Training and technology and decent work for women
This year, the theme for International Women’s Day on 8 March is ‘Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women’. To mark the occasion, the three Rome-based agencies are organizing a joint event to present the publication titled State of Food and Agriculture 2010-11: Women in agriculture – closing the gender gap for development, prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in collaboration with IFAD and the World Food Programme. The report presents ground-breaking new data on the important roles that women play in agriculture and rural economies.

“The findings presented in the SOFA report should change the course of development investments and outcomes,” says Annina Lubbock, IFAD’s Senior Technical Adviser on Gender and Poverty Targeting. “They should make women a more prominent target group and enable us to understand better how their concerns and needs differ from those of men. The importance of in-depth gender analysis cannot be overstated.”

Tapping the potential in women
The report examines the role that women play in agriculture and rural economies, and the ways in which they are taking on greater responsibilities as farmers, food producers and providers for their families. It highlights major gender discrepancies in access to assets and economic opportunities, and the benefits for all of closing that gender gap. In addition it proposes policies and interventions that support women on the farm and beyond.

Investing in women can revitalize farming and transform rural economies: this is the message that we and our partner organizations are broadcasting on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2011. The new data from the SOFA report will consolidate the direction IFAD has already taken in supporting women as drivers of agricultural growth.

Women farmers need science and technology
Education and training are the key foundations for women’s development, greater gender equality and women’s empowerment. As more women in rural areas take on roles as farmers and heads of household, they urgently need access to technical training and study opportunities to boost their ability to farm productively and run viable businesses.

Many women smallholder farmers have access to improved technologies for use in farming and non-farm enterprise activities, but most women still struggle through their days using traditional technologies that are labour-intensive and consume vast amounts of time and energy. Heavy domestic chores, such as collecting water and fuelwood, divert women’s time away from farming tasks and non-farm enterprise activities, and this leads to low agricultural yields and low levels of food security. For this reason, increasing women’s wellbeing is one of the pillars of IFAD’s Gender Plan of Action, and this includes promoting labour-saving technologies.

IFAD has financed research on emerging issues and innovative practices related to gender equality and empowerment of women of women through our grants programme. Over the years, grants have helped improve the way agricultural research is conducted to take into account women’s role in producing science and technology through participatory research and gender analysis.

IFAD’s experience shows that women are quick to adopt new technologies that meet their needs and fit their circumstances. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, we funded a programme that helped poor rural women to buy dairy goats and gave them training and access to basic low-cost technologies to process the milk and the wool. Manual or electric butter churns and cream separators, improved ways of preparing yoghurt and better packaging techniques all enabled the women to save time and produce more marketable products. Family health and nutrition improved and the women’s incomes increased.