Posted April 1997
TEAM, or "Together Everyone Achieves More", is the underlying theme of the FAO/RNE-supported Regional Plan of Action for Women in Agriculture in the Near East (1996-2001), which has been given the acronym RPAWANE 2000. This broad-based, sequential and evolutionary initiative seeks to avoid isolated, low-impact activities and adopt instead a holistic framework for the implementation of a Near East Prescription for Action, rooted in regional realities, priorities and hopes. RPAWANE 2000 also responds to a chain of notable international events and endeavours, particularly FAO's Plan of Action for Women in Development, to ensure a binding "esprit de corps".
The roots of this unfolding story date back to early 1994 when no less than 18 Near East countries expressed interest in joining hands with FAO, other UN agencies, energetic NGOs, academic institutions and regional organizations, in this venture. They appointed talented Country Coordinators (focal points) for the preparation of country papers on the current role and future potential of women farmers in their respective countries. In a refreshing attempt to get away from what has usually proven to be an ineffectual business-as- usual approach, these papers were prepared through the use of innovative participatory mechanisms and tools (participatory rural appraisals, rapid rural appraisals, national consultations, field visits, meetings with rural women, national workshops, etc.). They were subsequently analyzed and consolidated into a Synthesis Report - which was circulated during the Beijing Conference - the results of which provided the main building blocks for the birth of a robust RPAWANE 2000.
The harvesting of these collaborative efforts confirmed a number of compelling realities. Foremost among these was the fact that rural women oscillated between the burden of present day-to-day problems, that cannot unfortunately be "wished away", and the social, economic, technological and other aspirations, challenges and opportunities of an unprecedented new age. In the process, these resilient women laboured between fifteen to nineteen hours a day growing more than 50% of the region's food requirements and attending to a 101 other domestic and community demands, with unending tender loving care, to ensure the overall well being of their families and communities.
Nevertheless much of what they did was regarded as home-produced free non-marketed goods. Consider, for instance, how women are invariably applauded in rhetorical speeches, but forgotten in the more serious official hard data and statistics which often fail to capture and record the full range, volume and value of women's boundless contributions to the rural economy, sustained agricultural production, household food security and family prosperity. A hard nut to crack was then the provision of factual and up-to-date gender-disaggregated data and statistics to gain a better understanding of women's multiple roles, the economic value of their "work" as well as men's and women's differential access to and control over productive resources, assets and services. Is this not often the basis for moving into the bliss of sound policies, decision making and resource allocation?
Equally challenging was the need for the establishment and operationalization of effective and sustainable WID machineries at the macro upstream level, especially within ministries of agriculture. Why? To weave-in gender responsive policies and practices, at different fronts, into the very threads of the agricultural fabric.
Yet a harder nut to crack was addressing the entertwined concerns of our ecologically-bruised planet and responding to the recommendations of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Earth Summit's Agenda 21, Chapter 24. Unravelling, understanding, and recording the intricate linkages of, for example, the gender, population and environment trilogy, needed to be analytically addressed as a basis for concerted and multidimensional action in this infinite field.
Closest to the heart of RPAWANE 2000, and central to its various activities, is networking and people's participation, as our global village moves to one of the world's most interactive and transformative eras of human history.
RPAWANE 2000 was approved at the brass-roots and grass-roots level by the people and countries of the region in a consultation that was held for this purpose in October 1995. Its Platform for Action is a packaging of the above and emphasizes four mutually reinforcing and intimately interdependent areas of concern:
The 18 RPAWANE wise men and women meet once or twice a year, with a panorama of other partners, to implement the above home-grown agenda for change. They are currently very busy putting together the ingredients of a nourishing and appetizing recipe for the establishment of the Region's first Regional Network on Gender and Food Security in the Near East - Opportunity 2000. This is, inter alia, a part of a broader FAO effort to ensure enthusiastic follow up to the World Food Summit and related people-grounded down-to-earth operations. A Donor Consultation is expected to be held during the second half of 1997 to disseminate information on the prospective network and conjugate FAO's "savoire faire" with those who can provide financial and other support. Intrinsic to these hard-won signs of success and discernible momentum is the determination of the growing RPAWANE Family to support rural men and women in gaining a voice in the region and a dignified seat at the table.
 
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