Implementation of the Strategy
for Action

The implementation of the Strategy for Action began with its review and discussion by the delegations attending the High-Level Consultation on Rural Women and Information (4 to 6 October 1999, Rome). The FAO member countries recognized its usefulness and appropriateness and agreed that it is important to take more account of the gender perspective in planning and programmes. Delegates stressed the need to adopt administrative and legal measures aimed at improving social services and benefits, rural infrastructures and access to basic services and productive resources such as land, the key resource for agricultural production.

Policy-makers attained a better awareness of the relationship between gender equality and food security. Participants discussed orientations for meeting information needs that would empower rural women and improve their skills. Furthermore, it was agreed that the diversification of incomes should be supported as a way of raising income levels and strengthening rural women's role as stakeholders in policy-making and planning processes.

The Strategy for Action will be taken into account during the mid-term evaluation of implementation of the Platform of Action from the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing + 5). As recommended at the 30th session of the FAO Conference, it will also form an integral part of the next FAO Plan of Action on gender equality, food security and sustainable development.⁸

For member countries of FAO, the gradual implementation of the Strategy for Action will depend on their priorities and their specific social, economic, cultural and political conditions. Many countries have already launched activities to improve information about, for and with rural women. The continuation and reinforcement of these activities is of fundamental importance, as is the appropriate use of results already obtained.

FAO, in collaboration with its Member Governments and at their request, will provide advice and guidance, diffuse methodological guidelines and supply technical assistance in the development of strategies, methods and tools for the production of gender-disaggregated information. It will thus perform its appointed normative functions in the knowledge that its role is not to produce, but rather to collect, process and disseminate information on rural women.

In support of this normative function, and provided that it has sufficient funds, FAO will aim at the following measures.

Immediate measures

Disseminating the High-Level Consultation's proceedings and findings on its Gender and Food Security Web pages (at www.fao.org/gender/) and by publishing the report.

Promoting coordination in the implementation of gender-responsive programmes among the United Nations rural development agencies based in Rome (FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development [IFAD] and the World Food Programme [WFP]), on the one hand, and other UN partners, on the other, by using existing international and national networks and mechanisms.

Continuing to draw the international community's attention, through interactive strategies, to problems and issues regarding rural women.

Supporting national initiatives that improve the training and education of rural women; and continuing training in socio-economic and gender analysis and production of information materials.

Developing national strategies of communication and promoting the use of existing information networks to enhance North-South and South-South dialogue on the subject.

Collaborating with the media to improve the targeting and packaging of information on rural women and to elaborate a dissemination strategy geared towards both the general public and more specialized audiences.

Longer-term measures

Establishing an information exchange mechanism to convince decision-makers of the usefulness of information about women's contribution to food security and to heighten public awareness of their contribution to social, economic and political life. Depending on the public in question, this mechanism, which is based on a network of national focal points, can use a variety of means of communication - electronic, printed, audio and visual. It will use FAO's Web site, especially the Gender and Food Security pages, to hold electronic conferences and exchange fora.

Facilitating the establishment of networks of statisticians, including agricultural and social statisticians, and information producers' and users' associations. These networks will generate and disseminate information about the roles and responsibilities of men and women in agricultural production and the rural sector and about their contributions to society and the economy.

Continuing the programme to develop standards (methodologies and tools) for the collection of data and the elaboration of indicators on the status of men and women, and on their respective contributions to agricultural production and rural development. Such information will serve to underpin the formulation of policy-making that meets the challenges of both food security and gender equality. The programme is developed in a progressive and pragmatic manner. After an initial period of testing, adjustment and evaluation in selected pilot countries, proposals will be drawn up for national information systems on human resources in the agricultural and rural sector.

⁸ Thirtieth Session of the FAO Conference, 12-23 November 1999, Rome, agenda item 7: Gender mainstreaming in FAO, C 99/REP.