IFAD pledges to ‘Do Something Extra’ through the MDG3 Torch Campaign

The International Day of Rural Women was observed for the first time on 15 October 2008. This new international day, which the General Assembly of the United Nations established in December 2007, recognizes the critical contribution of rural women, including indigenous women, to agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty.

Across the developing world, poor rural women play a major role in agriculture, from production to processing and marketing. They carry the main responsibility in providing the food, water and fuel needed by their families. And the quality of the care that mothers give to their children and other household members influences the prospects for healthy and productive lives for all.

This year, on the second annual celebration of the International Day of Rural Women, IFAD strengthens its commitment to gender equality and to the increased prosperity and enhanced well-being of rural women through the MDG3 Torch Campaign.

IFAD becomes a ‘Torch Bearer’

The Third Millennium Development Goal is to promote gender equality and empower women. The Danish Government initiated the MDG3 Global Call to Action and the Torch Campaign in 2008, calling on governments, international organizations, the private sector and prominent individuals from all over the world to ‘Do Something Extra’ for gender equality and women’s empowerment. More than 100 Torches are already travelling the world.

The Danish Minister for Development Cooperation, Ulla Tørnæs, handed over the Torch to IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze on 4 October, in Istanbul.

“Without significant progress worldwide on gender equality and women’s empowerment, we will not make progress in reducing global poverty and food insecurity,” Nwanze said at the MDG3 ceremony.

Building on 30 years of commitment to gender equality

Gender equality and women’s empowerment have always been at the core of IFAD’s efforts to reduce rural poverty.

The programmes and projects that IFAD supports demonstrate that women have the ability to be powerful agents of change in their communities. At IFAD, we know that without women’s full participation we will not achieve the First Millennium Development Goal to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and hunger. But IFAD recognizes that there is more that needs to be done. That is why IFAD has drawn up four commitments to ‘Do Something Extra.’

To strengthen IFAD’s contribution to gender equality, and the increased prosperity and enhanced well-being of rural women, IFAD commits to:

• improve our results on the ground by continuing to better integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment into our strategic framework, country programmes, and monitoring and evaluation systems

• strengthen women’s leadership and decision-making influence in agriculture and natural resource management at all levels 

• lend our voice through our strategic communications and advocacy in favour of increased investment in rural women, for sustainable agricultural development and food security

• increase our own investment in technology development and capacity strengthening for gender equality and rural women’s empowerment through our grants programme

IFAD launches new publication on gender and rural microfinance

Gender and Rural Microfinance: Reaching and Empowering Women is an overview of gender issues for rural finance practitioners. It highlights the questions that need to be asked and addressed when trying to reach rural women and promote gender equality and women’s empowerment through microfinance and banking.

The guide focuses on rural microfinance, which is defined as “all financial services that are accessible to poor and low-income rural households and individuals.” 

Author Linda Mayoux is a well-known expert on gender and economic development, including microfinance. She writes: “Innovations in financial services, particularly in microfinance, have enabled millions of women and men in rural areas who were formerly excluded from the financial sector to gain access to financial services on an ongoing basis.”

“Nevertheless, serious challenges remain in establishing microfinance and banking in rural areas. We need to find ways to deliver financial services through the wider sustainable development process so that these services can help develop markets and value chains and strengthen the local and national economy. This requires not only strategies targeting women, but also strategies to change the attitudes and behaviours of men.”

The guide provides practical suggestions for designing financial products, such as credit, savings, insurance and remittances.

“Last year, IFAD, FAO and the World Bank launched the Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook on the International Day of Rural Women,” says Maria Hartl, IFAD Technical Adviser, Gender and Social Equity. “I am happy to report that this milestone publication on gender issues in agriculture has received worldwide attention. We have been overwhelmed by the response of governments, practitioners and academia. The sourcebook is being translated into Spanish and Arabic at the moment and training modules are being produced for training in universities and agricultural colleges.”

A matter of justice, a wise approach to poverty reduction Enabling women to have equal access to economic opportunities and services and improving their livelihoods is not only a matter of justice, it is also one of the wisest ways of reducing poverty and malnutrition.  Five hundred million smallholder farmers worldwide support over two billion people, and produce 80 per cent of the world’s food. In most developing countries, on these small farms women perform a large part – and often most – of the agricultural work. “The productivity of women farmers is constrained by the same factors that affect small agricultural producers in general, but it is compounded by gender-specific factors,” says Annina Lubbock, IFAD Senior Technical Adviser, Gender and Poverty Targeting. Women are often pressed for time due to their multiple domestic responsibilities. They have less access to assets and services, including education, so are more likely than men to be illiterate. They have limited opportunities to participate in producers’ organizations. And sociocultural factors limit their mobility and participation in public decision-making. Women shoulder more and more of the burden of providing food in many parts of the world as they plant, plough, harvest and fish, gather fuelwood, fetch water, cook, and breastfeed. But although they are the main actors in feeding the world and fighting hunger and malnutrition, most of their work is unpaid or grossly underpaid and they have little or no access to land, credit, training and technology. On a global scale, women cultivate more than half of all the food that is grown. In sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, they produce up to 80 per cent of basic foodstuffs. In Asia, they account for around 50 per cent of food production. Women’s role in agriculture remains largely unrecognized in policy and resource allocation: only a very small proportion of ODA for agriculture reaches women directly. The voices and concerns of rural women are seldom heard at national and global levels. There are generally few women in leadership positions. There is thus a dramatic disproportion between rural women’s voice and decision-making role and their enormous contribution to agricultural marketing, production and livelihoods. But women are the holders of a unique base of experience and knowledge on which to build in order to increase the productivity of smallholder agriculture in the broadest sense. “Studies have shown that when women farmers have access to resources such as land, credit, technology training and marketing, they are more productive than male farmers,” says Lubbock. “But the world’s primary food producers have generally less access to resources than men.” Without a significant investment in improving the livelihoods, assets and decision-making of rural women, the MDGs to reduce poverty and food insecurity are unlikely to be achieved. To address these challenges and contribute to MDG3, IFAD works with governments to mainstream gender equity and women’s empowerment into our project cycles. We mobilize grants and supplementary funds to support gender equality goals. And our engagement in global advocacy and policy forums brings attention to the issues confronting poor rural women.