Women as Agents for Economic Change: Smallholder Farming, Food Security, Agricultural Upgrading and Rural Economic Diversification in LDCs

PROGRAMME

4.30 – 4.35 p.m: Opening remarks

- Mr. Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD

Moderator:
Mr. Debapriya Bhattacharya, Chair, LDC IV Monitor and Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Each Session will include Q&A

4.35 – 5.00 p.m.: Session I

Closing the gender gap in agriculture: towards gender-sensitive rural transformation

Rural development is central to the overall development process; and structural transformation of rural economies is a critical dimension of the broader economic transformation essential for poor countries to benefit more fully from international trade and investment. The importance of rural development in developing and least developed countries is underlined by the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs that provide both the need and the opportunity for a new approach to rural development. Women farmers face specific disadvantages in terms of access to land, credit, farm inputs, extension services and labour markets. Moreover, social norms impose a double burden of unpaid care work and productive activities on them. Enhancing economic opportunities for rural women is critical to completing the virtuous circle of human and economic development in developing and least developed countries envisaged by the new global development framework.

Panellists

-  H.E. Ms. Zenebu Tadesse, Minister of Women and Children Affairs, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

-  Ms. Sekai Nzenza,  Head of Public Affairs, Amatheon Agri, Zimbabwe

Respondent

-  Mr. Kostas Stamoulis, Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Development Department, FAO

5.00 – 5.25 p.m.: Session II

Enhancing rural women's economic empowerment through off-farm activities

Agro-industries may provide new and better employment opportunities in rural areas, contribute to the diversification of the rural economy and provide a route out of poverty for women. However, women are more likely than men to be segregated in part time, seasonal and/or low wage jobs. Women can be important agents of rural economic diversification, and key players in vibrant micro-entrepreneurial activities. Yet, women's "time poverty", financial illiteracy and lack of efficient means of financing small-scale productive investments, seriously impede the developing of export-oriented non-farm activities.

Panellists

-  H.E. Mr. Willy Bett, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Kenya

DESCRIPTION

The Ministerial Round Table will discuss how empowering women can raise productivity, integrate smallholder farms into regional and global markets, and boost synergies between agriculture and non-farm activities. The reflection and debate will center on concrete policy recommendations based on successful experiences in some developing and least developed countries. Moreover, the Ministerial Round Table will provide the opportunity to debate how to translate reflection into real and implementable projects and activities.

KEY ISSUES

1. Tackle poverty in rural areas: Ending poverty demands actions to combat it in rural areas, where 70 percent of the world's 1.4 billion extremely poor people live. This pattern of rural deprivation is reflected in a wide range of socioeconomic welfare indicators.

2. Enhance economic opportunities for rural women: Agriculture remains the most important source of employment for women in the poorest countries: about three quarters of employed women in the least developed countries work in agriculture. Rural women play an essential role in ensuring household food security and nutrition. They, however, face gender-specific challenges, including unequal access to productive resources, and discrimination in rural labour markets. As a result, women farmers produce on average consistently less per hectare than their male counterparts. Even more crucially, gender constraints obstruct and delay the dynamic potential of the rural economy in developing countries. It is thus imperative to identify and address these obstacles to increase rural productivity while also creating opportunities for rural economic diversification.

3. UNCTAD's approach to gender-sensitive rural development: UNCTAD suggests a new approach to rural development centered on upgrading agriculture and developing viable non-farm activities through gender-sensitive policies and support to the development and consolidation of women’s non-agricultural enterprises in rural areas.

QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED

• What are the possible approaches to tackle the constraints faced by rural women and close the gender gap in agriculture?
• How can rural development strategies be made more gender sensitive?
• How can policy coherence between trade and rural development policies be ensured?
• How to start planning towards a gender-sensitive implementation of the SDGs that tackle gender equality and rural development?
• What role can the UN system play during the review of implementation of the SDGs?
• How to avoid rural labour market segmentation?
• What could be the avenues for the development of non-farm activities that would create a new female entrepreneurial class, adding to the dynamism and trade potential of rural economies?
• Which instruments could be used to alleviate women's "time poverty"?
• Which financing instruments could be sought that go beyond microcredit?
• What would be the channels for rural organizations and networks to inform and influence decision-making? How to overcome the long-observed urban bias in policymaking?
• How to ensure that non-farm activities get the necessary policy attention and financing?

PARTICIPANTS

• H.E. Mr. Willy Bett, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Kenya
• H.E. Mr. Jayanta Chand, Minister of Commerce, Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal
• H.E. Mr. Faizaz Siddiq Koya, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Fiji
• H.E. Ms. Zenebu Tadesse, Minister of Women and Children Affairs, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
• Ms. Arancha González, Executive Director, ITC
• Mr. Kostas Stamoulis, Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Development Department, FAO
• Ms. Diana Ofwona, Regional Director for sub-Saharan Africa, UN Women
• Mr. Debapriya Bhattacharya, Chair, LDC IV Monitor and Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Ms. Pauline Ngari, Director, Hand in Hand Eastern Africa
• Ms. Sekai Nzenza, Head of Public Affairs, Amatheon Agri, Zimbabwe

CONTACTS

Gender@unctad.org

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