SD : People : The role of FAO : Women in Development

The role of FAO

GENDER+ Overview Natural resources Agriculture Food/nutrition Policy/planning Role of FAO

Institutional arrangements

Implementation, monitoring and evaluation

Each Division within FAO is responsible for implementing, monitoring, evaluating and reporting on its respective Programme of Action. Progress in implementation will be monitored at all levels within FAO, and periodically reviewed in progress reports. When required, the Women in Development Service (SDWW) will provide guidance and technical support for meeting these responsibilities. SDWW will also compile monitoring information and reports on Organization-wide progress regarding implementation of the Plan. At the project level, the Agricultural Operations database (AGOMIS) will be revised to incorporate indicators on the advancement in the status of women.

Coordination

An FAO Inter-Departmental Committee on Women in Development (COWID) has been established to function as the highest level coordinating and advisory body on gender/WID. Its purpose is to streamline, and make more effective, the mechanisms for coordination and advice in this area.

The Committee will provide policy guidance and facilitate coordination and decision-making on normative and operational matters relating to women in development. It will also monitor overall progress in implementing the Plan of Action, provide a forum to review and clarify inter-departmental issues relating to the Plan's effective implementation, and ensure operational coherence among the Divisions in implementing their respective Programmes of Action.

Affirmative action

FAO will facilitate the access of women to Professional posts in order to make greater progress toward reaching the UN target of 35 per cent; and it will encourage the promotion of women within the Organization, without affecting the principles of merit and equitable geographical distribution. Measures will be included that provide for the selection of women, when equally qualified, and that are more supportive of work-family linkages.

FAO will also expand the external and internal pool of qualified women candidates by building and maintaining a roster of institutions and NGOs concerned with women's issues, women's professional organizations dealing with agriculture and rural development, and women's bureaux and ministries that can provide qualified women candidates.

In addition, the Organization will place increased emphasis on the training and development of women staff in order to encourage their access to higher level posts. The introduction of Staff Development Programmes will be considered to develop, inter alia, supervisory and managerial skills of staff; balanced gender representation in these programmes will be pursued.

Affirmative action issues apply to the beneficiaries of, and participants in, FAO's work as well as to its own staff. The Organization will make a renewed commitment to employ women as consultants and as project staff, and to recruit qualified professional women at Headquarters, and to increase the number of women in project-related training programmes.

Selected FAO documents and resources

Natural resources

"Guidelines: Women in Land and Water Use"

"Farmers Rights in the Conservation and Use of Plant Genetic Resources: A Gender Perspective"

"Guidelines for the Integration of Women in Dairy Development"

"Gender Analysis and Forestry" - Training Package and Video

"Guidelines for Integrating Gender Considerations into FAO Forestry Projects"

"Restoring the Balance: Women and Forest Resources"

"Gender Analysis for Forestry Development Planning" (video)

"Mujeres y arboles" (Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia)

"Gender in Small-Scale Fisheries - a Portrait" (video)

"Guidelines: Women in Fishing Communities"

"Meeting Information Needs on Gender Issues in Inland and Small Water Body Fisheries"

"Meeting Information Needs on Gender Issues in Aquaculture"

Agricultural support systems

"Guidelines: Women in Rural Savings and Finance"

"Organization of Women's Groups for Savings Mobilization and Micro-enterprise Development"

"Analyse des programmes de crŽdit en faveur des femmes rurales" (Africa)

"Managing Income-Generating Rural Activities: A Training Manual"

"Agricultural Extension and Farm Women in the 1980s"

"Improving the Relevance and Effectiveness of Agricultural Extension Activities for Women Farmers:Constraints to Adoption of New Technologies by Women in Developing Countries"

"Extension 'Woman to Woman': Training Peasant Women Liaisons to Reach Peasant Women"

Food and nutrition

"Women's Role in the Management of Family Resources for the Achievement of Household Food Security and Nutrition"

Policy and planning

"A Gender-Disaggregated Data Base on Human Resources in Agriculture: Data Requirements and Availability"

"Improving Gender-Disaggregated Data on Human Resources Through Agricultural Censuses and Surveys"

"Guidelines on Social Analysis"

"Food Security Training Manual"

"Policy Reform, Poverty and Agriculture: Impact and Analysis"

"Politique et stratŽgie de dŽveloppement en faveur des femmes rurales"

"The Legal Status of Rural Women in Nineteen Latin American Countries"

"The Role of Women in Agriculture and Rural Development" (bibliography)

"Women, Agriculture and Rural Development: Synthesis Reports for the Near East and Africa Regions"

"Women, Agriculture and Rural Development: Sectoral Reports for Namibia, the Philippines, Tunisia and Perœ"

Fact Sheets: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Egypt, El Salvador, Honduras, Iran, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, Perœ, Philippines, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zimbabwe

GENDER+ Overview Natural resources Agriculture Food/nutrition Policy/planning Role of FAO