Gender
Perspective - Focus on the Rural Poor - An Overview of Gender
Issues in IFAD Assisted Projects (IFAD, 2000 )
During the last twenty years, IFAD has learned a great deal
about the prevalence and causes of poverty and malnutrition,
and has increasingly recognized that taking a gender perspective
helps to illuminate the nature of rural poverty. A gender perspective
looks at how and why men and women experience poverty differently
and become poor through different
processes and, in turn, how rural development presents different
opportunities and challenges for men and women. This booklet
is the outcome of the review of gender issues in IFAD’s
ongoing projects presented to the Executive Board in May 2000
as part of the Progress Report on the Project Portfolio. It
illustrates some of the opportunities regarding gender that
IFAD has explored in the course of its initiatives. Perhaps
more importantly, it highlights challenges that have emerged
and that must be addressed if there is to be a significant decline
in hunger and poverty early in this millennium.
Gender
dimension in rural development: a diagnosis, Appendix 5, in:
"Reaching the rural poor: a rural development strategy for
the Latin American and Caribbean region". World Bank, 2002.
page 76.
"... it describes the aspects of gender that are present
in the rural context. It concentrates on production - both agricultural
and non-agricultural - as well as the key inputs to increase productivity,
such as land, better technology and financial services. Gender
issues in terms of reproduction, education, illiteracy and violence
are described as far as they affect men's and women's decisions
about production and productivity, as well as opportunities to
a different extent".
Improvement
of the situation of women in rural areas. Document A/58/167
of 18 July 2003. Report of the Secretary-General of the United
Nations, 58th Session (2003), Item 112 of the provisional agenda
- Advancement of women.
The report responds to General Assembly resolution 56/129 of December
2001. It reviews the attention given to the situation of rural
women by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women, intergovernmental bodies and processes, the United Nations
system and international financial organisations. The report concludes
with a summary of the responses received from Member States on
the desirability of convening a high-level policy consultation
on the situation of rural women.
Latin
America and the Caribbean: Selected gender-sensitive indicators
- Demographic Bulletin No. 70 ECLAC - CELADE - Women and Development
Unit (2002).
This Demographic Bulletin "has the purpose of disseminating
social and demographic indicators from a gender perspective, in
order to give a general and comparative overview of the disparities
noticed within and among the Latin American and Caribbean countries.
These indicators are based on the population estimates and projections,
which are regularly published by CELADE in its Demographic Bulletin.
In addition, available indicators from the "Regional System
of Indicators for monitoring the goals of the International Conference
on Population and Development" set up by CELADE and from
the "Gender Statistics System" of the Women and Development
Unit, were also included".
Promoting
an integrated approach to rural development in developing
countries for eradication of poverty and sustainable development.
Commission on the Status of Women. Forty-seventh session.
3-14 March 2003
The situation of rural women has been an issue of concern
to the international community for several decades. The four
World Conferences on Women in 1975, 1980, 1985 and 1995, as
well as the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly
in 2000 (A/RES/S-23/3, annex), explicitly considered this
question, and adopted comprehensive sets of policy recommendations
as part of their outcome documents. Issues covered by these
recommendations included rural women’s access to and
control over productive resources, such as land, capital,
credit and technology, questions of
gainful employment and unpaid labour, participation in decision-making,
food security issues, and the education and health of rural
women.
The
Legal Status of Rural Women in nineteen Latin American countries.
FAO, Rome, 1994.
This book, prepared by Ruth Baena de Esparza, a lawyer and
expert on the subject, presents the historical background
to rural women's subordination in law in Latin America and
takes a critical look at the situation today. The book also
takes up the recommendations and proposals for legislative
changes and strategies put forward at the Round Table. Finally,
an annex is included containing previously unpublished case
studies on Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Mexico and Venezuela,
together with a glossary of the legal terms used in the study,
so that readers unfamiliar with the specialized terminology
may find the work easier to understand.
Voices
for change. Rural women and communication. Silvia Balit.
Communication for Development Group Extension, Education and
Communciation Service. FAO, ROME, 1999
In today's climate of political and socio-economic change,
communication can play a decisive role in promoting food security
and rural development. By fostering a dialogue between rural
people and other sectors of society, communication processes
can empower both women and men to provide information and
knowledge as a basis for change and innovation. They can enable
people to take decisions concerning their own livelihood and
thereby increase their overall involvement in development.
More specifically, gender-sensitive communication processes
can give rural women a voice to advocate changes in policies,
attitudes and social behaviour or customs that negatively
affect them.
The present Training Guide is a Consultancy
Report for the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Cooperation,
IICA and the Inter-American Development Bank, IDB (SDS/WID),
with resources from the European Technical Assistance Special
Trust Fund. This publication is available only in Spanish and
you can access to it through the IICA web site
One if the current purposes of the Inter-American
Institute for Cooperation and Agriculture (IICA) is to turn
the modernisation that bolsters the rural sector into a sustainable
gender-sensitive measure of inclusion. This inspired the undertaking
of this study in order to set the basis for the introduction
of the gender approach in the Programme for the Development
of Rural Agroindustry for Latin America and the Caribbean (PRODAR)
and to prepare projects with this perspective. The object of
the study was to go deep into the relationship between gender
issues and rural agribusiness and establish what the specific
features of "being a woman" are.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations (FAO) has launched a series of news bulletins
called "La mujer en la agricultura, medio ambiente y
la producción rural en países seleccionados de
la Región" with the aim of drawing further attention
to the problems and precariousness that affect millions of women,
particularly those living in rural areas. The national bulletins
offer complete statistical information based on recent census
sources concerning varied issues such as population, education,
labour, agriculture, fisheries, woods, environment, rural production
and food safety.
Through the information and statistical data
included in these documents, FAO shows that rural women are
underestimated in their contributions to productive chores.
For that reason, their participation in agriculture and other
activities is not regarded as a contribution to the economy
of neither their homes nor their country.
