This International Women's Day, UN agencies in Rome will focus discussions on the role of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in supporting rural women's economic empowerment, voice and status.

“Sweden is happy to continue supporting a programme that has shown promising results and hopes that these new funds will convince other donors to join the partnership.”

Six out of ten international migrants reside in Asia and Europe, and a large share of them are from rural areas. Often, when these migrants settle into urban areas and find work, they send money back home to the families they’ve left behind.

The traditional method of fish-smoking in the small fishing community of Unnichchai, in eastern Sri Lanka sees women spending many hours tending to fish laid out on mesh over smoking coals. Health hazards from smoke inhalation are high, while the output from such intensive labour is often low.

A new FAO report highlights the importance of women's involvement in forest work, and calls for their interests to be better considered at both national and municipal levels.