International Rural Women's Day Commemoration Seminar

Live Broadcast

Regional context

According to the latest FAO report, women play a crucial role in agricultural and non-agricultural activities, which emerge as agrifood systems develop and economies change. There, women work as farmers, retailers, wage laborers, entrepreneurs, among other tasks. However, gender inequalities in agrifood systems cause women to be disproportionately affected by food and nutritional insecurity, monetary and time poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In view of this situation, the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, in the framework of the Commemoration of the International Day of Rural Women and the strengthening of its program for the economic empowerment of this group, invites counterparts from government, civil society, academia, private sector and UN agencies to discuss and propose strategies for closing gender gaps in agrifood systems, during a seminar to be held in hybrid format on October 10, 2023, in Santiago, Chile.

Objectives

The seminar will seek to provide a regional overview of the advances and challenges that promote or obstruct the economic empowerment of rural women in all their diversity, and will make recommendations to strengthen the economic empowerment program for rural women and generate inputs for the FAO Regional Conference -LARC 38, the Regional Conference of ECLAC-UNWomen, among other initiatives within the framework of the rural women's agenda in the region.

During the seminar, examples of legislation, policies and programs will be presented with a focus on what has worked and specific recommendations will be shared on how to make more and better interventions with and for rural women.
From a vision of collective action, the seminar will seek to generate alliances and identify strategies and interventions with scalability potential, based on the agenda of rural women in the region, to accelerate their economic, social and political empowerment.

Methodology

The Seminar will begin with welcoming remarks by FAO, followed by thematic talks that will delve into the central aspects of sustainable rural development from a transformative gender equality approach, followed by a space for guided reflection, and ending with a session of agreements and closing. The interventions will incorporate success stories and review the strategies mobilized to bring about the necessary change towards an egalitarian welfare state.

The seminar will be simultaneously interpreted from Spanish into English and Portuguese.

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