Future strategic goals and objectives and corresponding financial arrangements

Future strategic goals and objectives and corresponding financial arrangements

An overall analysis was made of the respective countries' strategic goals and objectives (Annex VIII). Most of the countries indicated the need to avoid fragmented, short-term, under-invested, low-impact initiatives, and instead adopt a strong, action-oriented regional framework for the implementation of priority programmes through the use of a participatory people-centred approach. Within this context, emphasis was placed on the following critical areas, which have been consistently reiterated in the country papers:

· Improve policy-focused information, including the provision of sufficient, timely and accurate quantitative and qualitative gender-disaggregated data as well as indicators of women's roles and status, to gain a more accurate view of the existing conditions and contributions, constraints, needs and aspirations of rural women;

· Improve institutional support and capacity building (such as establishing WID units and other coordinating WID bodies with adequate human and financial resources within the ministries of agriculture), and enhance the role of NGOs and international support, etc.;

· Increase gender sensitization activities, planning and training;

· Mainstream gender issues into the planning, policy and implementation process of the agricultural sector;

· Increase the representation of women at the decision-making level and open up new and innovative horizons for them;

· Improve rural women's access to, and control over, productive resources and support services (land, water, credit, information, extension, training, acquisition of skills, input supply, market opportunities, etc.) within an enabling policy and institutional environment;

· Provide time and energy-saving technology and technical know-how to help ease the drudgery of the workload of rural women, especially in livestock production, backyard gardening, post-harvest activities and food processing, which could be linked with the enhancement of research capabilities to identify appropriate technologies and functional measures to implement necessary activities;

· Increase income-earning rural enterprises in on-farm and off-farm activities;

· Provide technical training, especially to young rural women, in various fields outside the traditional agricultural sector, such as agro-industry, commerce, manufacturing and services;

· Develop conceptual and practical guidelines in the area of rural women and sustainable development (with special attention to gender, environment and population);

· Increase networking, people's participation, cooperatives, farmers unions, community development organizations, and the use of participatory mechanisms and tools;

· Improve institutional capacity to meet the fundamental needs of rural women (education, health, nutrition, social insurance, etc.); and,

· Improve/change negative stereotype images of rural women by promoting linkages with various organs of the mass media.

RPAWANE 2000 is expected to respond to some of these issues, in cooperation with other interested partners. These issues have been grouped into four complementary and mutually reinforcing areas for action:

· Collection, analysis and dissemination of gender-disaggregated statistical data;

· Institutional support and capacity building;

· Women in agriculture and sustainable development (with emphasis on gender, environment and population); and,

· Networking and people's participation.