With a little support women's enterprises can flourish: women selling their produce at a market in Indonesia

This year the theme for International Women's Day is "Investing in Women and Girls."

IFAD-supported programmes and projects have shown again and again that investing in women and girls generates excellent returns, and makes an important contribution to poverty reduction within rural communities. The economic incentive is clear: rural women are responsible for half of the world's food production and produce between 60 and 80 per cent of the food in most developing countries. It is a general rule that women benefiting from microcredit programmes are prompt in their repayments and are often able to build flourishing businesses.

Women's productive potential is enormous. Yet their knowledge and expertise in the production of food, medicines and handicrafts, in addition to caring for family and home, all too often go unrecognized and unpaid. Their heavy work burden, at home and outside, remains a major obstacle to women’s full involvement in economic activities, affecting their health and resulting in responsibilities being shifted to their young daughters. 

Women still bear the brunt of poverty. In most developing countries, they are among the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of society. They face numerous hurdles related to entrenched social discrimination: held back as they are from equal access to assets, credit, education and health services.

Investing in women's empowerment is a key priority for IFAD in poor rural regions around the globe. IFAD-supported projects focus particularly on improving women’s livelihood opportunities, their incomes, their living standards, their health, and their status. They also strengthen women’s organizations and self-help groups and support their role in decision-making. Households headed by single women are among the most vulnerable within communities, and they are a priority target group for IFAD.  

Projects work to:

• increase women's access to key assets such as land and water
• strengthen women's decision-making role within their communities
• improve women's and girls’ well-being and their access to education

IFAD invests in women and girls

IFAD supports development activities that target poor women in all regions of the developing world. 

In China the Sichuan Integrated Development Project significantly improved education and health conditions for women and girls. Illiteracy among women dropped from 13.8 per cent to 4.5 per cent. And the school drop-out rate for girls fell from 5.1 per cent to 0.5 per cent. Infant malnutrition and mortality rates also fell.

In Colombia, the Rural Micro-enterprise Development Project supported the development of rural businesses as a way of increasing incomes for poor landless people, especially households headed by single women. As a result of this project, women have gained greater access to markets and created better living conditions for themselves and their families.

In Pakistan, an IFAD-funded project has pioneered a new approach to rural financing for women that overcomes strong gender bias, and conforms to Islamic lending regulations. The Dir Area Support Project has enabled women to set up microenterprises, from dairy farming and selling groceries and clothes, to handicrafts. The women formed organizations through which they received loans and support for their enterprises. Many have been able to make dramatic improvements to their families' well-being, building new homes and paying for their children's education.

Through its grants programme, IFAD has financed research on emerging issues and innovative practices related to gender equality and the empowerment of women. For example, through a joint project with the International Rice Research Institute, IFAD has supported research on labour-saving technologies for women in rice production.

IFAD has implemented specific regional gender mainstreaming programmes. The Gender Mainstreaming Programme in the Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States region showed that poor rural women respond immediately to employment opportunities. The programme strengthened the gender focus of IFAD-supported projects by boosting women’s enterprises in six countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova.

Working with the poorest rural households, the programme provided women with skills training and financial assistance to stimulate small-scale enterprises. It encouraged them to take an active part in community development. And it invested in various women’s businesses creating job opportunities in sectors like dairy production, textiles, medicinal plant processing and horticulture.

The Commission on the Status of Women

This year's theme for International Women's Day is linked to the UN follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. The UN Commission on the Status of Women identified financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women as the priority theme for the fifty-second session in 2008. A statement issued by the Commission underlined the fact that "there can be no sustainable development if women and girls are left behind." The Commission discussed issues including gender sensitive budgeting, examining government policies through a 'gender lens', and integrating a gender perspective in financing for development at all levels in the follow-up to the Monterrey Consensus. The Commission also emphasized the importance of stimulating small businesses in rural areas through the provision of microfinance and credit, and particularly on making those financial services accessible to women. All of these priority issues will shape IFAD's work within the gender sphere.

Competition stimulates women's businesses         Dulce Maria Torres and Maria Brígida Torres won first prize at the Venezuelan Women’s Contest Against Poverty, held in September 2007 Forty-eight-year-old Dulce Maria Torres grew up in the mountains of Gavidia, Venezuela, the daughter of shepherds. She raises sheep and runs a weavers’ association that uses local wool and sells to shops in the tourist region of the Venezuelan Andes. Her association is called Mujeres Tejedoras de Gavidia, Women Weavers of Gavidia. In September 2007, Torres' association won first prize in the handicraft category of an IFAD-sponsored women’s national competition. In Latin America competitions have been held every year since 2005 aimed specifically at supporting small-scale business women in rural parts of the Andean region. The first national 'Women against Poverty' competition was held in September 2005 in La Paz, Bolivia. This was followed by a regional competition, in which women from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela competed for prizes and learned from one another's business ventures. The competitions give cash prizes of up US$1,000 to provide economic support to small-scale businesses run by women's associations. The women also share ideas and experiences, and learn from and encourage each other. And the competitions draw the attention of public and private institutions to the problems poor rural women face in gaining access to markets and new technologies. “My mother was a good weaver and I learned weaving from her,” says Torres. “Now I am teaching my skills to other women in the community and together we are researching the history of weaving in our region.” Torres is one of thousands of women in the Andean region who have participated in the IFAD-sponsored competitions, building their self-esteem and self-reliance and giving them the courage to attain their dreams.