1. Harnessing the Potential of Women in the Fight Against Poverty

2. How to reduce inequalities and advance the status of rural women
IFAD’s
Perspective
How to reduce inequalities and advance the status of rural women
...through improved access to:
Productive resources
Participation in rural
institutions and decision-making
Basic services and rural
infrastructure
© IFAD
Why do it?
What are the challenges?
The way ahead

3. A root cause of poverty: the imbalance between...
What rural women have:
2% of land
5% extension services
15% parliamentary seats
Marginal access to formal credit
Less education
Fewer rights
What rural women do:
Family care
Domestic work
Agricultural production
Income - generation
Management of household food security
Natural resources management

4. Reducing inequalities - Empowering women...
Nutrition
Maternal
mortality
Gender equality/
women’s
empowerment
Infant
mortality
Malaria and
other diseases
HIV/
AIDS
Water
and sanitation
Universal
primary education
ODA for
basic
services
Income growth
…an opportunity, and an essential condition for achieving the Millennium Development Goals

5. More of the same is not enough
Achieving the MDG, empowering women
Global challenges:
More resources, but also
...better planned and better focused
Turning globalization into an opportunity
and not a risk
Mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS on
women
More of the same is not enough

6. Achieving the MDG, empowering women
IFAD’s achievements:
Economic empowerment
Organization and decision-making
Improved living conditions
IFAD’s challenges:
Reinforcing field impact
…and achieving a broader catalytic effect
through:
advocacy
policy dialogue
partnerships

7. Achieving the MDG and empowering rural women - Critical issues:
1. Women’s access to productive resources
A matter of
Legal and policy frameworks
but also...
Gender roles and culture
Social recognition of women’s
rights
© IFAD
Enabling conditions

8. 2. Women’s participation and decision-making A matter of
Achieving the MDG and empowering rural women - Critical issues:
2. Women’s participation and decision-making
A matter of
Legal and policy frameworks
Gender roles and culture
Quotas?
Confidence
Women’s time
Organization
© IFAD
Beyond groups to broader
coalitions and sustainable
local institutions

9. Achieving the MDG and empowering rural women - Critical issues:
3. Lack of basic services and rural infrastructure
A constraint for rural people
A special burden for women
and girls
A limiting factor for women’s
advancement
A central MDG concern
(22/49 indicators)
© IFAD
But will commitments materialize?

10. How to reduce inequalities and advance the status of rural women
IFAD’s
Perspective
How to reduce inequalities and advance the status of rural women
...through improved access to:
Productive resources
Participation in rural
institutions and decision-making
Basic services and rural
infrastructure
© IFAD

11. The way ahead: key questions... Which new development approaches?
What issues to address in advocacy
and policy dialogue?
How to engage men as champions of
women’s empowerment?
© ASIA

12. © IFAD
End