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| Sustainable Development :: Gender and Development :: Regional Role |
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Achievements in gender equality differ considerably throughout
Asia and the Pacific region reflecting the overwhelming diversity in economic and
human development indicators, both between and within countries. Within the region's
complex resource environment and amid the debate on trade versus self-sufficiency in
food for enhanced food security, the gender equity scorecard is marked by enormous
disparity, critically, the persisting inequality faced by rural women.
Many factors collectively undermine rural women's capacity to take advantage of new agriculture technologies for productivity, natural resource management strategies for sustainability, and emerging information and communication technologies for obtaining external information to improve their quality of life.
The objectives of the FAO regional office are to:
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Ensure women's rights are addressed in agriculture and rural development
policies and programmes to combat hunger and poverty |
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Promote equal opportunities for women and men in rural communities within the context of economic and social transformations and new technologies |
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Provide gender equal access to resources such as assets, capital, technology, and agriculture and rural development services to improve food security and livelihoods |
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Promote the UN objectives of advancement of women – with special relevance to rural women – through close collaboration with development stakeholders and national governments |
In Asia and the Pacific region poverty is basically a rural problem and is
especially severe for rural women. The unrelenting workload and continued undervaluation
of women's social and economic contribution to households, villages and nations
are a reflection of discrimination on the basis of gender. Gender as
a social construction shapes women's roles and access to assets and resources in
agriculture and the rural economies of the region.
Improving the lives, incomes and burdens of rural women in the Asia and Pacific
remains a constant struggle between promoting gender equality norms supported by
global development planners and persisting traditional perceptions of women’s lesser
social status that undermines gender equality in both national and local situations.
The duality aspect is further marked by “rural inequality” where the situation
of rural women's rights to productive resources – including social, health and agriculture
service systems – most often is accorded inadequate importance in development
planning. Also, rural communities adhere rigorously to customary laws and norms of social
stratification, which perpetuate biases against rural females. Asian rural
females are relatively more disadvantaged in educational attainment, which constitutes
a barrier to learning and external information. |
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