Striving to leave no one behind: FAO kicks off 2017 Commission on Status of Women with three side events on empowering rural women
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) contributed prominently to the sixty-first session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW61) with three side events on 13 March, the opening day of the two-week session.
The first side event, titled “Step It Up Together with Rural Women to End Hunger and Poverty,” served to continue dialogue on three critical elements that were highlighted during the High-level Event in December 2016 in Rome : the crucial role that rural women play in ending hunger and poverty; the need for policies and programmes to accelerate rural women’s economic empowerment; and the importance of promoting transformative approaches to tackle the underlying socio-cultural and behavioural causes of gender inequality in rural areas.
Organized by FAO, the European Union and the Slovak Republic, together with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Food Programme (WFP) and UN Women, the event featured a panel discussion and interventions from the floor, along with remarks from Carla Mucavi, Director of the FAO Liaison Office in New York; H.E. Esther Lungo, First Lady of Zambia; Kawinzi Muiu, Director of the Gender Office at WFP; Maria Hartl, Gender Specialist at IFAD; and Joanne Adamson, European Union Deputy Head of Delegation to the United Nations in New York.
“We must empower rural women if we are to free the world from hunger and poverty, leaving no one behind. Today we have the opportunity to step it up together with rural women,” Ms. Mucavi said.