On 17-18 Feb,Maris Gavino, WOCAN Liaison, attended the Special event ‘MovingForward: Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Strengthening women’s participation and influence in farmers’ organizations’during IFAD’s Global Farmers’ Forum in Rome, Italy.The participantswere grouped according to English-French- Spanish languages and introduced themselves by stating how they became leaders and got chosen to come to Rome for the Farmers’ Forum. They shared their first-hand experiences from the field, the obstacles and challenges they faced. Lastly, they were asked about their recommendations/key messages to the Forum and to the Governing Council, the supreme governing body of IFAD.
Many mentioned that it was their mobilization skills, hard work, perseverance, zeal, passion and dedication that they gained and maintained their leadership positions in the organizations. They had proven themselves to their constituents and to their male counterparts. The common challenge that they faced was how to change the attitudes of men and effectively influence them. Their principal message for IFAD was to increase the funds for women farmer organizations giving due priority to capacity building.
The Farmer’s Forum, in turn, called upon government members of IFAD to give special priority to women and youth as both are key for smallholder food production. The Forum called upon organizations to strive to achieve a participation of 50% women and 30% youth in the next global meeting of the Farmers’ Forum. The Forum also called upon IFAD to: i) strengthen the involvement of smallholder producers’ organizations at country level and in operational activities; ii) strengthen the interaction between the Famers’ Forum and IFAD governance; iii) strengthen collaboration in other global policy forums.