DPI/NGO Briefing

“The Situation of Rural Women: Providing the Tools for Economic Empowerment”
In observance of International Day of Rural Women
(15 October)

16 October 2008

Summary

The Briefing was held in celebration of the first-ever International Day of Rural Women (15 October). The idea of honouring rural women with a special day was put forward by International NGOs at the Fourth UN World Conference on Women in Beijing, in September 1995. World Rural Women’s Day has been celebrated by civil society for more than a decade. This year, however, the International Day of Rural Women was observed at UN Headquarters on 15 October 2008 for the first time. The new international day was established by a resolution of the General Assembly [62/136 of 18 December 2007] almost a year ago. The aim of the day is to recognize the critical role and contribution made by rural women, including indigenous women, in agriculture and rural development, more specifically their efforts to improve food security and eradicate rural poverty.

The briefing opened with remarks by Maria-Luisa Chavez, Chief, NGO Relations, Department of Public Information. She began by thanking the panellists, who had travelled from Canada and Uganda. Ms. Chavez noted that as this year’s International Day of Rural Women coincided with the eve of World Food Day (16 October), the emphasis of the Briefing was on looking at the role of rural women in food production and food security, particularly in the midst of the world food crisis and the global financial turmoil.

Carolyn Hannan, Director, Division for the Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), began by explaining the origins of the International Day of Rural Women. Thanks to the General Assembly, she said, the World Women’s Day had now become the International Day of Rural Women and was being commemorated around the world. Elaborating on the importance of economic empowerment of women, she stressed the importance of rural women’s economic empowerment for the women themselves, the wellbeing of their children, their communities, and ultimately their countries. However, gender-based stereotypes and discrimination persisted in many countries and women were denied equitable access to and control over land and other productive resources, opportunities for employment and income generating activities, access to education and health care and opportunities to participate in public life -- all obstacles to women’s empowerment. She informed the audience that estimates indicated that only 10 per cent of agricultural credit was extended to women. Moreover, the causes and consequences of poverty, as well as the impact of poverty reduction strategies could be different for women and men in rural areas. It was in that light, she emphasized, that it was imperative that all poverty eradication efforts explicitly take account of the situation of rural women. Looking at the effects of climate change and the food and energy crises on rural woman she noted that rural women were more vulnerable to the effects of climate change as drought and intermittent rainfall patterns directly impacted women as the primary producers of staple foods. Ms. Hannan cited the example of women and girls having to walk longer distances to collect water and firewood as a result of the rising incidence of desertification. That resulted in their having to forego opportunities which were important for their economic empowerment, including attendance at school and involvement in income-generating activities. Ironically, she noted at the same time that women could be important agents of change in combating climate change if their access to resources such as land, credit and extension services was assured and they could be involved in making decisions on their futures. The same situation obtained with regard to the food crisis, which also had a disproportionate impact on women and girls. Rural women’s unequal access to resources, Ms. Hannan stated, was an obstacle to ensuring food security for their households and communities. She indicated that there was a need to increase attention to the challenges faced by women in agriculture as the global food crisis must be addressed in both the long and short term. On the effects of the energy crisis on rural women Ms. Hannan said that, because women bore the burden of providing fuel for cooking, such as firewood, dung and crop residue, they expended a significant amount of time and physical effort on activities like pumping water and transporting crops--often without access to any technology--which could be done more efficiently using modern fuels while freeing up time for income-generating activities. She warned that the growing global demand for liquid biofuels may have different impacts on women and men in rural areas. Ms. Hannan also indicated that if land traditionally used by women was converted for biofuel productions, women’s agricultural activities may be pushed to more marginal and less productive land. That in turn would negatively affect their ability to meet their food-provision responsibilities and could also affect their role in decision-making regarding agricualte and land use. Turning to the question of the tools needed to improve the situation of rural women, Ms. Hannan stressed that the new publication on rural women published by the Division on the Advancement of Women, provided a framework for the empowerment of rural women. That included strategies for improving their capabilities through health and education, increasing opportunities and resources, enhancing their agency and leadership, and ensuring their rights and security. She called for increased specific activities and programmes targeted at the economic empowerment of women, which she noted required improved gender analysis methodologies and ensuring that rural women were consulted and their situations adequately reflected. She suggested that that micro-credit and other financial services be used as tools for poverty reduction. She further urged that increased investment of financial resources be undertaken to improve the situation of rural women.

Belinda Leach, Director of Rural Women Making Change, began her presentation by explaining the situation of rural women in Canada. She stressed that even though Canada is seen as a world leader in gender equality policies, rural women in Canada experienced poverty, violence and exploitation. She noted that the assumption that the problems of poor women in Canada had been addressed had been made in part because women’s poverty was invisible in rural communities. She said that while the desperate situation of Canadian aboriginal communities was well known outside the country, the conditions of non-aboriginal rural communities were less known. She emphasized that those communities suffered from contaminated water, food-borne infections, historic debt burdens, job loss in manufacturing areas like Quebec and Ontario, where companies deliberately recruited rural workers, and the movement of unemployed rural workers to more booming western regions in Canada. She said that all those situations affected rural women even more severely. She pointed out the fact that though women had to feed their families, their jobs were the first to go, and that most rural women held low-paid or service-sector jobs and were more likely to work seasonally or part-time. She indicated that international trade and financial agreements were affecting rural Canadian communities and contributing to insecure livelihoods for women. She pointed out that Canada had been following the policies of deregulation practised in the United States, which in turn had affected local economies and ultimately led to the disappearance of support for Canadian women as well as the issues they faced and the organizations which advocated on their behalf. Rural Women Making Change,--an alliance of academic researchers and policy makers with rural organizations--was also affected by that policy when the funding it had received from Canadian governments for more than 30 years had been cut in 2005. Ms. Leach said, rural women were now losing resource centres, employment and training centres and shelters every week. In addition, she stated. the Canadian Government had banned advocacy on behalf of women and now demanded that women’s organizations provide services to men as well as women, as a part of what they called “gender-neutral” programming. Ms. Leach noted that as rural women’s organizations were wiped out, it had becoming increasingly difficult to make the issue of women’s poverty visible She explained that rural organizations, like those that the two other Canadian speakers belonged to, had few resources to work with and would have been unable to attend the current Briefing had they not been able to partner with organizations such as her own. Their partnership and that of other rural organizations with Rural Women Making Change brought together local expertise and knowledge with research and outreach resources. That type of partnership was important in providing support, legitimacy, and the tools to help women stand up and make poverty visible, Ms. Leach stressed.

Evelyn Encalada Grez, Graduate Research Assistant, Rural Women Making Change and founder of Justicia for Migrant Workers, began her presentation by sharing an experience from her time assisting a female Mexican migrant worker in Canada, who had been working under appalling conditions. She related how, after an accident in which Ana, a migrant woman, had fallen off a tractor which had then crushed her legs; she had found herself abandoned and harassed by both her employer and her Consulate. After surgery she had been pressured into signing forms to withdraw her rights to treatment and benefits in Canada. That would allow her employer not to incur increases to his Workers Compensation premiums. The plan was to force her to go back to her village in Puebla as soon as possible, thus absolving the employer of any responsibility. The organization Justicia for Migrant Workers, however, had advised her differently, bearing in mind that, as a migrant worker, she paid taxes and contributed to a Canadian pension plan, employment insurance and workers compensation. Ms. Grez said Ana’s story was one of many reflecting the realities faced by female migrant workers. She remarked that most of the workers helped by her organization were employed by a federal government-sponsored programme known as the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, where women made up 3 per cent of the work force. She explained that migration to Canada and the US by Mexican women, particularly lone mothers, was a household survival strategy. Canadian wages were seen as a way out of poverty and wages were used mainly for the education of their children. She said in many instances migrant women were escaping situations of violence and mistreatment in their home countries only to meet it again in Canada, through the abuse they suffered at the hands of employers, consulate officials and, at times, coworkers. Ms. Grez said limited employment options in rural Mexico and the constant threat of repatriation caused many women to endure inhumane living conditions, abusive treatment and dangerous work, just to keep their jobs. She pointed out that Canada had not signed the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and further, that it was unlikely that that would happen in the future, since agribusiness was becoming inceasingly reliant on migrants as a source of “cheap, flexible and subservient labour.” She noted that in cases such as Ana’s “the government was absent” and there were no mechanisms in place to service or advocate for the rural migrant labour force. She stressed that as the reason why her organization, in partnership with Rural Women Making Change, worked with local service providers to respond to migrant women’s specific needs in rural communities.. Ms. Grez argued that her organization’s work alone could not bring about change in the lives of migrant women. Changing state and institutional practices that made the most impoverished women work the hardest was an imperative for creating alternatives for a better life for rural women in the global South and North. Ms. Grez stressed a common goal must be “to empower ourselves to truly engage in the global project to eradicate poverty.”

Colleen Purdon, Coordinator, Rural Women Take Action on Poverty, began by explaining her work in Grey, Bruce, Huron and Perth counties in central Ontario, Canada. With a population of 300,000, the area was rich in agricultural land, farms, and forests and lakes, she said. In that area women’s wages were well below the national average and the agriculture and manufacturing sectors were in crisis. More and more women and children were also falling into poverty, she stressed, further emphasizing that women found it difficult to find “good jobs” because they are reserved for men. As a result, women were becoming economically dependent on men. However, she explained, the support services women needed were difficult to find because they were inadequate or non-existent in some cases. She added that even when services for women were available, they were fraught with conflicting mandates and eligibility requirements. Social assistance rates did not cover their basic needs for food and housing and were not helping women transition out of situational or intergenerational poverty. It was therefore not surprising that many rural women found themselves homeless, living in unsafe housing or returning to abusive relationships. Their situation was further exacerbated by the many myths and stereotypes about poverty whereby poverty was perceived as an individual failing, rather than a societal or community problem..Ms. Purdon underscored the negative impact of women’s poverty on the health and future of families and rural communities. She argued that rural women’s economic empowerment required, among other things, defining the uniqueness of rural poverty for women and the specific issues they faced, in addition to more information and support tools to help women find and navigate community services and survive poverty. It also required informational tools to change attitudes and dispel myths about rural women’s poverty. She mentioned that her organization had produced a Handbook entitled “How We Count: a Handbook for Rural Women and Rural Communities on Poverty” that had gone to thousands of women and service providers in the 4 counties which they served. “Rural Women Take Action on Poverty” was also launching a report card that would provide facts about poverty in those counties. Ms. Purdon emphasized the importance of partnerships and collaboration tools between women, non-governmental organizations, and governments that would support new approaches to poverty and women’s empowerment.

Rachel Nampinga, Programmes Director, Eco-Watch Africa, said climate change would significantly impact rural women and girls. Rural women in Africa, she said, often had multiple roles including attending to livestock, providing food and water and caring for children and the elderly, which made the effects of climate change even more difficult. She acknowledged that the effects of climate change such as floods, droughts and water-borne diseases had already impacted rural women and posed challenges to those who found it difficult to adapt and cope. Policy makers in Africa, she stressed, needed to understand the different roles of women and men. She put forward the view that gender analysis and more research were needed to ensure equitable outcomes for both men and women. Ms. Nampinga noted that NGOs working with rural women were involved in providing vital awareness campaigns and participating in planning and strategies to address their needs. Although women were vulnerable, she stressed that they should not be seen as victims since they could adapt to the effects of climate change if appropriate resources were provided. She said capacity-building projects should ensure an end to discrimination and improved access to resources, including credit, training and education . In concluding, Ms. Nampinga reminded the audience that there could be “no climate justice without gender justice”.

Letty Chiwara, Cross Regional Programmes Manager, United Nations Development Fund for Women Headquarters, highlighted the important role of rural women in agricultural production. Rural women, she said, were responsible for food security but persisting gender inequalities posed a challenge for poverty reduction strategies. Ms. Chiwara presented a pilot project, sponsored by UNIFEM and the World Bank which was aimed at enhancing women’s economic empowerment in a short time frame, with the expectation that if it was successful it could be replicated and scaled up. The project was being implemented in 5 different countries, including Egypt, Kenya, Peru, the Mekong region and in Liberia. In each country the initiative was different. For example in Egypt it was an employment sector initiative, while in Kenya the project provided support to bead workers and in Peru to women who had acquired land rights. In the Mekong region it addressed women working with bamboo handicraft products and in Liberia it focused on women in Nimba county who depended on agriculture, particularly cassava farming,, for their livehoods. They were constrained by a lack of processing facilities to add value to their cassava. The project therefore aimed to assist the Ganta women to transform their small- scale cassava production activities into a profit-making enterprise by improving production and processing techniques and establishing marketing linkages. Ms. Chiwara explained in detail how the project was put in place. While the full results of the initiative would not be known until the end of 2009, she noted that there were already some results, including increased production, greater interest by development partners such as the Food and Agriculture Organization, UNESCO, which is helping with literacy among the women, and more resources being provided by the Korean government for one to two more processing plants. The Government had also expressed an interest in replicating the experiment elsewhere in the country, Ms. Chiara said more work remained to be done, including broadening partnerships with other organizations, finding additional resources, recruiting more volunteers for labour support and providing more technical support for the cassava plantation, as well markets for cassava in order for the Ganta women to be truly successful entrepreneurs.

During the question and answer session, a number of questions were raised regarding the lack of transportation for women in rural areas, the question of land rights for women, the situation of rural women in the United States compared to those Canada, and other regions of the world. There was consensus expressed that the situation of rural women in Canada was very similar to that of their rural sisters in the United States. Regarding transportation, Ms. Purdon said that in large measure, people were left to fend for themselves in the rural areas despite the existence of volunteer drive networks by the Red Cross and cancer societies. Those networks worked separately and needed to more effectively collaborate, to enhance transportation for rural women in Canada. Ms. Carolyn Hannan added that transportation was also important with regards to maternal health especially as maternal health and maternal mortality was the MGD where the least progress had been achieved. She said there were regions where women had to walk for miles to get to a hospital.That added greatly to the problem of obstetric fistula in many parts of Africa and Asia. With regard to a question about what was being done in Africa to create cloud cover to offset climate change, Ms Nampinga noted that mitigation strategies were a primary concern for African women, particularly because they had no land rights. She said that was a challenge that African women must examine closely. In reponding to a question about why Asia had not been included in the UNIFEM Resource Based Initiative, Ms. Chiwara stressed that the programme was a pilot project that was testing a methodology, and once they had tested and communicated the methodology by the end of 2009 or 2010, they would then be able to expand the regional scope of the initiative.

The briefing was attended by about 120 representatives of NGOs, United Nations and Permanent Mission staff as well as interns from various UN Departments and NGOs.

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