October, a month dedicated to rural women

Bogota, Capital District. October 4, 2024. The International Day of Rural Women is celebrated on October 15 since 2008, when it was established by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN). This day recognizes their decisive roles and contributions to agricultural and rural development, the flourishing of food security, and the fight against rural poverty. Since then, national and international organizations have sought to implement measures that tend to improve the lives of rural women without any distinction.

In this sense, Corporación colombiana de investigación agropecuaria (AGROSAVIA) and allied institutions such as Dirección de Mujer Rural [Rural Women's Directorate] and the Rural Development Agency – ADR (for its acronym in Spanish) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Colombia, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Pacto Global Colombia, the Sustainable Agri-Food Colombia project and Caja de Compensación del Magdalena are paying tribute to rural women in 2024 with a series of virtual seminars that can be accessed by connecting through the Corporation's YouTube channel on AGROSAVIA TV, and an on-site meeting in the Caribbean region. Today, this commemoration begins with the seminar called "Role of male and female workers in export-type agricultural systems" and continues with five sessions until October 25, in which the topics of economic autonomy, the role of women in the Sustainable Development Goals – SDG and the tools to incorporate this perspective in rural extension work will be addressed; this last topic is articulated with Linkata, the network of agricultural extension workers.

As for the face-to-face event, the Caribbean Regional Meeting of Rural Women: Strengthening Territorial Capacities "Let's claim rural areas where women can have the same opportunities as men (UN)," will be held on October 17 and 18, focusing on the Caribbean region (Santa Marta), where 40 rural women representing this region will participate. The event's agenda includes activities to strengthen the participating rural women in topics such as One Health, the country's agrarian reform, empowerment, and the use and access to information from Information and Communication Technologies - ICTs, with emphasis on agroclimatology as a cross-cutting axis of the Sustainable Agricultural Colombia project.

Clara Rua, Associate Master Researcher of the Corporation representing the gender equity team that is being consolidated in AGROSAVIA, manifested, "These initiatives contribute to the reduction of gender gaps in rural areas and the path towards gender equity, sustainable development goal number five, specifically in the targets related to the full and effective participation of women and equal leadership opportunities, as well as the improvement in the use of information and communication technologies to promote women empowerment. In this same sense, in commemorating the day of the rural woman, we highlight the need to continue progressing on incorporating the gender perspective in AGROSAVIA's work."

For her part, Ana Maria Páez, Leader of the gender component of the Sustainable Agri-Food Colombia Project, which is being developed in alliance with AGROSAVIA and other institutions and associations, states that "With this event, we want to highlight rural women and their immense contribution to food security, adaptation to climate change and the development of their communities, as farmers, as traders, as processors, as leaders, as change and transformation agents."

According to UN Women, women farmers:

• Suffer disproportionately from the multiple aspects of poverty, and despite being as productive and good managers as their male counterparts, they do not have the same access to land, credit, agricultural materials, markets, or chains of high-value cultivated products.
• They do not enjoy equal access to public services, such as education and health care, or infrastructure, such as water and sanitation.
• They face structural barriers and discriminatory social norms that continue to limit their power to participate politically within their communities and households.
• According to global statistics, they are in worse conditions than rural men and urban women.

Therefore, this International Day of Rural Women should remind us every year of their demands, invite us to appreciate even more their work in providing food and services in less developed areas, and claim some rural areas where they can have the same opportunities as men (UN).