Women in Agriculture and Rural Development

Women in many regions represent a majority of the labour force engaged in food production, processing and marketing, with increasing responsibilities in the commercial sector; they are major users of natural resources; head about one-third of the world's households; and generate incomes that are critical to poor families. On a global scale, women produce more than half of all the food that is grown: in Sub-Saharan Africa or in the Caribbean, up to 80 percent of basic foodstuffs. They are also almost exclusively responsible for the nutrition of their children and for the rest of the family, and this responsibility involves work far beyond caring for crops and livestock. As large numbers of men migrate from rural areas in search for work, women bear a still heavier burden. In some regions of Africa, women now head 60 percent of households.

While the priorities and needs of both men and women must be addressed in rural development and overall policies, this is especially true of rural women who have to continue providing food for their families, despite limited access to productive resources, legal obstacles and at times, discriminatory attitudes. Despite their major contributions to food security, women tend to be "invisible" actors in development. As a result, this contribution is poorly understood and often underestimated. There is need for national capacity building for policy-makers, government officials and civil society agents active in this area. Policymakers and development specialists are not sufficiently aware of the linkages between gender, population and environmental sustainability, that men and women often have different skills and knowledge about sustainable agricultural practices.

FAO is committed to mainstreaming gender concerns into its programmes and policy advice to countries. One such mainstreaming mechanism is the Socio-economic and Gender Analysis Programme (SEAGA), which supports training designed to increase awareness of socio-economic, gender and population issues, and to build capacity for analysis of these issues in the context of agricultural and rural development. FAO also helps governments and key partners to identify the linkages between men's and women's unique knowledge and skills as preservers of the environment, and identify best practices for enhancement of food security and rural livelihoods. Gender mainstreaming has also become a priority area of development intervention. Success in this area is dependent upon building skills among development practitioners in socio-economic and gender analysis, as these apply to policy and project formulation and implementation.

 

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