Turkey's Perspective on Empowerment of Women in Agricultural and Rural Areas

Thank you Madam Moderator.

Your Excellency, Minister for Family and Social Policy, Dr. Fatma Betül SAYAN KAYA,

Representatives of the Government of Turkey and fellow panelists,

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to thank the Ministry of Family and Social Policy and the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Turkey to the United Nations for the invitation extended to FAO.

On behalf of FAO, I would like to express appreciation for the commitment of the government of Turkey, and in particular for the Ministry of Family and Social Policies; the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and the Committee on the Equality of Opportunity for Women and Men, in addressing the challenges faced by rural women.

Let me start by highlighting that the empowerment of rural women and girls is key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 1 and SDG 2, on ending poverty and hunger, and without any doubt, SDG 5 on gender equality.

Women are often the backbone of the rural economy, especially in the developing world. For example, in Europe and Central Asia, women contribute more than 50% of the agricultural labor force.

Yet, women are significantly disadvantaged relative to men, in terms of ownership rights over land, water and other natural resources. They also remain largely invisible in national statistics and in terms of accruing the social security benefits. Wide inequalities between rural and urban areas also persist in women’s access to education, healthcare and decent employment.

Closing the gender gap in agriculture would generate significant gains for the agriculture sector and for the society. FAO research indicates that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 30 percent and reduce the number of hungry people globally by 17 percent.

Ladies and gentlemen,

FAO and Turkey have a long-standing cooperation, which has been strengthened over the recent years. Turkey hosts the FAO Sub-regional office for Central Asia, and its multi-disciplinary team consisting of FAO technical experts is complemented by junior technical officers provided by the Turkish Government. This collaboration brings a much needed capacity in FAO’s work in the sub-region, and also offers a great opportunity for young professionals to contribute to the achievement of global development goals.

FAO and Turkey have recently completed the first phase of their partnership programme, for which the Government of Turkey contributed 10 million US dollars focusing on six broad areas: food security; agricultural and rural development; natural resources’ management; agricultural policies; food safety and animal and plant genetic resources. Gender equality was addressed in most of these areas as a cross-cutting issue. The partnership programme has been implemented in Turkey and neighboring countries

The second phase of the partnership programme, which began in 2017, totaling Turkey’s contribution to the partnership to 20 million US dollars, will bring an even greater impact in addressing development priorities in the sub-region.

In this regard, I should mention a pipeline project under the Programme entitled Leaving no one behind: Harnessing Opportunities for the Economic Growth through Greater Involvement and Empowerment of Rural Women in Turkey and Central Asia. The project is going to capitalize on the experience of Turkey in supporting rural women´s economic empowerment and entrepreneurship.

Other on-going work carried out by FAO includes: (1) the efforts to increase productivity and food security through the provision of effective rural advisory services allowing women farmers to have equal access to trainings and knowledge-sharing; and (2) an initiative assisting the Syrian refugees, in particular women, to integrate with the host communities by providing trainings to improve agricultural skills to engage in productive activities.

An important area of FAO’s work is, supporting policy-makers in designing gender-equitable agricultural policies and creating a gender-inclusive legal system, to reduce the gender gap and other social inequalities in rural societies.

In this context, FAO considers social protection as key.  Therefore, FAO is developing a partnership with the Ministry of Family and Social Policy to increase the outreach of the programmes to rural women and other disadvantaged groups, and to strengthen their access to social protection and social security schemes.

In closing, let me underline, that the collaboration with the Government of Turkey is of high importance, and you can continue to count on FAO’s support as we work together in partnership to implement the 2030 Agenda for a better future for all.

Thank you.