International Day of Rural Women. Challenges and Opportunities.

Experts’ Opinions

On October 15th, it is marked the International Day of Rural Women. This day is dedicated to the
millions of women living in rural places who contribute towards rural development and
agriculture and aims to highlight the essential role that rural women and girls play in achieving
the Sustainable Development Goals. We have dug into the topic more and invite you to check
below the answers we have got.

Key Takeaways:

- According to the UN, “rural women spend more time than urban women and men
in reproductive and household work, including time spent obtaining water and fuel,
caring for children and the sick, and processing food”.
- IFAD states that “Giving women the same access as men to agricultural resources
and inputs could increase production on women's farms by 20-30 per cent, reducing
the number of hungry people in the world by 100-150 million.”
- International experts believe that women play key roles in agricultural production,
transportation, processing, and marketing - roles that are highly important in
meeting Sustainable Development Goals, particularly goals 1 and 2 (poverty
reduction and zero hunger, respectively).

What are the biggest challenges faced by rural women today?

“Most rural women in developing countries depend on agriculture for survival. Though involved
in all value chains of the agrifood systems, women represent the highest percentage of the
resource-poor population. Access to land in many parts of rural Africa is still by the unregulated
customary law of inheritance, which tactically and practically eliminates women from having
access to land. Rural women are highly vulnerable to climate change due to their small farm
sizes, lack of funds/credit, and poor access to the market. In cases where there is external support
from development agencies to mitigate the effects of climate change, they are overlooked
because the focus is usually on the head of the household. Additionally, they lack financial
resources to acquire mechanized processing equipment and are excluded from the capacity
development opportunities to improve their skills, consequently, they rely on manual, labor-
intensive equipment. In most cases, mechanized equipment is available several kilometers away
from their villages and inaccessible to women. In many rural areas, access to water for household
use and processing is an enormous challenge, particularly during the dry season. Women spend
hours trekking in search of water, and when available within the village, many productive hours
are wasted queuing.” (Bola Awotide, Scientist-Agricultural Economist)

“From my experience, most people who continue to live in poverty are people in remote rural
areas. Those are predominantly women who maintain their livelihoods, well-being and resilience
through primary agricultural activities and other informal small businesses. Primary agriculture
plays a significant role in rural economic development. It contributes to food and nutrition
security and income generation. Nonetheless, there are more challenges women face. Amongst
those challenges are marginalization in decision-making; weak or unprotected land tenure rights;
lack of information and knowledge of available opportunities, access to land, firewood and
water; illiteracy and innumeracy, Lack of access to technology and advanced education; gender-
based violence, lack of access to health and psychosocial services. Let’s take, for instance, access
to land- land in rural areas is the source of almost everything that makes holistic humans feel
alive. Elements like the sense of pride that they own a piece of land, a sense of belonging to a
community, shared values, customs, and traditions, and then primary and secondary economic
activities create the foundation of rural living. Therefore, most women remain in rural areas to
work the land while caring for their families and reproductive needs. Suppose the rights of land
access or ownership are unequal between men and women. In that case, rural women risk losing
access and control over land, often the only foundational and fundamental asset they have to
secure their livelihoods. Weak land governance and administration, such as land ownership
registration, land tenure systems, and inclusive access to finance, market and connectivity
(energy & technology), limit rural women’s potential to thrive.” (Nomagugu Ndlela, Land
Reform Generalist)

“Rural women perform much more reproductive and productive tasks than is generally
acknowledged or explicitly valued by the family and communities. Time and cultural constraints
leave generally little room to women to strive for achievements and success outside the home,
develop their careers, participate in trainings and workshops or to develop social networks and
relations in the community. The traditional pressure to restrict women to their household role and
activities and the common perception that women’s contributions to productive labour is
secondary, prevent women to engage actively in economic initiatives, especially in rural areas.”
(Damira Raeva, Rural Development expert)

“Rural women engage largely in agriculture and allied activities. Lack of title to land and/or
ownership of other productive assets is one of the biggest challenges faced by them. Closely
linked to this, is the lack of access to credit and other financial resources, inputs and market.
Disparity in wages is another challenge. A farmer is traditionally seen to be 'male', in spite of
women playing a significant productive role in agriculture.” (Bhavani R V, rural development
professional)

“Rural women in Cameroon face several challenges. Without being exhaustive, we would
mention: weak economic power: women are poorer than men because they spend most of their
time doing domestic work, taken care of children and older peoples; poor access to land prevents
women from investing in perennial crops. In some countries or regions, they do not inherit land.
The society tolerate women to grow only food crops; rural women have very little access to
health care and sometimes must travel miles to reach a health center. The poor economic power
does not often permit them access to quality care. They usually return to traditional
pharmacopoeia; illiteracy is a scourge which prevents women from improving their socio-
economic conditions. For this purpose, they cannot contribute effectively to the educational
follow-up of their children, their health and even to launch income generating activities; poor
access to socio-economic infrastructure materializes and affects the time devoted to income
generating activities; socio-cultural constraints manifest themselves essentially in the division of
labor. Women out of their reproductive roles are those who take care of domestic work. In terms
of education, men prefer to send their boy child to school while girls stay home, helping their
mothers with household tasks.” (Louisette Bamzok, Agro-economist)
“The condition of women in Chad, as everywhere else in Africa, remains very worrying both for
themselves and for society as a whole because of their vulnerability. In Chad, on the path to
empowerment, women are held back by discriminatory traditions and gender stereotypes. yet
investing in women's economic empowerment is the surest path to gender equality, poverty
eradication and inclusive economic growth. The role of the has always been reduced to the
home. Continually dependent on her husband. We need a firm policy that guarantees women
resources but also a favorable social environment. Chadian women must evolve together in
association for their empowerment and the achievement of parity.” (Allaramadji Nomaye, Rural
Development expert)

What is the role of rural women in advancing the sustainable development goals?

“Women make significant contributions every day to reproductive, production, and community
work, from bringing an income to their household, to creating job opportunities, and taking care
of family and elders. The important roles of women in the agricultural value chain cannot be
overemphasized. Women play key roles in agricultural production, transportation, processing,
and marketing. These roles are highly important in meeting Sustainable Development Goals,
particularly goals 1 and 2 (poverty reduction and zero hunger, respectively). Women offer the
bulk of the family and hired labour for harvesting and transportation of agricultural produce from
farms to the village/market. Most importantly, they handle the bulk of the processing and
marketing of the households’ production. These contributions are highly essential in improving
agricultural productivity and increasing households’ income. Thus, leading to a reduction in
poverty, hunger, and food insecurity.” (Bola Awotide, Scientist-Agricultural Economist)

“I think the role of women in advancing sustainable development goals is to fully comprehend
the targets of the goals so that they can find and take up their space to ensure that the goals
respond adequately to their plights and development needs and support as rural women. For
instance, advocating for achieving SDG Goal 5. A would enable improved tenure security for
rural women farmers through the implementation of gender-responsive land tenure reform
policies and rural finance, ultimately resulting in increased investments in modern and climate-
smart agricultural production, value chains and food systems. Associated technologies, research
and development, inclusive economic growth and sustainability should be the priority for their
advancement. Economic opportunities for marginalised rural women and girls would greatly
expand through agri-business and off-farm entrepreneurial opportunities. Their capacitation will
contribute towards improving access to financial services such as credit facilities, inheriting
property and having access to natural resources. Learning about and implementing Goal 15 on
Life on Land and climate change and mitigation, sustainable land use and just transition
programmes would help sustainable management of forests, combating desertification and land
degradation, and introduce an alternative energy source. As a result, women, which often depend
on communal resources like forests for fuel, water and food to provide for their families, their
rights will be protected. Empowered with skills and knowledge, they will be tech-savvy, ready
for 4IR, digitalize their business records and use technology for inputs sourcing, maximum
production and high-profit yields.” (Nomagugu Ndlela, Land Reform Generalist)

“I think the role of rural women in advancing sustainable development goals is enormous but
still underestimated. Women in rural areas are currently little recognized as economic agents
contributing to household income. Their role in this regard is limited due to cultural, traditional
and religious norms. Working women are to some extent increasingly stigmatized and any kind
of female labour (productive and reproductive) is generally little valued.” (Damira Raeva, Rural
Development expert)

“Women play multiple roles in achieving the Millennium Goals. For objective 1, they are mainly
active in the informal sector and in food crop production, small processing and marketing of
food. The resources generated are used to acquire consumer goods and send children to school in
accordance with objective No. 4.; Unfortunately, their economic power is low and they find it
difficult to send their children to school. In Africa and Cameroon, the division of labour makes in
such a way that it is women who are responsible for food crop production, preparing meals,
looking for wood and drawing water. Women are initially in charge of raising children and
therefore promote gender equality. Concerning gender equality, SDG 5, rural women are
increasingly claiming their rights. They are helped in this way by their sisters in urban areas who
are organized into NGOs and associations for the defence of women's rights. They regularly
receive training on these rights. One of the benefits of their demand is the reduction of SDG 10
inequalities. In fact, several women have launched in development of cash crop sectors such as
cocoa, coffee, palm oil which have not been monopolized by men.” (Louisette Bamzok, Agro-
economist)

How should the international community empower rural women?

“The international community can contribute immensely to rural women’s empowerment by

making the rural development agendas to be gender friendly. Donors should deliberately factor
in rural women’s inclusiveness in all development programs/projects. Gender-responsive policies
should be mainstreamed into the local institutions and national and regional development plans.
Targeted interventions for women should be prioritized through customized investment in high-
impact areas. The main areas along the agricultural value chain (production, processing,
marketing) where rural women are active need to be targeted for rural women empowerment
programs. Rural women in climate change-prone areas need to be deliberately targeted for
support that can help them mitigate the negative effects of climate change.” (Bola Awotide,
Scientist-Agricultural Economist)

“SDGs can only be realized with a strong commitment to global partnership and cooperation.
Support from the international community should focus on Goal 1, which calls for ending
poverty in all forms, Goal 2 on food security, and target 3, double agricultural productivity by
ensuring equal access to land. Goal 5 on Gender Equality, target 5a encourages reforms to
provide equal rights to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial
services and inheritance. Goal 16 on Peace and Justice calls for reducing corruption, developing
effective, accountable and transparent institutions, inclusive and participatory decision-making,
public access to information, and the strengthening of institutions (United Nations, 2016). Based
on the fundamentals mentioned above, countries can empower their rural women through
Knowledge Exchange Programmes to improve and transform them economically and socially
and promote gender equality and inclusiveness. Innovation, new partnerships, knowledge
sharing, scaling up and replication of well-proven approaches to development should improve
rural women's challenges. Providing support in the formulation of evidence-based reform
policies that are gender-sensitive should be prioritised. Introducing innovative and functional
systems of land governance, administration, and management, sharing experiences from and
promoting knowledge exchange amongst countries that have gone through similar challenges of
poor women's participation in rural development can strengthen structures like South-South
Triangular Cooperation (SSTC).” (Nomagugu Ndlela, Land Reform Generalist)

“I think that the international community could use a twin-track approach to women
empowerment: one is concerned with the strengthened participation of women in the different
economic activities, the second with specific activities for gender equity - the women and youth
business development sub-component. And the main role and task of the international
community is to work and promote equal rights for women and men, and prohibits all
discrimination on the grounds of gender, ethnic origin or religious belief, and all other
distinguishing social characteristics. That is a difficult task but with all joint efforts we could
progress well.” (Damira Raeva, Rural Development expert)

“Guaranteeing rural women, the right to productive resources can make a big difference in their
empowerment. Addressing male-female wage disparity is another area. While laws maybe in
place, it is necessary that the women are made aware of their rights and empowered through
collectivisation, literacy and other means, to demand/access their entitlements. Sensitization of
rural men, to see the women as partners and not weak dependents, is also needed.” (Bhavani R
V, rural development professional)

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FOR SOCIAL MEDIA:

Achieving gender equality and empowering women is a critical ingredient in the fight against
extreme poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Lately, due to multiple crisis, the risk of global gender
parity backsliding further intensifies. Do you think women nowadays are discriminated?
Argument your position, after reading the DevelopmentAid article.

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