Who Feeds the World?
This video was prepared by The Hunger Project and shown at the ECOSOC preparatory meeting on Who Feeds the World Beyond 2010?
http://thp.org.mx/video/8.html
This preparatory meeting, held on April 22, 2010, aimed at developing themes for the Annual Ministerial Review (AMR) of ECOSOC to be held 28 June-3 July 2010. It was jointly sponsored by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, FAO, IFAD, UNIFEM, WFP, and the World Bank, in collaboration with The Hunger Project and WOCAN.
The theme for the late-June ECOSOC ministerial review will be Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to gender equality and empowerment of women. As the principal coordinator of the UN development system and main forum for the discussion of economic and social issues, ECOSOC will then weigh in on the issue and send a strong message on the topic to the MDG Summit in September.
ECOSOC will also inform the Commission on the Status of Women's discussion on rural women when the CSW takes up the topic in 2012.
Rural women key to world food security
Despite the fact that smallholder farming in most developing countries has a woman's face, women farmers are too often invisible and under-supported when it comes to investments, policies, and programmes. This reality intimately affects the lives of rural women, men and children, and is standing in the way of world food security.
"There is a striking gender bias in favour of men when it comes to access to, and ownership of, land, agricultural technology, information, training, financial services and all related productive resources. This gender bias makes agriculture less productive than it could be, and undermines the world's ability to reduce hunger and poverty, and to support economic development," said Marcela Villarreal, Director of FAO's Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division, and scheduled moderator of today's panel discussion.
"The recent food and economic crises were a harsh reminder that sustainable agriculture is crucial to food security and development. What we need to do now, in this series of meetings, is to ensure that rural women's indispensable role in agriculture and development is fully recognized and inserted into the policy agenda and decision-making processes," Villarreal said.
"MDG 1, to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty, simply cannot be achieved without the full participation of rural women," said Villarreal.
While efforts to address gender inequalities are reflected in numerous resolutions of the General Assembly and other international agreements, such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and Article 14 of CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women), Villarreal stresses "there is a need for more robust action to support rural women's role as agents of change and drivers of development."
Issues discussed
1. What are good practices in gender-responsive rural development strategies that have empowered rural women as agents of change for economic and social development?
2. What further actions can be taken to address constraints to rural women's empowerment? What has worked and what can be scaled up?
3. What role can various stakeholders play in ensuring targeted allocation of resources for gender equality and the empowerment of rural women?
4. How can data collection and analysis on women's contributions to food security be improved to better inform policy-making, planning and monitoring of results?
5. What are successful strategies for enhancing rural women's ability to influence decision making on the local, national, regional and global level?
