FAO launches rural women empowerment programme

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has launched a rural women empowerment and environmental sustainability acceleration programme, an initiative to be piloted in Jamaica, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic.

A women's farmer field school programme is to be established in each pilot country to help farmers improve on their skills and knowledge, and to foster a long-term cycle of learning and empowerment.

Mario Lubetkin, assistant director general of the FAO and regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, who addressed the live-streamed launch event on Monday, said that the programme's implementation is aimed at providing a comprehensive response to the pressing need to address the gender disparities in agri-food systems and climate challenges in the region.

The programme, he added, provides a great opportunity to contribute to improving the position of women in agriculture by promoting inclusive, sustainable, and resilient agricultural value chains. Additionally, it will help thousands of rural women across Latin America and the Caribbean transform their lives by ensuring that they receive the resources they need to become change agents in their communities through a regional knowledge exchange platform that will enable collaboration among governments, non-government organisations, civil society and the private sector.

GENDER TRANSFORMATIVE PERSPECTIVES

Lubetkin expressed the FAO's commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of eradicating poverty, hunger and to reduce inequalities.

“In a recent 2024 food and nutrition security report, it reveals that the world is far from achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 which is zero hunger. In 2023, around 733 million people went hungry in the world. However, in Latin America and the Caribbean, significant progress has been made, with a reduction of 4.3 million people who no longer are suffering from hunger, mainly due to a recovery in South America,” he said.

Despite these improvements, Lubetkin pointed out that one million people in the region still experienced hunger at a rate higher than that of pre-COVID19 periods.

Women were found to be more vulnerable to food insecurity than men, with Latin America and the Caribbean having the greatest disparity between men and women in terms of moderate to severe food insecurity, he said.

He noted that women make up 36 per cent of the workforce in agri-food systems globally and 25 per cent within the region. But in addition to other obstacles preventing them from obtaining social protection, financing, and other essential services, they disproportionately experience poverty, food insecurity, and increasing rates of labour infernality.

“According to the latest FAO's report on the situation of women in agri-food systems, empowering women and closing the gender gap not only improves their well-being and that of their families, but also reduces hunger, stimulates economic growth, and strengthens the resilience of communities,” Lubetkin said.

Using gender transformative perspectives, he said, the FAO will continue to build governmental capacities and develop policies that support rural women's contributions to ecosystem restoration and biodiversity preservation through the implementation of this programme, in collaboration with regional and national partners.