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<p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> WUNRN_LISTSERVE-owner@lists.wunrn.com [mailto:WUNRN_LISTSERVE-owner@lists.wunrn.com]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>WUNRN LISTSERVE<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Sunday, October 15, 2017 10:16 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> WUNRN ListServe <wunrn_listserve@lists.wunrn.com><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [WUNRN] International Day of Rural Women 2017<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">WUNRN<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.wunrn.com/">http://www.wunrn.com</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="149" height="42" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.png@01D345AF.5162F730" alt="UN Women – United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women"></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/rural-women-food-poverty">http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/rural-women-food-poverty</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">International Day of Rural Women 2017 – October 15<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C"><img border="0" width="831" height="415" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image007.jpg@01D345AF.5162F730" alt="Chandra Kala Thapa, one of many smallholder women farmers from Ranichuri village in Sindhuli district, was barely able to produce enough grains to feed her family. With support from the Joint Programme, she converted her field from grain production to high-value vegetables. “Now the prices are good and the money comes on time. This was not the case when I used to cultivate grains instead of high-value vegetables,” she says. Photo: UN Women/Narendra Shrestha"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">Photo: UN Women/Narendra Shrestha</span><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">
</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">Rural women make up over a quarter the world population and majority of the
<a href="http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/am307e/am307e00.pdf"><span style="color:#595A5C;text-decoration:none">43 per cent</span></a> of women in the global agricultural labour force. They till the lands and plant seeds to feed nations. They ensure food security
for their communities and build climate resilience. But when it comes to owning land, accessing agricultural inputs, financing and technologies for climate resilience, they are left far behind men.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#009DDC">Rural women: the invisible mainstay of sustainability</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#009DDC">
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">This year,
<a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/ruralwomenday/"><span style="color:#595A5C;text-decoration:none">International Day for Rural Women</span></a> (15 October), focuses on the theme, “<a href="http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/news/in%20focus/rural%20women%20day/international-day-of-rural-women-2017-concept-note-en.pdf?la=en&vs=2223"><span style="color:#595A5C;text-decoration:none">Challenges
and opportunities in climate-resilient agriculture for gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls</span></a>”. The International Day for Rural Women is followed by
<a href="http://www.fao.org/world-food-day/home/en/"><span style="color:#595A5C;text-decoration:none">World Food Day</span></a> (16 October, themed, “Change the future of Migration: Invest in Food Security and Rural Development”) and
<a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/povertyday/"><span style="color:#595A5C;text-decoration:none">International Day for the Eradication of Poverty</span></a> (17 October)—highlighting issues that are inextricably linked with rural women’s empowerment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">With changing climate, women’s already unequal access to land, water and energy is further
impacted. At the same time, existing gender inequalities and discriminations that constrain rural women’s decision-making power and participation in their households and their communities, are exacerbated by climate change and climate disasters. For instance,
as floods and droughts increase, rural women and girls spend more time and effort to collect and secure water and fuel, missing out on education and income-generating opportunities.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">A changing climate also means that there is a shrinking window of opportunity to close gender
gaps in agriculture. A vast majority of the world’s poor live in rural areas, and closing the gender gaps in agriculture is essential for ensuring food security, building climate resilience and ending poverty. It will enable women farmers to adopt climate-resilient
agricultural approaches at the same rate as men and increase overall agricultural productivity. According to some estimates, women’s equal access to land and other productive assets could increase agricultural outputs by up to
<a href="http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i2050e/i2050e00.htm"><span style="color:#595A5C;text-decoration:none">20 per cent</span></a> in Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">UN Women supports efforts to increase women farmers’ access to land, financing, climate information
and climate-smart technologies to achieve gender equality through climate-resilient agriculture, as well as enhancing their capacity to move up green agricultural value chains</span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C">……………………………………………………………………………………………..<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#595A5C"><a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/ruralwomenday/">http://www.un.org/en/events/ruralwomenday/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/ruralwomenday/index.shtml"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#337AB7;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="100" height="100" id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image005.png@01D345AE.FE139A80" alt="UN logo"></span></a><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:inherit;color:#333333;letter-spacing:.6pt">International
Day of Rural Women - 15 October</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:inherit;color:#333333;letter-spacing:.6pt">
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:inherit;color:#333333">The Invaluable Contribution of Rural Women to Development<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">The crucial role that women and girls play in ensuring the sustainability of rural households and communities, improving
rural livelihoods and overall wellbeing, has been increasingly recognized. Women account for a substantial proportion of the agricultural labour force, including informal work, and perform the bulk of unpaid care and domestic work within families and households
in rural areas. They make significant contributions to agricultural production, food security and nutrition, land and natural resource management, and building climate resilience.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Even so, women and girls in rural areas suffer disproportionately from multi-dimensional poverty. While extreme poverty
has declined globally, the world’s 1 billion people who continue to live in unacceptable conditions of poverty are heavily concentrated in rural areas. Poverty rates in rural areas across most regions are higher than those in urban areas. Yet smallholder agriculture
produces nearly 80 per cent of food in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa and supports the livelihoods of some 2.5 billion people. Women farmers may be as productive and enterprising as their male counterparts, but are less able to access land, credit, agricultural
inputs, markets and high-value agrifood chains and obtain lower prices for their crops.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Structural barriers and discriminatory social norms continue to constrain women’s decision-making power and political
participation in rural households and communities. Women and girls in rural areas lack equal access to productive resources and assets, public services, such as education and health care, and infrastructure, including water and sanitation, while much of their
labour remains invisible and unpaid, even as their workloads become increasingly heavy due to the out-migration of men. Globally, with few exceptions, every gender and development indicator for which data are available reveals that rural women fare worse than
rural men and urban women, and that they disproportionately experience poverty, exclusion and the effects of climate change.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">The impacts of climate change, including on access to productive and natural resources, amplify existing gender inequalities
in rural areas. Climate change affects women’s and men’s assets and well-being differently in terms of agricultural production, food security, health, water and energy resources, climate-induced migration and conflict, and climate-related natural disasters.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:inherit;color:#333333">2017 Theme: “Challenges and opportunities in climate-resilient agriculture for gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and
girls”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">In agriculture, climate change exacerbates the existing barriers to gender equality faced by women farmers. Globally,
women comprise 43 per cent6 of the agricultural workforce and play a critical role in supporting household and community food security. However, due to discriminatory policy frameworks or inequitable social norms, women farmers have less access than men to
secure land tenure, agricultural inputs, financing, water and energy, appropriate infrastructure, technologies, and extension services.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">According to some estimates, closing the gender gap in access to land and other productive assets could increase agricultural
outputs by up to 20 per cent in Africa.7 It would also enable women farmers to adopt climate-resilient agricultural approaches at the same rate as men, as key initiatives that address these gender gaps such as secured land tenure, greater financial inclusion
and access to information are also essential to accelerate the adoption of climate-resilient agricultural practices. In essence, providing equal access to women and men farmers to land and other productive resources can provide a “triple dividend” of gender
equality, food security and climate management, thereby offering a cost-effective and transformative approach to the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">A changing climate means that there is a shrinking window of opportunity to close gender gaps in agriculture. Climate
change aggravates existing barriers, limiting women farmers’ access to long-term affordable finance and agricultural extension services, and increasing their unpaid care work burden as water and fuel become scarce. Women farmers are at risk of being trapped
in a downward spiral in the absence of concerted efforts to close these gender gaps.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Therefore, it is a priority to foster women’s empowerment through climate-resilient agriculture approaches such as:
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:24.75pt;text-indent:-24.75pt;mso-text-indent-alt:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2">
<![if !supportLists]><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><span style="mso-list:Ignore"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span>i.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">engendering climate-resilient agricultural policies;
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:24.75pt;text-indent:-24.75pt;mso-text-indent-alt:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2">
<![if !supportLists]><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">ii.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">increasing women’s land tenure security;<<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:24.75pt;text-indent:-24.75pt;mso-text-indent-alt:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2">
<![if !supportLists]><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">iii.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">facilitating women farmers’ access to finance to invest in climate-resilient and time-saving assets;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:24.75pt;text-indent:-24.75pt;mso-text-indent-alt:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2">
<![if !supportLists]><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">iv.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">enhancing women farmers’ access to climate-resilient information; and<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:24.75pt;text-indent:-24.75pt;mso-text-indent-alt:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2">
<![if !supportLists]><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">v.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">expanding opportunities for women farmers to participate in and move up the climate-resilient agricultural value chain.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Women are powerful change agents to address climate change at scale. They are key actors in building community resilience
and responding to climate-related disasters. Women tend to make decisions about resource use and investments in the interest and welfare of their children, families, and communities.8 Women as economic and political actors can influence policies and institutions
towards greater provision of public goods, such as energy, water and sanitation, and social infrastructure, which tend to matter more to women and support climate resilience and disaster preparedness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Systematically addressing gender gaps in responding to climate change is one of the most effective mechanisms to build
the climate resilience of households, communities and nations. The growing recognition of the disproportionate impact of climate change on women and girls has been matched in recent years by the rising awareness of their roles as change agents and the tremendous
value of gender equality and women’s empowerment for producing social, economic, and climate resilience benefits.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">_________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></p>
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