“Rural women play a critical role in ensuring the world can be fed, yet they continue to experience systemic racism, structural poverty, and discrimination.” — António Guterres

Historically, the voices of women have been muted. Unfortunately, rural women’s active contribution to the farming sector often remains hidden and unpaid, and they have had to function in environments in which they are voiceless, both in private and public domains. Therefore, we should seize every opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate these women.

The international community commemorated the International Day of Rural Women on October 15. This year’s theme is ‘Rural Women Cultivating Good Food for All’. The day is set aside to highlight the essential role that rural women and girls play in the food systems of the world. Most, if not all, of us enjoy good food, but we oftentimes do not make the connection that rural women are responsible for same. The United Nations (UN) states that from production of crops to processing, preparing, and distributing foods, women’s labour, paid and unpaid, feeds their families, communities, and the world. Yet they do not wield equal power with men, and as a result they earn less income and experience higher food insecurity. The UN adds that, despite our planet’s capacity to provide sufficient and good food for all, hunger, malnourishment, and food insecurity are rising in many parts of the world. The novel coronavirus pandemic, along with climate crises, has made matters worse. Some 2.37 billion people did not have enough to eat in 2020, which is 20 per cent more than the year before.

This International Day of Rural Women offers us a renewed opportunity to commit to a different way of organising our world to build on the vision of the UN Feminist Plan and on the outcomes and multi-stakeholder commitments of the recent United Nations Food System Summit so that rural women benefit equally from their productivity, with good food being enjoyed by all.

The Feminist Plan calls for strengthened partnerships between governments and civil society to scale up gender-responsive agroecology, an alternative to industrial agriculture that has proven benefits for women small-scale farmers and which supports food security and protects precious biodiversity and ecosystems.

UN Women will continue supporting programmes that empower rural women while bettering communities and our planet. The Joint Programme on Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment that was implemented with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Programme (WFP) has reached 80,000 rural women across Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Nepal, Niger, and Rwanda. It has applied integrated approaches to support rural women’s livelihoods by addressing discriminatory social norms and unpaid care and domestic work, alongside increasing agricultural productivity, which has led to enhanced food security and improved nutrition. In Senegal, UN Women works with REFAN, the Network of Female Rice Producers of the North, to support rural women along the rice value chain, something which is key not only for livelihoods and access to food and nutrition but to reducing reliance on fossil fuels in an effort to combat climate change.

BARRIERS

Rural women are the backbone of any society. However, the fact that so many women are employed in the field of agriculture speaks clearly to the gendered realities and double standards rural women experience. According to the UN, less than 15 per cent of agricultural landowners are women. This is problematic, especially in instances where proof of ownership is required to serve as collateral to access funds from financial institutions. As a result, women will continue to lag behind, in terms of expansion of agricultural holdings and access to finance.

Additionally, around 30 per cent of rural women give birth without a skilled health worker present, in comparison to 10 per cent for urban women. Consequently, rural women face an increased chance of life-threatening complications, severe bleeding, infection, and maternal mortality. Disturbingly, most of the 3.7 billion not connected to the internet are rural women and girls. This clearly impacts rural women by limiting their access to knowledge and information and economic opportunities and inhibits their general well-being. The UN further adds that only 60 per cent of rural women have access to safe drinking water, in comparison to 86 per cent of urban women. Lest we forget, women and girls are often responsible for fetching water in rural communities. Unfortunately, these chores limit access to education of rural women and girls, given that so much time is spent on carrying out domestic tasks. Sadly, rural women continue to be underserved.

EMPOWERMENT OF RURAL WOMEN

The time has come for governments to invest in the development and capacity-building of rural women. There needs to be a reform of land ownership, whereby these women will have more access to land in order to cultivate and produce food on a much larger scale. An infusion of investment is also desirable in rural health care in order to facilitate rural women and girls.

Jamaica’s national curriculum needs to be more responsive to the needs of rural women. Additionally, more agricultural clubs and societies are needed in our education system. This could be a collaborative effort with the 4-H clubs. Furthermore, the Government should examine how best to give more support and resources to strengthen the Jamaica Network of Rural Women Producers, which advocates on behalf of rural women.

The only way for a country to achieve sustainable development is by empowering their women, especially rural women. Let us stand in solidarity with rural women and their organisations everywhere as they seek to influence and rewrite the decisions that shape their lives.

In the words of Ertharin Cousin, a former executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme: “…[G]iving women farmers access to the resources they need would lift up to 150 million out of hunger.”

Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and or gender issues. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or waykam@yahoo.com.