Bachelet and Nwanze commit to work together to put rural women on centre stage of development

Rome, 18 October 2011 ­–The Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), Michelle Bachelet, met with the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Kanayo F. Nwanze, today to discuss how the their agencies can work together to improve the livelihoods, assets and decision-making power of rural women as a pathway out of poverty.

Bachelet, a former President of Chile and UN Women’s first Executive Director who is in Rome on the occasion of World Food Week and the International Day of Rural Women, addressed IFAD staff and called for increased inter-agency collaboration to empower poor rural women through investment in education, economic integration and food security initiatives.

“I firmly believe that an investment in women is an investment in our future,” Nwanze said during his meeting with Bachelet. He outlined IFAD’s commitment to rural women across the globe. “Empowerment benefits not only the women themselves, but also their families and communities. Malnutrition and mortality rates drop when girls have better access to education. And more importantly, women re-invest in their communities and in their future,” Nwanze emphasized.

“Available data suggest that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20–30 percent, lifting 100-150 million out of hunger”, said Bachelet. ”It is encouraging to know that we can count on strong partners like IFAD and work together to improve the situation of rural women.”   

Since entering office as President of IFAD, Nwanze has been vocal about higher investment in rural women in order to eradicate poverty. In 2009, Nwanze received the Global MDG3 Champion Torch committing IFAD “to do something extra” to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.  Highlighting several initiatives IFAD has taken to improve its targeting and approach to women’s empowerment, Nwanze said: “Almost 50 per cent of IFAD’s funding now goes directly to women, reaching an estimated 16.8 million poor rural women.”

UN Women is the United Nations organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established in 2010 to accelerate progress on meeting their rights worldwide. UN Women supports United Nations Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality, and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to implement these standards. Women’s economic empowerment, with a focus on rural women, is one of the organization’s strategic priorities. UN Women also coordinates and promotes the United Nations system’s work in advancing gender equality.

In Latin America, IFAD and UN Women are currently developing the USD$3 million Latin America Broadening Economic Opportunities for Rural Entrepreneurial Women Programme. The programme will support rural enterprises owned by women in Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru, specifically targeting women of African and indigenous descent.

IFAD also has led several global advocacy initiatives, such as the 2010 Farmers’ Forum on Women’s Leadership in Farmers Organizations, which proactively worked to strengthen the role of women in leadership and decision-making processes. In addition, IFAD will roll out its new gender policy in the December 2011 meeting of its Executive Board.

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Press release No.: IFAD/73/2011

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) works with poor rural people to enable them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD has invested about US$13.2 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries through projects empowering about 400 million people to break out of poverty, thereby helping to create vibrant rural communities. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome – the United Nation’s food and agricultural hub. It is a unique partnership of 167 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).