked to markets so there are opportunities and new kinds of jobs — not just in farming but in mechanisation and shop keeping."

With funds from the European Union, Ireland, the Islamic Development Bank and Italy, 192 centres are being built and equipped with rice mills, cassava graters and drying floors, while board members and equipment operators are receiving training.

Michael Dick, a 35-year-old farmer from Moyamba, thinks the centre will make a huge difference in his community.

By selling bags of unprocessed cassava root, farmers have been losing out on the profits they could make from gari (cassava meal) and fufu (boiled and pounded cassava), and even by-products like starch, says Dick, referring to two popular dishes in Sierra Leone.

"If we had graters and compressors and training we could process and sell these things ourselves," he added. "It would be much more profitable."

FAO is working closely with the Government to make sure the existing centres are on a sound footing with strong management systems in place.

The Government's goal is then to strengthen and expand upon these activities — a goal that got a boost from a recent $50 million grant from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), a multi-donor funding mechanism.

‘Our goal is to be self-reliant'

The smallholder commercialisation programme, which is part of a 20-year national plan for sustainable agriculture development, is ambitious.

And it's not without hurdles. Sierra Leone has made remarkable progress in the eight years since the end of the war, but it is still one of the poorest countries in the world. Malnutrition and illiteracy rates are high, electricity is patchy and unemployment, especially among young people, is rife.

"The healthcare message was easier to get out," explains David Mwesigwa, FAO Sierra Leone Emergency Coordinator for the European Union Food Facility, referring to the Government's recent initiative to provide free health care to pregnant women and children. "But for agriculture, it is another story. It isn't free. It requires an investment from the farmers."

The programme is still in its infancy, but it has much on its side for it to succeed — abundant fertile land, decent rainfall, widespread support from the Government and the international community and, perhaps most importantly, growing enthusiasm from the country's farmers.

"Everyone suffered during the war. Our goal is to be self-reliant and that's the message I'm spreading to others," says Dick.  "We can't rely on handouts."]]> FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/52423/icode/http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/52423/icode/ Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:00:00 GMT Closing the gender gap in agriculture If women in rural areas had the same access to land, technology, financial services, education and markets as men, agricultural production could be increased and the number of hungry people reduced by 100-150 million, FAO said today in its 2010-11 edition of "The State of Food and Agriculture" (SOFA 2010-11) report. 7 March 2011, Rome - If women in rural areas had the same access to land, technology, financial services, education and markets as men, agricultural production could be increased and the number of hungry people reduced by 100-150 million, FAO said today in its 2010-11 edition of The State of Food and Agriculture report.

Yields on plots managed by women are lower than those managed by men, the report said. But this is not because women are worse farmers than men. They simply do not have the same access to inputs. If they did, their yields would go up, they would produce more and overall agricultural production would increase, the report said. 

"The report makes a powerful business case for promoting gender equality in agriculture," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf.

"Gender equality is not just a lofty ideal, it is also crucial for agricultural development and food security. We must promote gender equality and empower women in agriculture to win, sustainably, the fight against hunger and extreme poverty," he added.

Closing yield gaps reaps gains for all

Just giving women the same access as men to agricultural resources could increase production on women's farms in developing countries by 20 to 30 percent. This could raise total agricultural production in developing countries by 2.5 to 4 percent, which could in turn reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12 to 17 percent, or 100 to 150 million people. An estimated 925 million people in the world were undernourished in 2010, of which 906 million live in developing countries.

"We must eliminate all forms of discrimination against women, ensure that access to resources is more equal and that agricultural policies and programmes are gender-aware, and make women's voices heard in decision-making at all levels. Women must be seen as equal partners in sustainable development," Diouf said.

Women's work

Women make up on average 43 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries, ranging from 20% in Latin America to almost 50% in East and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The share is higher in some countries and varies greatly within countries.

Where rural women are employed, they tend to be segregated into lower paid occupations and are more likely to be in less secure forms of employment, such as seasonal, part-time or low-wage jobs.

New jobs in high-value export-oriented agro-industries offer better opportunities for women than traditional agriculture, the report says.

Mind the gap

The report documents gender gaps in the access to a wide range of agricultural resources, including land, livestock, farm labour, education, extension services, credit, fertilizers and mechanical equipment.

Women in all regions generally have less access to land than men. For those developing countries for which data are available, between 3 and 20 percent of all landholders are women. The share of women in the agricultural labour force is much higher and ranges from 20 to 50 percent in developing country regions.  

"Women farmers typically achieve lower yields than men, not because they are less skilled, but because they operate smaller farms and use fewer inputs like fertilizers, improved seeds and tools," said Terri Raney, editor of the SOFA report.

Leveling the ploughing field

"Evidence from many countries shows that policies can promote gender equality and empower women in agriculture and rural employment. The first priority is to eliminate discrimination under the law," Raney said. "In many countries women do not have the same rights as men to buy, sell or inherit land, to open a savings account or borrow money, to sign a contract or sell their produce. Where legal rights exist on paper, they often are not honored in practice."

Government officials must be held accountable for upholding the law and women must be aware of their rights and empowered to claim them.

Women face multiple constraints in agriculture arising from the complex nature of agricultural production and from competing demands on their time. To be effective, interventions must be "bundled" so they treat these constraints together, the report says.

Policies and institutions often have different impacts on men and women - even when no explicit discrimination is intended. "Men and women have different roles in society and face different opportunities and constraints," said Raney. "We can't make good agricultural policy unless we consider gender differences."

Building human capital

In addition to increasing overall agricultural production, closing the gender gap in agriculture would also put more income in the hands of women - a proven strategy for improving health, nutrition and education outcomes for children.

"One of the best investments we can make is in building the human capital of women and girls - basic education, market information and agricultural extension services are essential building blocks for agricultural productivity and economic growth," Raney said.

]]> FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/52011/icode/http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/52011/icode/ Mon, 07 Mar 2011 10:00:00 GMT New UN report says rural women face increasing inequality A new UN report on the gender dimension of agricultural work says women still benefit less than men from rural employment and face new challenges due to the current economic and food crises. 21 January 2011, Rome/Geneva - A new United Nations interagency report on the gender dimension of agricultural work says women still benefit less than men from rural employment and face new challenges due to the current economic and food crises.

The report — "Gender dimensions of agricultural and rural employment: Differentiated pathways out of poverty" — says that "although gender inequality varies considerably across regions and sectors, there is evidence that, globally, women benefit less from rural employment, whether in self- or wage-employment, than men do".

At the same time, the report says that besides other challenges regarding gender disparities in rural employment, "the recent financial and food crises have slowed down progress towards greater gender equity" and decent work for women in agricultural and rural areas over the past few years.

"With job losses and cuts in spending on social services and infrastructure, women's care burdens and unpaid work have intensified, and their financial contribution to household food security is likely to decrease," the report says. "This is particularly dramatic for female-headed households".

The report also cites migration and the feminization of rural activities, international trade and the diversification of the rural economy, and child labour as other issues and trends affecting women employed in agricultural work.

The report by FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) brings together the latest thinking on the gender dimension of rural and agricultural work and seeks to promote the debate about the importance of women for rural economic growth and poverty reduction.

The report says some of the factors that may push women into a disadvantaged economic position are: employment (occupation and task), segmentation (women are disproportionately employed in low-quality jobs), the gender gap in earnings, and fewer hours of paid work but overall larger work burdens.

Gender discrimination

As an example, the report says "it is interesting to observe that 90 percent of the wage gap between men and women in developed or developing counties is unexplained: in other words, it is attributed to gender discrimination".

The report shows that women face discrimination that limits both their economic productivity and their personal development. Women need access to education, training, credit, markets, technical assistance and labour protection. They need equal, secure access to land and other assets. And they need ‘social capital', including the ability to participate equally with men in farmers' organizations.

With these advantages (long available to men), women can increase their contribution to national development and poverty reduction. Seventy per cent of the developing world's 1.4 billion extremely poor people live in rural areas, so raising rural women's economic participation is crucial to achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Among the report's conclusions are:

  • The enormous economic contribution of unpaid work must be recognized, and measures must be implemented to reduce and redistribute the burden of housework.
  • Public works programmes can support gender equality in rural employment, especially if beneficiaries are genuinely involved in designing them.
  • Promoting quality female education in rural areas and reducing gender gaps in primary and secondary schooling will improve women's access to decent employment.
  • Non-traditional agricultural exports can generate quality employment for women and men, but women in particular are vulnerable to lax enforcement of labour standards.
  • A package of complementary policy measures is needed to address the many gender differences in rural employment. The measures should include legal reforms that promote gender equality; social safety nets; assistance to organizations supporting farmers, women and youth; child care programmes; education; and better access to information and labour markets.


The cornerstone of the report's analysis is the United Nation's Decent Work Agenda, which focuses on better jobs, social protection, universal application of labour standards and promotion of equitable rural institutions.

The agencies also launched a set of seven action-oriented policy briefs for practitioners on key aspects of rural employment and decent work that identify specific challenges, and successful approaches to tackle them.

]]> FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/49806/icode/http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/49806/icode/ Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:00:00 GMT Building skills to boost Liberia’s rice crop In Liberia, the EU and FAO work with the government and the UN Joint Programme for Food Security and Nutrition, aiming to provide emergency assistance to food-insecure households while also building the long-term capacity of Liberians to improve their livelihoods. The programme is working with both men’s and women’s farmer cooperatives. 26 August 2010, Tappita/Rome - Like most of her neighbors in Liberia's Nimba County, Elizabeth Roberts learned to cultivate rice from previous generations of subsistence farmers. She also learned that it was not unusual to lose much of the year's rice crop after harvest.

Liberia's farmers lose up to half of their annual rice crop to post-harvest losses resulting from pests and spoilage, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. Getting more of Liberia's rice crop to market has been one of the challenges facing the country as it strives to cut its dependence on rice imports.

Through a local cooperative for women farmers, Roberts, 44, has become part of an ambitious national plan to boost the production, quality, durability and marketability of Liberia's rice crop.

Instructors trained by FAO have shown Roberts and other members of a local women's farmer cooperative improved techniques for producing, processing and storing rice.

Added value

Straddling a dirt embankment in a rice field in Tappita, Roberts explained that she and other members of the cooperative, the Tappita Women's Structure, have learned how to turn overgrown swamps into lowland rice fields, improve rice yield and quality throughout the growth cycle, use various techniques to protect the rice from pests, and add to the value of the crop with proper post-harvest processing and storage.

"We used to, you know, just put the rice in the ground," Roberts said, fanning one hand outward to mimic the planting of rice seedlings. "At the workshop, they taught me how to prepare rice in the nursery and lay the rice. Then, after the harvest, you mash it, parboil it, and let it dry good," said Roberts.

The plan is funded in part by the European Union Food Facility, the EU's massive response to higher food prices in developing countries, with technical support from FAO.

Men and women

In Liberia, the EUFF is part of a multi-faceted initiative by the government and the UN Joint Programme for Food Security and Nutrition, which aims to provide emergency assistance to food-insecure households while also building the long-term capacity of Liberians to improve their livelihoods.

To maximize the impact of distribution and training initiatives, the programme is working with both men's and women's farmer cooperatives, to be sure that women are given equal access to opportunities for distribution, training and decision-making processes.

"We insisted on involving women directly in swamp rehabilitation so that women would be able to help themselves grow more food, to have some to carry home. They wanted to do this job, but they did not have the means," said Sarah Mendoabar, mayor of Tappita, a town of 11 000 people surrounded by villages that are home to another 4 000 other people.

Mendoabar says female-headed households have been especially hard hit by higher food prices and a decline in household purchasing power in recent years. In addition to training, local women and men have also received seeds, fertilizer and other pest-control supplies from FAO.

Together

For Roberts, the most surprising part of the agricultural training was the sight of a large metal vat, poised over a wood fire and filled with steaming, parboiled rice. She learned that parboiling rice would help to preserve nutrients in the rice grains, and increase their marketability.

Roberts now helps to train other members of her women's farmer cooperative in sustainable farming and post-harvest processing techniques.

She says updated methods for preserving nutrients in rice and making it more durable will, together with improved storage techniques, allow her and other farmers to reduce post-harvest losses of rice grain and lay the groundwork for a better future.


"I'll pull my women together and we will do this together. We will share what we learn in workshops and field practice."

]]> FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/44546/icode/http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/44546/icode/ Wed, 25 Aug 2010 22:00:00 GMT Taking action to support rural women Tackling hunger requires moving from talk to action in ensuring that women farmers have equal access to agricultural resources and an equal voice in decision making at all levels, FAO said this week, as a high-level UN meeting put gender equality and women's empowerment at the top of the agenda. 1 July 2010, New York - Tackling hunger requires moving from talk to action in ensuring that women farmers have equal access to agricultural resources and an equal voice in decision making at all levels, FAO said this week, as a high-level UN meeting put gender equality and women's empowerment at the top of the agenda.


Beyond words


Women grow more than half of the world's food, yet often lack access to resources such as agricultural inputs, land, financing, technologies, training and markets.


At a side event jointly organized by FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) during the Annual Ministerial Review of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), participants examined how to overcome critical gaps in the advancement of rural women.


The event, From Dialogue to action: how to promote the empowerment of rural women in agriculture, looked at efforts in a number of countries to take action on critical issues facing rural women.


Count women in


For Liberian Minister of Agriculture Florence Chenoweth, the key to ensuring effective targeting of scarce resources is improved agricultural data collection.


Sex-disaggregated statistics have enabled the government to more accurately target training and inputs to the rural women who produce more than 50 percent of the country's food, she said.


Now, says Chenoweth, "When the trucks leave Monrovia, our capital, for the field, the seed rice says ‘women'. The fertilizer says, ‘women'. The portion that we have calculated to go to those women is targeted and it is written."


In 2009, the country saw a 43 percent increase in the production of staple crops rice and cassava, Chenoweth said. "So we know that those women were getting some benefit."


‘Front and centre'


Patricia Haslach, Deputy Coordinator for Diplomacy of the US Department of State's Feed the Future initiative, said that women are "front and centre" in the U.S. Government's development strategy.


"When women earn more income, they spend more on food and their children's health and nutrition," said Haslach. "By investing more in women, we amplify benefits across families and generations." 


Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has an addendum to the age-old proverb: "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime," Haslach said.  


"If you teach a woman to fish, she'll feed her whole village."


Feed the Future's women-centred approach is not about "giving preference for the sake of giving preference. It's about being effective in implementing our strategy," Haslach said, adding that a robust monitoring and evaluation system would ensure assistance that is "agile, adaptive and evidence-based".


Contributors, not beneficiaries


"Agriculture is production. Production is power, and power is ownership, entitlement," said Neriede Segala Coelho, a grassroots leader and farmer from Brazil.


"As long as women are seen as submissive and restricted to the role of recipient and beneficiary, agriculture will continue to have a large gap," said Coelho.  "When women sit at the table to make decisions, the process takes a different shape."


Coelho said that as a result of women's participation in a consultative process in her own community of Pintadas, cisterns were built to store water in every house, and drip irrigation and other low-cost, appropriate technologies were introduced to improve production and women's living conditions, generate income and use resources more sustainably.


Supporting Haitian women


Myrta Kaulard, WFP Country Director for Haiti, discussed how IFAD, FAO and WFP were working together to strengthen Haitian women's access to adequate food and nutrition, income-earning opportunities, and basic services and infrastructure by integrating social investments, such as water and sanitation, health and education into agricultural and rural economic programmes.


Summing up the discussion and stressing the importance of concerted action, Cheryl Morden, Director of IFAD's North American Liaison Office, called on an African adage: "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."


The UN food agencies hope that the economic empowerment of rural women will figure prominently in September's UN Summit to review progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including MDG 1 to end poverty and hunger and MDG 3 to promote gender equality and empower women.


FAO Deputy Director-General Jim Butler encouraged participants to support FAO's 1billionhungry project, urging governments to make eradication of hunger a top priority.

]]> FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/43663/icode/http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/43663/icode/ Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:00:00 GMT Sharpening the focus on gender in agriculture A new FAO toolkit aims to sharpen the focus of anti-hunger and development efforts by helping countries gather more accurate information on differences between men and women in agriculture. This kind of detailed information allows planners to tailor their efforts and support those who lack access to productive resources. 15 April 2010, Rome - A new FAO toolkit aims to sharpen the focus of anti-hunger and development efforts by helping countries gather more accurate information on differences between men and women in agriculture.

The Agri-Gender Database, developed in response to a request from the African Commission on Agricultural Statistics (AFCAS), offers step-by-step, example-driven guidance on how to collect gender statistics, or sex-disaggregated data, in agriculture.

It is designed for a wide range of users who influence development planning, from agricultural statisticians and researchers to policy planners and gender advocates.

"Gathering statistics on how women differ from men in the nature of their agricultural work - and on other issues like their access to resources and exposure to food insecurity - is essential to improving the planning and sustainability of development policies and programmes," said Diana Tempelman, FAO Senior Officer for Gender and Development.

"With more specific information, policy-makers can provide greater support to those who lack access to and control over agricultural resources and help women to achieve greater equality and food security," Tempelman said. "But users and producers of agricultural statistics have noted that the information compiled often does not reflect the actual roles and responsibilities of women in agricultural production."

The methodology for gathering such information, as illustrated in the toolkit, was developed over two decades of research and direct work on census surveys in numerous countries in Africa. 

"Very often, when people look for gender-related data, they look for it in relation to social issues, education, health, and legal aspects of people's lives. Very rarely do they think of agricultural statistics-gathering as a tool for collecting gender data. The Agri-Gender Database will help them in this regard," says Tempelman.

The first edition of the toolkit includes examples of gender-relevant questions and table formats used in agricultural censuses in fifteen African countries between 1993 and 2006.

The database covers topics like agricultural population and households, access to resources, production and productivity, labour and time use, the destination of agricultural produce, income and expenditures, membership in farmer organizations and indicators for food security and poverty.

Asking the right questions

The contribution of women and girls to agricultural production is often underreported because data on much of what they produce is obtained from records of land holdings, which are formally headed by men. One of the key changes in data-gathering advocated by the Agri-Gender Database is the use of information gathered not only according to each land holding or household, but as reported by males and females within each household. The majority of women involved in agriculture - around 80 percent - work in households headed by males.

Data collected in Tanzania revealed how the use of financial resources for purchasing agricultural supplies tends to differ between male-headed households and female-headed households.

"Female-headed households use whatever little credit is available for labour or seeds, which may leave you only at the current level of productivity. It may increase production, but not necessarily productivity. Males, instead, are more likely to buy fertilizer or agro-chemicals, which are productivity-enhancing inputs."

This kind of information could enable planners to tailor their efforts to support those who lack access to adequate productive resources.]]> FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/41208/icode/http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/41208/icode/ Thu, 15 Apr 2010 08:00:00 GMT New FAO database eyes gender gap in land rights A Gender and Land Rights Database launched by FAO puts the spotlight on one of the major stumbling blocks to rural development - widespread inequalities between men and women in their access to land. It offers up-to-date information on how men and women in 78 countries differ in their legal rights and access to land. 17 February 2010, Rome - A new database launched by FAO puts the spotlight on one of the major stumbling blocks to rural development - widespread inequalities between men and women in their access to land.

The Gender and Land Rights Database, produced in consultation with national statistics authorities, universities, civil society organizations and other sources worldwide, offers up-to-date information on how men and women in 78 countries differ in their legal rights and access to land.

In most of the world, women lag well behind men in ownership of agricultural land and access to income from land, even though women are major producers of food crops and play crucial roles in providing and caring for their households.

"Disparity in land access is one of the major causes for social and economic inequalities between males and females in rural areas. It jeopardizes food security at the household and community levels, and has an impact on national food security and development. It is vital information for policy makers. But until now, finding information on this phenomenon in one place has been difficult to come by," Marcela Villarreal, Director, FAO Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division said as the new database was placed online.

The new information tool, available to anyone with access to the Internet, provides policymakers and other users with a better picture of the major social, economic, political and cultural factors which affect access to land and enforcement of women's land rights.

The database covers both national and customary laws governing land use; property rights and inheritance; international treaties and conventions; land tenure and related institutions; civil society organizations that work on land issues, and other related statistics.

By searching country profiles, users can find out the answers to specific questions on topics like the total number of land holders, the total number of women land holders and the number of rural households headed by women. They can also call up comparisons on a given topic between two or more countries.

"Decision-makers at all levels now have, on the one hand, a comprehensive source of information on the more relevant factors affecting the equality of land rights in their countries and, on the other hand, the possibility to make comparisons between trends and situations in their own and other countries," FAO Gender and Development Research Officer Zoraida Garcia said.

"They can then use this information to tailor their own decisions and strategies, but also to have a clearer idea of the possible impacts which those strategies might have on the real economic empowerment of women, and on the well-being of rural communities," she added.

"FAO had so many requests on a regular basis from member states and others in the international community who wanted to understand how gender disparities affected and were impacted by the land tenure situation. That's why we developed this tool, to help provide a comprehensive view of the issue," Garcia explained.

It was a positive sign that countries recognized gender and land rights as a "core issue" on the development agenda, Garcia added.

Customary norms, religious beliefs and social practices that influence gender-differentiated land rights:
  • Traditional authorities and customary institutions
  • Inheritance/succession de facto practices
  • Discrepancies/gaps between statutory and customary laws.


Theory versus practice

One of the key patterns seen in the database, said Garcia, is the great gulf between formal rights and practice. In many cases, national constitutions acknowledge men and women have equal rights to land, but the day-to-day reality is very different. Often, those rights are jeopardized by conflicting laws or long-standing traditional and institutional practices which assign land titles and inheritance to males or the man's side of the family.

As it grows, the Gender and Land Rights Database will incorporate suggestions from users and feedback on how specific information has been used in national dialogues on land use, gender and agricultural and rural development.

]]> FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/40081/icode/http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/40081/icode/ Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:00:00 GMT Women in agriculture: the critical food producers 15 October 2008, Rome – Women make up over half the agriculture labour force yet they are frequently subject to discrimination, poverty and hunger. A new publication launched today investigates the situation of women in the rural workforce and how some of the main challenges facing such women can be overcome. 15 October 2008, Rome – Women make up over half the agriculture labour force yet they are frequently subject to discrimination, poverty and hunger. A new publication launched today investigates the situation of women in the rural workforce and how some of the main challenges facing such women can be overcome.

Launched on the occasion of International Rural Women’s Day on 15 October, the Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook reviews the complex issues that face more than 36 percent of the world’s working women employed in agriculture.

Based on the work done by gender specialists from the World Bank, FAO, IFAD and international experts, the Sourcebook is intended both as a reference and a tool book for those working in agricultural development.

Among the book’s findings it notes that involving women in the design and field testing of new crop varieties, machinery and tools, in Honduras, Nepal, the Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia, speeds the adoption of innovations and increases agricultural productivity and incomes.

Women have less access to resources

“Compared to men, women have much less access to essential productive resources such as land, irrigation, agricultural technology and extension services, less education and training, and fewer financial resources like credit,” notes Marcella Villarreal FAO Director, Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division.

In Ghana, it is estimated that if women and men had equal rights to land, and if women had equal access to fertilizer, profits per hectare would double.

In Burkina Faso, Kenya and Tanzania, for example, providing women entrepreneurs with the same inputs and education as men could increase incomes from business by as much as 20 percent. In the same countries, by allocating land, labour and capital equally to men and women, production could increase by between 10 and 20 percent.

A recent FAO study found that “being a member of a female-headed household in highland Ethiopia meant having a 35 percent chance of being destitute, compared with only an 8 percent chance if one belongs to a male-headed household.”

The Sourcebook aims to inspire the imagination of practitioners and to provide them with the tools needed to apply lessons learned, experiences, and innovations for designing and investing in agricultural projects that address the needs, capacities and aspirations of both women and men as well as their communities in a challenging rural environment, said Yianna Lambrou, the FAO’s project team leader.

Compiled over more than two years and involving 100 contributors and reviewers, the Sourcebook brings together good practices from all the regions and innovative activities that successfully, integrated gender issues into projects and programmes. It synthesizes experience gained and the tools needed for practitioners to assist rural women and men. It also provides an up-to-date understanding of gender issues in themes of cross-cutting importance for agriculture and rural development such as agricultural markets, climate change and bionergy, rural finance, land policy and administration, natural resource management, fisheries and aquaculture, livestock and forestry.

Contact:
Alison Small
Media Office, FAO
alison.small@fao.org
(+39) 06 570 56292
(+39) 348 870 5221

]]> FAO-Newsroom@fao.org (FAO-Newsroom) http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/8044/icode/http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/8044/icode/ Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:00:00 GMT