uatemala is located in an area which contains one of the highest levels of plant genetic diversity in the world. Its particular geography and types of vegetation are characterised by the fact that the country has 14 life zones. In addition, the Maya population which inhabited Guatemala before the European...

In this issue, we conclude with the last two presentations of our local partners with a description of CREDIF, covering North Africa, and of POSDEV, covering a number of countries in West Africa. Ruth Ochieng, from Isis-WICCE in Uganda, presents the work undertaken by her organisation, which strives to empower...

In the present issue, a large proportion of the columns will be been devoted to the Reflection and Self-Evaluation Workshop held in Brussels on 16-18 October with the partners of the Dimitra Project. We hand over to the partners, who have drawn up two documents on the proceedings of the...

This publication is intended to inform IFAD-supported project management units (PMUs), other donors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in Eastern and Southern Africa about IFAD’s Gender Strengthening Programme in the region. The programme is currently in the process of identifying challenges faced by projects, emphasizing empirical findings from field diagnostic...

These days, many credit and savings activities, including those under IFAD-supported projects, target rural women. A 2000 FAO/IFAD study in Uganda highlights the role of microfinance in women’s empowerment. Two questions asked were: (1) Is it appropriate and efficient to provide credit lines exclusively for women? (2) Are women in...

FAO is organising a High Level Consultation in Rome from 4 to 6 October with a view to improving information for decision-makers, the media and the public at large on the essential role of rural women in agricultural development and their contribution to food security. Emphasis will be laid on...

Ensuring that women have independent and secure rights to farmland is an important component of eliminating poverty and increasing economic productivity. This is true for three general reasons. First, women are often the primary food producers for a household, working their household farm plots while their husbands work for collective...

In this issue, you can read more about EndaPronat, FAN and IRED, about their working methods and the countries they will be covering within the framework of the collection of information for the Dimitra project. Furthermore, you will find several articles in this issue covering a wide range of subjects...

The Dimitra Project on Rural Women and Development started in 1994 at the King Baudouin Foundation in Brussels, Belgium, with the support of the European Commission. The Dimitra Guidebook, printed in 1996, contains information on 255 European NGOs, research institutes and information centers working with and for rural women in...

This book investigates how gender is present in the newly emerging principles on the sustainable management of water resources. The book also reviews how these genderspecified principles are currently applied in the water supply, sanitation and hygiene sector. Operationalization has developed farthest in new drinking water supply services. Participation of...

Uganda was one of countries included in a 1997 IFAD/FAO/Government of Japan study on agricultural implements used by women. The study areas in Uganda were the District of Mubende in central Uganda and the District of Soroti in the northeastern part of the country. These areas have quite different farming...

In this issue ICARDA is celebrating it’s 20 years old. They have not been easy years; agricultural research for a fragile environment is difficult. What have ICARDA learned in 20 years? It can be highlighted in a single point; it would be the dynamic nature of agricultural research. Agricultural research...

All over the world women play a unique and vital role in fixing our broken food system. The prevailing view on agriculture and food in Europe and in European institutions is limited to economics and trade. In these places (old) men in suits discuss amongst themselves and take decisions. In...

Proposals for post apartheid agrarian reconstruction in South Africa are founded on assumptions about gender relations and households that obscure the underlying basis of gender differentiated access to productive resources. Based on their assumptions, policy makers believe that legalistic approaches in themselves will be sufficient to redress existing gender inequalities...

La Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo (CLOC-Vía Campesina), es una instancia de articulación continental con 16 años de compromiso constante con la lucha social que representa a movimientos campesinos, de trabajadores y trabajadoras, indígenas y afrodescendientes de toda América Latina.

Cooperativas de las Américas (antes ACI-Américas) es la representación regional de la Alianza para el continente americano. La Oficina Regional de las Américas se estableció en 1990 en San José, Costa Rica. Su objetivo primordial es "promover el reposicionamiento del modelo cooperativo en el nuevo entorno económico, político, social y comercial...

The paper critically examines traditional ‘explanations’ of the gender division of labour on the family farm as a function of the life cycle — which poses a ‘compensatory’ relationship between women's domestic household labour responsibilities and their participation in other areas of work on and off the farm. It seeks...

The Nicaraguan agrarian reform, which began with the Sandinista victory of July 1979, is unusual in at least two, respects. First, the process of cooperative development has been the result of a large-scale mobilization of peasants and rural workers by their own mass organizations, and these rural organizations have largely...

This is a documentary from one of the last farms who practiced transhumance an pastoralism before the industrialization. After the 1960s most of the summer mountain farms delivered the milk to the factory for processing the milk. The film shows how the animals are brought ut to the summerfarm, milking, milk...