The United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS) is an inter-agency programme of the United Nations mandated to promote and develop constructive relations between the United Nations and civil society organizations.
The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) has launched Women Help Solve Hunger: Why Is the World Still Waiting?, a position paper on women’s roles in food production and agricultural growth.
According to the paper, past efforts to reduce hunger and increase rural incomes have failed because governments, international bodies and experts have not paid sufficient attention to the role of women as communal farmers, producers and entrepreneurs. Women Help Solve Hunger questions the results of current debates around the global food crisis.
The paper proposes that it is not too late to turn the tide and to start learning from the past. Women should not just be seen as subsistence farmers and caretakers of their own families, but rather as vital actors in the agricultural economy and the expanding world of commercial agriculture, it notes.
The paper also draws attention to the fact that "women farmers" as a group are not homogenous; they participate in the agricultural sector in varied and distinct ways, and should be seen as "economic actors in their own right, not as assistants to their husbands, brothers or other male relatives." The authors stress that gender norms and barriers constrain women in accessing land, resources and technology and stress that it is time for a better understanding of the different roles that women and men assume in various agricultural activities and businesses.
"Women need access to agricultural investments, such as connections to agricultural research and extension, improved rural infrastructure, time-saving technologies, and access to inputs such as fertilizer and seeds. But women today also need the ability to act on economic opportunities, which they gain through access to credit, land and assets, markets, and more and better information," the paper states.
It concludes by saying that more research is needed to be able to better understand and address the way women are affected by new developments in the agricultural sector; and to support women’s infrastructure and resource needs to enhance agricultural productivity and to strengthen rural economies.
The position paper is available online.
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