New book on gender equality and social protection in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Written by economists, sociologists, and gender specialists and practitioners from twelve post-Soviet countries in Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia, the publication reviews and analyzes issues that sit at the intersection of gender equality
© FAO / Sergey Kozmin
Prepared as a follow-up to an independent national experts’ meeting held in Minsk in 2016, Gender equality, social protection and rural development in Eastern Europe and Central Asia was presented earlier this month at the Central Scientific Agricultural Library in Moscow. It aims to fill the existing gap in research and documented knowledge on the subject and to draw the attention of governments and civil society to the topic.
“Women make up the majority of the rural population in the region and a significant part of the workforce employed in agriculture,” said FAO senior gender and social protection specialist Dono Abdurazakova, “but they prevail in the low-skilled and low-paid jobs. Rural women's access to assets, productive resources and social services is significantly lower than that of men and urban women, and participation in public life has dropped dramatically over the past decade.”
“At the same time, rural women are an important, but largely underreported resource for economic development,” she added, “as their contribution to the economy is invisible and goes unnoticed.