Media backgrounder MB/12/08

Empowering poor rural women  must be a priority

Rome, 24 November 2008 - Nowhere are women more vulnerable to violence than in poor rural communities. That violence comes in many forms; sexual and physical abuse in the home, rape, the spread of HIV-AIDS, traditional practices such as female genital mutilation and the trauma of human trafficking. 

The United Nations marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November, (Resolution 45/134, December 1999). On this day in 1960, the three Mirabal sisters, champions of the struggle for liberation from dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, were raped and killed.

Launching “Unite to End Violence against Women, 2008–2015’’, in New York in February, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon challenged the UN to raise the awareness, the political will and the resources needed to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls the world over. 

In poor rural communities women are vital for the survival of poor households. The continuation of any form of violence against these women causes wider damage, stalling development and deepening poverty.

Empowering them, through access to education, healthcare, credit and decision making, makes them less vulnerable.

Simple measures in the development sphere can help reduce risk, increase safety and boost awareness. Women in rural areas often walk many miles a day to collect water and firewood.

When paths to woodlots are improved and water is closer to the village, women and girls are less at risk of violence. 

In its work with the rural poor, IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development) incorporates a gender dimension across its operations, focusing on economic empowerment, decision-making, and well-being.

IFAD and the Government of Canada have signed a two-year CAD$1 million grant agreement for projects to improve empower poor rural women to reduce their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS - The Legal Empowerment of Women Programme (LEWI).

In Burundi, after 12 years of civil war in which many women were killed, raped, or widowed, the return of displaced populations is causing community tensions.

A project of the LEWI programme will seek to resolve these conflicts, provide legal assistance for women girls and orphans and train para-legal figures who can assist in conflict resolution.

In India, in the Chhattisgarh state, the right of women to inherit are not recognised by most tribes and some have taboos against women ploughing or sowing in the main rice crop or tiling the roof of a house, thus depriving them of the possibility of income and shelter.  

The LEWI programme will promote general literacy for women, legal literacy and legal aid. Among their innovative tools is Kalajatha (street play) where messages can be delivered in an effective and entertaining way through street theatre which can tour several hundred villages.

In Malawi, the LEWI  programme will address legal and property rights that discriminate against women who, denied of resources, often find themselves in risk situations. Vocational and life skills training as well as income generating activities are also an integral part of reducing the scope for violence against women. 

Government officials, international organisations, the private sector and NGOs have been meeting in Addis Ababa, for the sixth ECA-AU African Development Forum.

The focus this year was on empowering and ending violence against women in Africa.

“The need to eliminate violence against women underlies what we do with and for African women in the programmes IFAD supports” said Maria Hartl, IFAD Technical Adviser, Gender and Social Equity, who attended the forum.

---

IFAD was created 30 years ago to tackle rural poverty, a key consequence of the droughts and famines of the early 1970s. Since 1978, IFAD has invested more than US$10 billion in low-interest loans and grants that have helped over 400 million very poor rural women and men increase their incomes and provide for their families. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency. It is a global partnership of OECD, OPEC and other developing countries. Today, IFAD supports more than 200 programmes and projects in 85 developing countries and one territory.