Women's Earth Alliance

2008-10-15 | Climate Change: Rural Women are Part of the Solution

http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=5241&blz=1

World Rural Women’s Day takes place on October 15 of every year, one day before FAO’s World Food Day. Its aim is to raise the profile of rural women and to highlight the crucial role they play in supporting global food security. The world is facing a climate change crisis and rural women, who account for a quarter of the world's population, must be recognized as part of the solution.

Solutions for climate change need to be addressed through a sustainable approach. The only approach that will achieve long-term sustainability is the integration of women into all levels of policy development. “Rural women play an equal role working on the farm, but we do not play an equal role in deciding the policies that govern our livelihoods. This needs to change”, said Karen Serres, President of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers’ Committee of Women Farmers. 

Rural women’s limited access to resources and decision-making processes increases their vulnerability to climate change. According to the FAO, women produce more than 50 percent of the food cultivated on the planet. In Africa, more than 80 percent of food is produced by women. In Asia, it is 60 percent and in South America it ranges from 30 to 40 percent. The majority of the poor of our planet live in rural areas. Seventy percent of the poor in rural areas are women and their principal resource is agriculture.

“Rural women worldwide would like to make it clear that, we are not only vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but we, most importantly, have a huge potential to be agents of change”, said Serres. “A solution for climate change”, she continued, “cannot be reached without recognizing rural women as main actors and identifying gender specific strategies for responding to the environmental and humanitarian crises caused by climate change.”

Rural Women recommend the following actions be implemented to help curb the effects of climate change: PLEASE CONTINUE 
http://www.ifap.org/en/newsroom/WorldRuralWomensDay2008.html 

Please also see:

International Day of Rural Women 
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/calendar/08-10.html#ruralw 

Organic Agriculture and Localized Food & Energy Systems for Mitigating Climate Changehttp://www.i-sis.org.uk/OAMCC.php