1. The key role of rural women in building resilience to disasters
Introduction.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
I will try to illustrate to you They Key role of rural women in building resilience to disasters
Yatta, West Bank and Gaza Strip
Palestinian farmer woman tending the garden in the backyard of her home.
Mona S. Chaya
Deputy Strategic Objective Coordinator on Resilience
and Senior Coordinator Food Chain Crises
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

2. The vast majority of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition rely on agriculture for their livelihood.
Agriculture-based livelihoods are more susceptible to shocks because they depend heavily on natural resources (land, water, plants, animals), and depend on human labour. Also, agriculture-based livelihoods are more susceptible to shocks because they are not easily transportable (you can’t take your field with you when displaced).
Some specific threats also directly impact agriculture and the food chain: plant pests and diseases, animal diseases, technological threats, etc.
When a disaster strikes, affected farming families often lose all their productive assets, leaving them unable to continue providing for themselves and leaving them totally dependent on external assistance for food, shelter and other essentials.
When a disaster strikes, FAO’s role is to help build the resilience of farming families and communities.
This means trying to prevent these shocks when possible.
And, if they occur, try to mitigate their effect, and then rebuild people’s livelihoods.

3. Women: building resilience to disasters
Effects (impact) of disasters
particularly on women
Natural disasters, conflict, and other crises, have different impacts on women, girls, boys and men
Natural disasters, conflict, and other crises, have different impacts on women, girls, boys and men.
They affect them differently.
-> Gender and age are main factors:
men for example account for the majority of casualties of war
while women are more likely to be assaulted or abused
the elderly and children suffer from malnutrition and / or exploitation
-> depending on the country or region, rural women, or women relying on agriculture, are even more vulnerable to disasters than men.
In wartime, women and children suffer more than men from displacement, reduced access to health services, loss of livelihoods, lack of access to humanitarian assistance, including potable water, sanitation and shelter.
Sexual abuse and rape of women is unfortunately common among women displaced by both natural disasters and conflict. Women also endure property loss and other abuses to their rights.
According to a study:
“Women are up to 14 times more likely than men to die from natural disasters. Globally for every one man, there are 3 to 4 women who die in a flood.”
September 2010, Pakistan, Thul - Floods

4. In developing countries
women comprise 43 percent of the agricultural labour force
Women comprise 43 percent of the agricultural labour force on average in developing countries. However, women earn less than men because they have less access to resources, land, technology, services etc….
A number of countries have seen substantial increases in the female share of the agricultural labour force in recent decades due to a number of reasons, including conflict, HIV/AIDS and migration.
For example, in Bangladesh, women now exceed 50 percent of the agricultural labour force.
In Pakistan, it has almost tripled since 1980, to 30 percent.
The roles of men and women in agriculture are different – of course, depending on country or region.
in general, men own land as well as large animals, such as cattle.
women will have smaller animals, such as chickens and small ruminants, women will be involved in vegetable production and will go to the market to sell the families agricultural production.
Niger
A woman tiling the soil with a small trowel in a vegetable garden

5. Women are key to agriculture and to food and nutrition security
Their influence on the livelihoods and nutrition and health of their households is huge.
In general, women care for children, they prepare meals and make nutritional decisions. They would also invest in health care and education of their children if they had additional money. These are basic decisions within a household with serious impact on the well being of a family.
Yet, across countries and contexts, women are more affected by poverty, hunger and malnutrition. The reason is again that women have less access to resources, services and opportunities, including land, livestock, labour, education, extension services, financial services and technology during peace times. In crises times, these inequalities have exponential negative implications and put women in an extremely volatile and vulnerable position.
FAO estimates that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they would:
increase yields on their farms by percent
raise the total agricultural production in developing countries by 2.5 to 4 percent.
-> which could in turn reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12 to 17 percent.
{ pause for 2-3 seconds. }
Now I would like to give you a few examples of how FAO is working to build resilience through women.
Women are key to agriculture and
to food and nutrition security
Pakistan, Kot Chutta
Rural women harvesting vegetables

6. the women of Kanem (Chad)
Building resilience:
the women of Kanem (Chad) -
Gardening activities have significantly increased food production for household consumption
The women of Kanem in Chad, gave a good example in building their livelihood
Kanem, a region in western Chad, has higher rates of chronic malnutrition than the rest of the country. This region is particularly affected by disasters, most notably chronic drought.
Food insecurity, mainly affecting women and children, results from the low availability of food due to low agricultural production owing to adverse weather conditions. Food insecurity is also due to decreased incomes leading to limited access to food.
FAO has been working with vulnerable populations in the region since 2010, to help reduce the prevalence of malnutrition.
The poorest rural families that rely on agriculture have limited access to fertile irrigated land (in the “ouaddis”), and cannot cultivate vegetables which require more irrigation water than other crops and which are essential for a nutritious diet.
To establish support for gardening activities, and for small irrigation projects and education on nutrition, FAO brought together landowners and farmers without access to irrigable land in the ouaddis.
Land-loan agreements, lasting five years, were signed between lenders and the poorest user-groups.
The project has enabled women’s groups in the region, where women have rarely been able to access agricultural land, to access irrigable and fertile land and farm it in their own name.
Women had access to arable plots of land, and were also trained on good agricultural practices.
The gardening activities implemented in the ouaddis have significantly increased food production for household consumption.
FAO works in partnership in Chad with WFP, UNICEF and Action Contre la Faim,

7. West Bank and Gaza Strip -
Building resilience:
West Bank and Gaza Strip -
Investing in the collective
power of women
West Bank and Gaza Strip – investing in the collective power of women.
By supporting around 80 women’s associations throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, FAO is helping Palestinian women achieve greater social and economic empowerment. FAO provides women with the livelihoods assets and entrepreneurial skills to produce, process, package and market a wide range of quality food items.
This led many women to realize economic success as well as greater self-confidence, civic participation and influence, in a place where as nearly as 35% of women work in the informal agriculture sector as unpaid family labour.
With increased capacity and improved market linkages, the associations continue to stimulate and support female employment beyond the life of a project. Moreover, they provide an enabling environment, where members can share ideas, successes and aspirations.
Here on the photo we see a woman beneficiary of the FAO project for backyard food production activities making flat breads in her home in Gaza.

8. West Bank and Gaza Strip -
Building resilience:
West Bank and Gaza Strip -
Taking it a step further
In Tulkarem, West Bank, a group of women receiving training on food processing, marketing skills, and bookkeeping, took a step further. Now known as “Anabta Consumption Cooperative”, the group of 30 women pooled the money they had and opened their own shop in April 2012, just one year after the FAO project began.
The shop offers a wide range of assortment of items produced, packaged and labeled by the Cooperative’s members that range from pickled vegetables, to jams, sweets, juices and baked goods.
Here you see their facebook page.
The same women are already planning to establish a space where women – instead of marketing homemade products individually through the store – can combine their efforts and produce goods together.
Pause

9. to become agents of change
On another level, Managers of projects or programmes, like us, in crises situation have the responsibility within their mandates to empower women to become agents of change.
I will give you an example during years of work in Afghanistan in I had to recruit several national agronomists, that is Afghan agronomists. Of course it was much easier for me to recruit male agronomists because the choice was larger from a large number of candidates, and I knew that they had more flexibility and a wider freedom of movement, so they would achieve quicker results.
However, I made the decision to recruit a female agronomist, and that I did not want females only as support staff, but as professional lead staff. There was only one female candidate for an agronomist, Farida, I recruited her. She took time to adapt, she took was not feeling very comfortable in a men’s world of agronomists, she had some problems with her colleagues. She informed after few months that she decided to leave for another job, less paid, but where she felt more comfortable surrounded by female colleagues.
We managed to convince her to stay, and I personally promised to give her all my support. She should give the strong example that agronomy was also her profession and not only a male profession, and that other Afghan women needed her. She was encouraged, and there she made a remarkable job:
Building resilience:
Afghanistan -
Empowering women
to become agents of change

10. Women feel self empowered,
Building resilience:
Afghanistan -
Women feel self empowered,
independent and proud
She established her project to support women in a drought stricken area in Afghanistan, Qhargha, near Kabul.
She selected the women beneficiaries for the project
She distributed to the beneficiaries the various inputs for the projects: seeds, tools, watering cans, fertilizer
The women received training, from Farida and other women agronomist that she found, on best farming practices,
The women’s group, planted, harvested and benefited with their families from the harvest. The women felt also self empowered, independent, and proud.
On the other hand, Farida, the agronomist, continued her job, was well recognized, her confidence and determination enhanced, she continued supporting her own family with a higher salary. She is still working with FAO in Afghanistan and still benefiting Afghan women from her professional and personal experience.
A determined managerial decision led to empowering a women a making her an agent of change.

11. Rural women key to building resilience to disasters
Closing the gender gap
understanding how women and men are affected differently in crisis leads to more effective response
crises can transform gender roles
equal opportunities to women in agriculture
As these examples have illustrated and our experience has proven “rural women are key to building resilience to disasters”
FAO estimates that closing the asset gap in agriculture could lift up to 150 million people out of hunger.
Gender equality is not a stand-alone matter. Rather it is an integral part to every area of emergency and rehabilitation work.
Our experience has illustrated how considering women’s needs, their priorities and capacities ensures the durability and effectiveness of emergency and rehabilitation work.
Gender inequality is not only a humans rights issue concerning women only. It is an obstacle to agricultural development and food and nutrition security.
Closing the gender gap in agriculture will improve food security of people in peace as well as in crises times. This has been proven.
Key messages
Women and men are affected differently in crises. Understanding this difference would allow us build resilience on sound basis.
Women can be agents of change. We can take a disaster as an “opportunity” to enhance the role of women as agents of change by empowering them.
Giving women equal opportunities in agriculture – in normal times and during/after crises – increases agricultural production, reduces malnutrition and reduces poverty.
If women had the same access to productive resources as men… this could reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12 to 17 percent.

13. Rural women key to building resilience to disasters
understanding how women and men are affected differently in crisis leads to more effective response
crises can transform gender roles
closing the gender gap
As these examples have illustrated and our experience has proven:
women are key to building resilience (strengthening gender-specific capacities:) FAO does not address women only as "victims of disasters", but mostly as agents of change. Rural women have a strong adaptive and reactive capacity that translates into individual and community resilience when properly supported. Women's active and equal participation to resilience planning should thus to be promoted and their socio-economic potential should not be overlooked in resilience building interventions.
understanding how women and men are affected differently in crisis leads to more effective response (targeting gender-differentiated vulnerabilities): Addressing both women and men in disasters and crises is essential, as gender discrimination is a common factor of vulnerability across regions. Rural women face specific challenges and obstacles in emergency situations as a consequence of the "gender gap" in agriculture: unequal access to resources, decision-making power, rights, opportunities. FAO has a strong comparative advantage in addressing inequalities faced by rural women, due to its knowledge, experience and commitment on gender, agriculture and food security. However, since each emergency is set in a particular local context, a gender analysis is always needed in order to make relief operations efficient – even a quick one will provide useful information.
crises can transform gender roles (risks and opportunities): Crises risk to exacerbate existing gender and social inequalities. However, emergency and resilience building interventions provide an opportunity to address them directly and indirectly - in the case of FAO, particularly those related to women’s and men’s access to agricultural productive resources and assets, income opportunities, markets, rural institutions and organizations. In the context of SO5, FAO works to build more resilient communities and households from the onset of the emergency, trying to reduce and manage the causes of disasters. In the same vein, structural gender-specific vulnerabilities should be addressed and reduced whenever possible: "building back better" can also apply to gender equality.