CONCEPT NOTE RURAL WOMEN Introduction

CONCEPT NOTE RURAL WOMEN Introduction Rural women play important roles in the production of food, sustainment of their families and strengthening of rural communities. However, they are at a disadvantage compared to rural men and urban women and face multiple and interrelated structural and cultural barriers that limit the realization of their human rights and their economic empowerment. Implementing policies to improve the living conditions of rural women and girls, fulfil their human rights and promote their economic and political empowerment are essential to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals. Progress in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in rural areas (SDG 5) is linked to other goals, including ending poverty in all its forms (Goal 1), eradicating hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture (Goal 2), achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all (Goal 8) and reducing inequalities (Goal 10). Rural women in the world Rural women represent a quarter of the world s population and play a crucial role in sustaining their families and in maintaining and/or improving rural livelihoods. However, they face persistent and systematic barriers that prevent them from fully enjoying their human rights and hinder their efforts to improve their lives. 1 As stated by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in its General recommendation No. 34 on the rights of rural women, globally, and with few exceptions, on every gender and development indicator for which data are available, rural women fare worse than rural men and urban women and men, and rural women disproportionately experience poverty and exclusion. The lack of access to land, productive resources, infrastructure, roads, connectivity, safe drinking water, education, health and justice experienced in rural areas affect women disproportionately 2. These inequalities are accentuated due to the scarce inclusion of women in decision-making in both the private and public spheres. Unequal access to resources and opportunities generates obstacles for their human development, economic empowerment and the reduction of poverty in rural areas. Therefore, rural women represent a group that needs to be at the center of the design of integral and coordinated public policies. Women account for 43% of the world s agricultural workforce. Most rural women workers are unpaid family workers or self-employed and exposed to precarious jobs and low pay. They 1 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (2016). General recommendation No. 34 on the rights of rural women. CEDAW/C/GC/34. 2 Solbrig, Otto, Robert Paarlberg and Francesco Di Castri (Eds.) (2001) Globalization and the Rural Environment. Series on Latin American Studies 6, Harvard University Press. 1

are paid on average 25% less than men 3. This is mainly related to the fact that informality and unpaid family work are very much present in rural economies. The significant involvement of women in agriculture points to the importance of designing and implementing programs to improve their empowerment and productive capacity in the agricultural sector, including more access to productive resources, technical assistance, land tenure security and access to, ownership of, and control over land, forests, and access to and participation in local, regional and international markets, as highlighted in the Agreed Conclusions of the Sixty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women 4. However, in terms of defining rural women, it is important to acknowledge that rural women are far from being a homogenous group. Rural women have different ethnic origins, including indigenous, native or afro-descendant, but also vary immensely in the activities they carry out: farmers, hunters, gatherers, fisherwomen, artisans, waged-employees or employers. Evidence from developing countries highlights the importance of non-farm activities in the income-generating portfolio of rural households: the literature indicates that they account for 42% of the income of rural households in Africa, 40% in Latin America and 32% in Asia 5. This heterogeneity should be considered when designing policies towards increasing their economic empowerment and improving their quality of life. Even though rural women face familiar challenges and vulnerabilities, it is important to recognize that there are inequalities within this group. There are successful business women who can have a key role in mentoring other women and influencing public policy. On the other hand, indigenous, afro-descendant and migrant rural women are especially affected by inequalities and discrimination, as well as rural women with disabilities and those of advanced age. Policies and services to promote their inclusion should be gender sensitive and also culturally sensitive and adapted to their particular needs and contexts. Rural women s contributions to society Rural women play a decisive role in the sustainment of families, the strengthening of communities and the generation of food. In developing countries, the agricultural sector has suboptimal returns partly because women do not have access to the resources and opportunities they need to increase their productivity. If women had access to the same productive resources than their male counterparts, average yields would increase between 20-30%, and hunger would decrease in 12-17% 6. Therefore, reducing gender inequalities and promoting the economic empowerment of women is of the utmost importance for increasing food security, reducing malnutrition and eliminating poverty. The effects would be substantial in rural areas, where 80% of the world s 3 FAO, IFAD, ILO (2010). Gender-equitable rural work to reduce poverty and boost economic growth. Gender and rural employment policy brief #1. http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i2008e/i2008e01.pdf 4 Commission on the Status of Women (2018). Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls. Agreed conclusions. Sixty-second session, 12 23 March 2018. E/CN.6/2018/L.8 5 FAO (2002). Promoting farm/non-farm linkages in developing countries: Case studies from Africa and Latin America. Rome: FAO. 6 FAO (2011). The state of food and agriculture 2010-2011. Women in agriculture: closing the gender gap for development. Rome: FAO. http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i2050e/i2050e.pdf 2

poor and undernourished people live 7. Despite their contribution to food production, women and girls are disproportionately affected by food insecurity and malnutrition due to their limited access to nutritious food and key productive resources 8. Women also make an essential contribution in a wide range of activities that support agricultural development, such as soil and water conservation, afforestation and crop domestication. As highlighted in the Food Policy Research Institute report, women have an essential role in food security both as producers and food providers of families, and as contributors to the nutritional security of households 9. Women report higher human capital investments in the form of health, nutrition and education for their children than their male counterparts. Traditionally, women have been responsible for domestic work, raising children, caring for sick, elderly and disabled people. This situation is accentuated for rural women, because in addition to actively participating in field production, garden plots and the care of livestock, they perform tasks related to the supply of food, water and fuel for cooking food. Inequalities that affect rural women Rural women and girls face multiple and interrelated inequalities related to structural and cultural factors and forms of discrimination that generate obstacles for their human development and economic empowerment. The Commission on the Status of Women in its sixty-second session recognizes that progress in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, in particular in rural areas, and the realization of their human rights has been held back owing to the persistence of historical and structural unequal power relations between women and men, poverty, inequalities and disadvantages in access to, ownership of and control over resources, growing gaps in equality of opportunity and limited access to universal health-care services and secondary and post-secondary education, gender-based violence, discriminatory laws and policies, negative social norms and gender stereotypes, and the unequal sharing of unpaid care and domestic work. It stresses the urgency of eliminating those structural barriers in order to realize gender equality and empower rural women and girls. 10 The main obstacle for most communities or rural areas is, without a doubt, isolation caused by distances and lack of infrastructure. Many producers suffer from the lack of an asphalted or safe road network, and therefore, can become isolated in times of rain with serious consequences for access to health and education centers. At the same time, the cost of transport makes also increases the cost of commercialization and technical assistance necessary for the development of production. The lack of infrastructure affects not only mobility, but also communication, connectivity and access to basic services, including electricity, water, health, education, care services, among others. One of the areas in which the lack of infrastructure has significant effects is access to 7 FAO (2016). Meeting Our Goals. FAO s programme for gender equality in agriculture and rural development. Rome: FAO. http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6618e.pdf 8 Ibid. 9 International Food Policy Research Institute (1995). Women: The Key to Food Security. Food Policy Report. 10 Commission on the Status of Women (2018). Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls. Agreed conclusions. Sixty-second session, 12 23 March 2018. E/CN.6/2018/L.8 3

water, both for human consumption and for production. This has a differential burden on women, who are usually responsible for providing water to the family. In a study of 25 countries in sub-saharan Africa, UNICEF and WHO estimated that it is estimated that women spend a combined total of at least 16 million hours each day collecting drinking water, compared to 6 million hours spent by men. 11 The lack of water harvesting and storage systems needed to ensure production generate difficulties for productive development, in addition to the effects of climate change that result in prolonged droughts alternating with intense rains and adversely affect agricultural production. The lack of schools and health centers in rural areas limits access to essential services and has very serious consequences on the health of women and children and their education. In Argentina, for example, in many localities, the lack of nearby educational centers forces families to send 5-year-old children to other communities so that they can access schools, sending them to relatives' homes or to boarding schools, causing great suffering to both parents and children. This situation leads to the uprooting of children, who grow up and end up settling in the new communities. The abandonment of the countryside by the families, who do not want to send their children away at such an early age, accentuate migrations from rural areas to cities, increasing urban poverty. Additionally, the lack of care services infrastructure increases rural women s unpaid domestic and care work burden. Women in rural areas are in general affected negatively by the lack of nearby and quality services, including education, health, care, justice and prevention of and protection from violence. Women make up over two-thirds of the world s 796 million people who are illiterate, and many of them live in rural areas. Evidence indicates that rural girls are less likely to attend secondary school than rural boys, and they are far less likely to attend than urban girls. 12 This has consequences to their possibilities of securing a sustainable livelihood, as well as on their health. Ensuring literacy and education is crucial for the development and empowerment of rural women, and for the reduction of poverty and hunger. Overall, rural and indigenous populations have less access to sexual and reproductive health than urban populations. Prenatal care has improved for rural women, but it is still below access for women in urban areas. Between 1990 and 2008, the proportion of rural women who received prenatal care at least once during pregnancy increased from 55% to 66%, while the same proportion for urban women rose from 84 to 89% in the same period 13. Young girls residing in rural areas have up to three times higher pregnancy rates than young girls in urban areas 14. Nowadays, approximately 40% of the world s population is less than 25 years old 15, therefore, there is an urge to especially consider the needs of rural women and girls when it comes to unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, and maternal mortality, among others. The lack of access to comprehensive high-quality health services and education threatens rural women s wellbeing and has a huge impact on the development of 11 UNICEF and WHO (2012). Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: 2012 Update. https://www.unicef.org/media/files/jmpreport2012.pdf 12 UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Rural Women. Facts & Figures: Rural Women and the Millennium Development Goals. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/ruralwomen/facts-figures.html 13 Ibid. 14 Every Woman Every Child (2015). The Global Strategy for Women s, Children s and Adolescents Health (2016-2030). Geneva: Every Woman Every Child. 15 UNDESA. World Population Prospects 2017. https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/dataquery/ 4

societies. There is a lot to gain by improving access to reproductive health and services for rural women. Rural women face the risk of being victims of violence. The high proportion of women without income are especially vulnerable due to their lack of economic autonomy. Also, difficulties in accessing justice and protective services in rural areas generate additional vulnerabilities. Even when legal services are available, providing legal aid can be particularly challenging because of distance, lack of access to transportation, lack of awareness of the kinds of services and help that legal aid can provide, lack of culturally sensitive services, fear of being discriminated or re-victimized, leading to serious under reporting of gender-based violence. In some areas, traditions such as female genital mutilation place girls even at a greater risk. In this context, the lack of social protection and the reduced economic autonomy of rural women make them less prone to seek justice or abandon violent relationships, especially when they have children. Although rural women contribute significantly to the development of communities, as farmers, waged-workers, entrepreneurs or as businesswomen, they are more affected by the burden unpaid work and care activities due the traditional roles attributed to women in rural areas, based on stereotyped gender roles, combined with limited infrastructure and access to services. Rural women have longer working days than rural men and urban women due to this increased burden of unpaid domestic work, including activities related to care, food production and water provision 16. This restricts rural women s possibilities of labor inclusion. Traditional roles also explain the high proportion of women who work as unpaid family workers, generate intrahousehold inequalities and women s access to and control over productive resources, including to land. Land ownership is a fundamental means of emancipation since it ensures greater economic independence and enables women to earn greater recognition in society, the family, and the community, which is associated with increased participation of women in decision-making. However, there is lack of data on land ownership. Current statistical data available capture information on the person in charge of the agricultural holding (person who declares him or herself to be in charge of the farm, making the majority of decisions, etc.), regardless of land tenure, with only one possible holder per agricultural unit or farm. Using this proxy indicator, equality in women s access to land is still a long way off. At the global level, the percentage of women in charge of agricultural holdings is 12.8%, with different percentages by region: 15.4% in Sub-Saharan Africa, 4.9% in Middle East and North Africa, 18.2% in Latin American and the Caribbean, 10.9% in South and East Asia it is 10.9% and 27.6% in Europe and Central Asia 17. Gender inequality in the distribution of assets in rural areas is substantial and its causes are related to male preference in inheritance, male privilege in marriage, and gender bias in community and state programs of land distribution 18. Men usually own land, and moreover, when both men and women own land, men tend to own larger and better-quality parcels. 16 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (2016). General recommendation No. 34 on the rights of rural women. CEDAW/C/GC/34. 17 FAO (2015). Gender and Land Statistics: Recent developments in FAO s Gender and Land Rights Database. http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4862e.pdf 18 Deere, Carmen and Leon, Magdalena (2003). The Gender Asset Gap: Land in Latin America. World Development, Vol. 31, No.6. 5

In addition to limited land tenure and land tenure security, rural women also face other barriers for labor inclusion in decent conditions, including limitations to access to markets, to productive resources (including natural resources and water, machinery, technology, tools, etc.), to technical assistance, to financial resources, and difficulties for commercializing products. Furthermore, rural women tend to work in informal labor conditions and lack social security. They are overrepresented in a sticky floors scenario, trapped in low-pay, lowmobility jobs, more vulnerable to economic downturns and have larger gaps in participation rates compared to men, higher rates of early motherhood, and increased burden of unpaid domestic and care work 19. Financial inclusion, especially access to credit is very much linked to having collateral, usually in the form of land ownership. Therefore, rural women, who are disproportionately underrepresented among tenants, have limited possibilities to access credit, savings, and other financial services. The inclusion of rural women into financial services requires a reduction of the barriers that systematically leave them underserved. Isolation in rural areas is also determined by the lack of digital inclusion and access to ICTs. In rural areas in countries throughout the world, mobile phone signal does not reach all locations. In addition to access, it is important to promote digital literacy in rural areas and also plans to ensure effective incorporation of ICTs for productive development with gender equity. Adults, men and women, are often excluded from computer training because digital literacy programs are specifically implemented in schools for young people. It is important to ensure rural women have access to the opportunities provided by technologies. Having connectivity and being able to access and use mobile devices allow rural women to stay connected with their families, reduces isolation, improves their health, increases their participation in community-life, and widens their possibilities for economic participation. Digitization provides different alternatives for rural women to improve their livelihoods, from education opportunities, access to markets or access to traditional and nontraditional financing institutions. Rural women and their contribution to development continue to be invisible and underestimated due to important limitations in statistical systems. More sex-disaggregated data is needed to monitor gender gaps in rural development for establishing policies to promote gender equality and economic growth. Even when data are disaggregated by sex, they are rarely also disaggregated by urban and rural contexts. In addition, rural dynamics and women s roles sometimes require different types of indicators to monitor progress than those commonly used. Disaggregated data by age, ethnicity, migratory condition and other characteristics are even more difficult to find and are necessary to understand the increased vulnerabilities and inequalities faced by certain groups of women, including indigenous, afrodescendant and migrant women, and design and monitor public policies and programs to promote their empowerment and fulfilment of their rights. 19 UN Women (2017). El Progreso de las Mujeres en América Latina y el Caribe 2017. Panama: ONU Mujeres. 6

These inequalities and barriers that limit rural women s economic empowerment are factors that explain the increased poverty observed in rural areas and faced by women and womenled households. Additionally, they lead to climate change impacting rural women disproportionately. Several underlying factors increase women s vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, including limited livelihood options, restricted access to education and basic services and discriminatory customary practices. Rural women are also likely to suffer higher disaster-related mortality and carry the burden of the long-term impacts of loss of land and security as a result of climate change. 20 Rural women s knowledge is key to build resilience to climate change and its impacts, such as flooding, deforestation, reduction of agricultural production. The participation of women in climate change policies is also strategic in terms of disaster management and warning systems, as women are more inclined to networking. 20 UNDP (2013). Overview of linkages between gender and climate change. 7