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Secretary-General, in Message for International Day, Highlights Everyday Ironies Overshadowing Live

Secretary-General, in Message for International Day, Highlights

Everyday Ironies Overshadowing Lives of Rural Women


Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for the International Day of Rural Women, to be observed on 15 October:

Today we recognize the important contributions of rural women, including indigenous women, to development.  Rural women are farmers, fishers, herders and entrepreneurs; keepers of ethnic identities, traditional knowledge and sustainable practices; care-givers, parents and guardians.  They are essential to agricultural development, food and nutrition security and the management of natural resources.

This year, the International Day of Rural Women falls at the beginning of the International Year of Youth, providing an opportunity to highlight the importance of ensuring that young rural women and girls can play an equal role in sustainable rural and national development.

Rural women do most of the agricultural work in developing countries, but endure the worst working conditions, with low pay and little or no social protection.  Rural women produce most of the world’s food, yet they are often excluded from land tenure and the credit and business services they need to prosper.  They are the primary users and custodians of local natural resources, but are seldom given a voice on national and local bodies that decide how these resources are managed.  They are the care-givers and managers of households, but rarely share these responsibilities equally with men or have a say in major household decisions.

At last month’s Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York, Member States pledged to ensure equal access for rural women to productive resources, land, financing, technologies, training and markets.  They also committed to the full and equal participation of rural women in national development — not simply as equal beneficiaries, but as equal partners.

On this International Day, I call on Governments and communities everywhere to ensure these promises are met so that rural women and girls can enjoy a full range of rights — from property and inheritance, to health, education and freedom from violence.






UN report highlights disadvantages faced by Women in agricultural employment.

UN report highlights disadvantages faced by Women in agricultural employment.


21 January 2011 – Women continue to reap less benefits from employment in agriculture than men in rural areas, and the recent global financial and food crises have slowed down progress towards gender equality in farming-related labour, three United Nations agencies said in a joint report unveiled today.

According to the report, compiled by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), women face discrimination that limits both their economic productivity and their personal development.

The report – entitled “Gender dimensions of agricultural and rural employment: Differentiated pathways out of poverty” – notes that women need access to education, training, credit, markets, technical assistance and labour protection. They also need equal, secure access to land and other assets and “social capital,” including the ability to participate equally in farmers’ organizations.

It says that with access to the advantages that are available to men, women can increase their contribution to national development and poverty reduction.

Given that 70 per cent of the developing world’s 1.4 billion extremely poor people live in rural areas, raising rural women’s economic participation is crucial for achievement of the global poverty reduction and social development targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the report adds.

“It is interesting to observe that 90 per cent of the wage gap between men and women in developed or developing counties is unexplained; in other words, it is attributed to gender discrimination,” the report says.

“With job losses and cuts in spending on social services and infrastructure, women’s care burdens and unpaid work have intensified, and their financial contribution to household food security is likely to decrease,” the report says. ‘This is particularly dramatic for female-headed households.”

According to the report, the enormous economic contribution of women’s unpaid work must be recognized and measures implemented to reduce and redistribute the burden of housework in order to reap better rewards for women.

Public works programmes can support gender equality in rural employment, especially if beneficiaries are genuinely involved in designing them, the report notes, adding that promoting quality female education in rural areas and reducing gender gaps in primary and secondary schooling could improve women’s access to decent employment.

The report recommends policy measures to address the many gender differences in rural employment. The measures should include legal reforms that promote gender equality; social safety nets; assistance to organizations supporting farmers, women and youth; child care programmes; education; and better access to information and labour markets.

UN sets humanitarian agenda for 2011: Save more lives, more quickly.

UN sets humanitarian agenda for 2011: Save more lives, more quickly.


21 January 2011 – With climate change presaging natural mega-disasters, aid workers facing mounting attacks in conflict areas and the economic crisis crimping resources, the United Nations office coordinating the global humanitarian response announced its agenda for 2011 today: more lives saved, more rapidly, with fewer gaps and less duplication.

“In a changing world there can be no organizational status quo,” Valerie Amos, who heads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told Member States at a meeting at UN Headquarters in New York.

“In 2011, OCHA’s structure, in the field and at headquarters, will be more adaptable to the evolving nature of crises,” she said, noting that 2010 had been an unprecedented year with more than 250 natural disasters.

“By the end of 2011, OCHA will be a more focused organization. It will be better at managing its human resources and there will be greater clarity between the field and headquarters in terms of who does what,” in line with the Office’s theme for 2011 – ¬ Responding in a Changing World.

Established by the General Assembly in 1991 as the Department of Humanitarian Affairs to ensure a more effective and coherent response to emergencies by coordinating the actions of UN agencies and national and international organizations, OCHA has seen its caseload balloon over the past 20 years, culminating in the 2010 record.

From the devastating earthquake in Haiti, which killed 220,000 people and made 1.5 million others homeless, to unprecedented flooding in Pakistan barrelling down from the northern mountains to the flatter and agricultural south to affect over 20 million people, from Cook Islands in the Pacific, battered by tropical storms, to post-flood coordination in Albania, OCHA was on hand and on the ground.

Ms. Amos, who serves as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, stressed the need to learn the lessons of Haiti and Pakistan where delays, logistics and other issues prevented the initial operations from moving as effectively as desired, and she warned of the mounting complexities confronting humanitarian operations in the future, noting that climate change is playing its part.

“Unpredictable and unprecedented weather patterns across Africa, Central America, and South and East Asia displaced tens of millions of people,” she said. “As the frequency and intensity of natural disasters increase, mega-crises such as the flooding across Pakistan may well become the new normal, making us think again about the speed, scale and effectiveness of our response.

“Humanitarian work has also become more dangerous. The level of threats and the number of deliberate attacks on aid organizations – our people, equipment and facilities – have risen dramatically. Reaching populations in need to deliver essential services has become more difficult,” she added, noting that 63 humanitarian workers were killed in 2010.

“And if negotiating these challenges was not enough, the humanitarian community is also dealing with increasing financial pressure. We are being urged to do more with less not only because of the global economic downturn, but also because countries that give us support must account to their populations for the way they have spent their money.”

Ms. Amos listed an ambitious list of tasks for the coming year: to coordinate responses, mobilize resources through international appeals, manage quick-response funds, act as a voice for victims, negotiate access to those in need, and provide critical information and analysis as crises unfold.

And she listed, too, the global challenges where OCHA will continue to improve its understanding: climate change, food and energy price increases, population growth and urbanization.

OCHA, with over 350 aid agencies participating in joint planning exercises, is funded by 39 Member States and Ms. Amos asked for $208 million in voluntary contributions for 2011.

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