The FAO-Dimitra Project recently launched a handbook for all development practitioners, which examines the need to include gender in communication for rural development initiatives and provides guidance on achieving this successfully.

If women in rural areas had the same access to land, technology, financial services, education and markets as men, agricultural production could be increased and the number of hungry people reduced by 100-150 million.

A new United Nations interagency report on the gender dimension of agricultural work says women still benefit less than men from rural employment and face new challenges due to the current economic and food crises.

Indigenous people will be given a stronger voice at FAO following the adoption of a new policy designed to ensure that they are considered in all relevant aspects of the agency’s work.

October 2010 marked the 10th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which highlights the importance of involving women in all aspects of peacekeeping and peacebuilding to conserve peace, security and livelihoods.

Agricultural cooperatives can be an effective means to empower women in rural areas and help them to overcome the constraints they face, the Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement released for the 16th International Day of Cooperatives.

Tackling hunger requires moving from talk to action in ensuring that women farmers have equal access to agricultural resources and an equal voice in decision making at all levels

Turning the tide against hunger will require taking urgent action on gender inequality, one of the main obstacles to food and nutrition security

Developing decent work opportunities for both women and men, especially young people new to the labour market, will be the focus of a global summit in Sweden on the future of employment.

FAO took part in a global conference on child labour in The Hague, The Netherlands, to put the spotlight on the key role that agriculture must play in eliminating hazardous and exploitative work for girls and boys.

The crucial role of women in food production worldwide and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals was the focus of a panel discussion held 22 April 2010 at UN Headquarters in New York.

A new FAO toolkit aims to sharpen the focus of anti-hunger and development efforts by helping countries to gather more accurate information on the roles and responsibilities of men and women in agriculture

FAO urges focus on rural women’s empowerment and gender equality to meet the commitments made in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action

Rome-based UN agencies FAO, World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) marked International Women’s Day by pledging to help women affected by the Haiti earthquake

The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) is conducting a comprehensive gender review, which will lay the groundwork for the development of a strategy to ensure inclusion of gender-responsive actions into FAO’s work

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf: "Women’s empowerment and gender equality are fundamental to FAO’s vision of a world free of hunger and malnutrition"

Nereide Segala Coelho, a Brazilian farmer, was among rural women from Africa, Asia and Latin America who exchanged ideas at a meeting with women ministers and diplomats

The new site will contribute to a series of global initiatives, focused on ensuring world food security, by highlighting the fundamental role of gender equity in eliminating hunger and poverty

Faced with rising world hunger and in response to calls for greater coherence and coordination, members of the FAO Committee on World Food Security (CFS) have agreed on a wide-ranging reform, FAO announced today.

Agriculture must become more productive if it is to feed a much larger world population while responding to the daunting environmental challenges ahead, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said here today.