Insufficient institutions and mechanisms at all levels to promote the advancement of women
Policy-making positions in ministries
Office bearers in agricultural organizations
WID units in government ministries, autonomous units and organizations
Women's access to power structures is limited in the region. From the data provided, it is apparent that they hold very few policy-making positions in ministries of agriculture and other ministries. Table 11 provides data on the percentage of women in policy-making positions in ministries of agriculture in selected countries. The highest percentages of women were recorded in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey and Egypt, where women represented 8.7%, 6% and 4.8% of decision-making positions in ministries of agriculture. In Jordan, Syria, Yemen, Mauritania and Cyprus, the percentage of women in decision-making positions was 3.7% or less, while in Iraq and Morocco, the percentage of women at all ministerial levels was 1.0% and 15.5% respectively.
Table 11: Percentage of Women in Policy Making Positions in Ministries of Agriculture*
Country |
Year |
Percent Women |
Cyprus |
1993 |
1.3 |
Egypt |
1992 |
4.83 |
Iran |
1994 |
8.7 |
Iraq |
1992 |
1.0 of total employed |
Jordan |
1993 |
1.5 |
Mauritania |
1992 |
1.9a |
Morocco |
1991 |
15.5 of total employed |
Oman |
1992 |
0.0 |
Sudan |
1993 |
3.0b |
Syria |
1994 |
1.3 |
Turkey |
1994 |
6.0 4.0c |
Yemen |
3.7 |
Source: Compiled from Country Papers.
*For countries nor included in the table, data was either not available or there were no women in decision-snaking positions at the ministerial level.
A Ministry of Fisheries and Maritime Economy bAgricultural Extension Administration Ministry of Agriculture
c Ministry of Forestry
Most countries reported an increase, albeit limited, in women's participation in agricultural cooperatives and rural credit associations, both as members and/or office-bearers. In Iraq, women's membership in cooperatives and rural credit associations increased from 6% to 9.4% between 1980-1990. In 1985, women constituted only 5 % of employees in these organizations. In Jordan, the percentage of women working in cooperatives increased from 21.4% in 1980 to 29.4% in 1993, and women represented 9.3 % of all members in the Farmer's Union in 1993. Of the 38 pastoral associations in Mauritania, 2.6% were presided by women, and in some regions of the country, women organized themselves into numerous cooperatives for vegetable gardening.
In Sudan, women constituted 18% of the decision-making positions in the 11 councils established to manage the agricultural graduate cooperatives set up to employ recently graduated agricultural students. Of the number of office-bearing positions in rural organizations in Cyprus, women held less than 3% of the total. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, in 1994, 9% of all rural cooperative members were women, and in Turkey, women constituted about 1% of total membership in each of the Rural Credit Organizations in Forestry and in the Union of Agricultural Chambers.
WID units and other machineries to empower women, such as in Government ministries, or autonomous units and organizations, vary considerably among the countries of the region in both number and scope. Some countries, such as Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia and Turkey, have well-established and well-funded units with clear-cut objectives regarding their role in advancing the status of rural women. The majority of countries, however, have only a few WID units with vague and/or limited mandates, and suffer considerably from poor funding and limited access to appropriate human and technical resources. A few countries, such as Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, Iran and Turkey, have established WID units at the upstream level in their ministries of agriculture. These units are entrusted with a number of functions, such as: promoting gender awareness among men and women through gender planning and training; mainstreaming gender-sensitive considerations in agricultural policies and practices; conducting research and collecting information on women in agriculture (data, documents, etc;.); facilitating women's access to productive resources and services; and coordinating the activities of national and international bodies on issues related to rural women. Annex IV provides a listing of WID units in the countries of the region and a brief summary of their mandates.
Although there are a large number of NGOs operating in the region, their work tends to be concentrated predominantly in urban areas. The number of rural projects and their beneficiaries are most often quite small. The scope of these projects is usually limited to small-scale income generating efforts and educational and vocational training. Very few directly address the needs of women in crop and livestock production, and in developing and/or introducing appropriate technologies for women to alleviate their work burdens. Annex V provides a summary of NGO efforts benefiting rural women in the region.
