Thirty-fourth session

* CEDAW/C/2006/I/1.

Item 5 of the provisional agenda*

16 January-3 February 2006

Implementation of article 21 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

Reports provided by specialized agencies of theUnited Nations on the implementation of the Convention in areas falling within the scope of their activities

Note by the Secretary-General

Addendum

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

1.On behalf of the Committee, the secretariat invited the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to submit to the Committee a report on information provided by States to FAO on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in areas falling within the scope of its activities, which would supplement the information contained in the reports of the States parties to the Convention that will be considered at the thirty-fourth session.

2.Other information sought by the Committee refers to activities, programmes and policy decisions undertaken by FAO to promote the implementation of the Convention.

3.The report annexed hereto has been submitted in compliance with the request of the Committee.

Annex

Report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women at its thirty-fourth session

Mali

1.The population of Mali was estimated to be 13.4 million for 2004,1 of which 67 per cent were living in rural areas. Seventy nine per cent of the economically active population work in agriculture.

Women in agriculture

2.The total share of female participation in the labour force in 2004 was 46 per cent; as much as 79 per cent were working in agriculture. Of the total number of people economically active in agriculture, 47 per cent were women.

Activities of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nationsfor the empowerment of rural women and gender equality

3.Through the Telefood campaign, launched in 1997 to promote greater awareness of the need and urgency to combat hunger and promote gender equality, FAO has supported several projects in Mali to empower rural women. The projects focus mainly on fisheries, poultry production and horticulture. There are nine Telefood projects in Mali that directly or indirectly empower rural women.

4.Through Dimitra, FAO collects detailed information on organizations and projects concerning rural women, food security and sustainable development in Africa and the Near East. By making this information available, Dimitra aims at increasing the visibility of the contribution of rural women to development through traditional means of communication and new information technologies. Dimitra seeks to increase gender awareness among development actors and to promote information exchange and dissemination. There are 100 projects in Mali registered in the Dimitra database. The projects support rural women in their agricultural activities and in capacity-building for household food security.

Togo

5.The population of Togo was estimated to be 5 million in 2004,1 of which 64 per cent were living in rural areas. Fifty seven per cent of the economically active population work in agriculture.

Women in agriculture

6.The total share of female participation in the labour force in 2004 was 40 per cent; as much as 60 per cent were working in agriculture. Of the total number of people economically active in agriculture, 42 per cent were women.

Activities of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nationsfor the empowerment of rural women and gender equality

7.Through the Telefood campaign, launched in 1997 to promote greater awareness of the need and urgency to combat hunger and promote gender equality, FAO has supported several projects in Togo to empower rural women. The projects focus mainly on fisheries, water management, animal production and income-generating activities. There are 22 Telefood projects in Togo that directly or indirectly empower rural women.

8.Dimitra (see also para. 4) seeks to increase gender awareness among development actors and to promote information exchange and dissemination. There are 63 projects in Togo registered in the Dimitra database. The projects support rural women in their agricultural activities and in capacity-building for household food security.

9.FAO has assisted the Government of Togo in elaborating a gender and agricultural development strategy. It has also provided technical and financial support to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Promotion of Women and the Protection of Children in developing a sector-specific policy document, which provides an overview of the status of men and women farmers in the agricultural sector, based on existing data disaggregated by gender. In addition, it identifies the main opportunities for women to fully participate in agricultural development programmes, and presents an operational framework to address the most significant constraints. The framework also describes strategic objectives, concrete actions and expected outputs, as well as the responsibilities to be adopted by each institution for the selected outputs and indicators for monitoring and evaluation.

10.Under the FAO technical cooperation project, a project was initiated in Togo to strengthen the capacity of the Government to develop rural radio systems, programmes and activities to promote food security. Two workshops were held on socio-economic and gender analysis to train rural radio workers, producers and non-governmental organizations to produce and disseminate gender-sensitive information.

Cambodia

11.The population of Cambodia was estimated to be 14.48 million for 2004,1 of which 81 per cent were living in rural areas. As much as 69 per cent of the economically active population work in agriculture.

Women in agriculture

12.The total share of female participation in the labour force in 2004 was 52 per cent, with 73 per cent working in agriculture. Of the total number of people economically active in agriculture, 55 per cent were women.

Activities of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nationsfor the empowerment of rural women and gender equality

13.Through the Telefood campaign (see para. 3), FAO has supported several projects in Cambodia to empower rural women. The projects focus mainly on fisheries, water management, animal production and income-generating activities. There are 17 Telefood projects in Cambodia that directly or indirectly empower rural women.

14.Two projects have been initiated under the FAO technical cooperation programme: one focuses on improving household food security and increasing family income by training women in income generating technologies, such as home gardening, livestock management, post-harvest handling and processing, and by strengthening gender-responsive policy and programme development; the other, on the theme of capacity-building for community fisheries management in the Department of Fisheries, seeks to promote community fisheries in coastal areas.

Thailand

15.The population of Thailand in 20041 was estimated to be 63.46 million, of which 68 per cent were living in rural areas. Fifty three per cent of the economically active population work in agriculture.

Women in agriculture

16.The total share of female participation in the labour force in 2004 was 47 per cent, with 53 per cent working in agriculture. Of the total number of people economically active in agriculture, 47 per cent were women.

Activities of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nationsfor the empowerment of rural women and gender equality

17.Through the Telefood campaign (see para. 3), FAO has supported several projects in Thailand to empower rural women. The projects focus mainly on fisheries, poultry production, nutrition, crop production, forestry and livestock raising. There are 26 Telefood projects in Thailand that directly or indirectly empower rural women.

18.In collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme, a CD-ROM addressing gender-responsive technology for poverty alleviation was produced based on field work carried out in the provinces of Buriram, Nan, Phitsanulok and Songkhia. Its purpose was to provide an understanding of rural gender dynamics and to identify areas where there was a need for gender-responsive technology, in order to assist the formulation of policies and programmes that promote agricultural technological development.

19.A workshop on gender-sensitive planning was held for officers responsible for local planning administrations in order to find ways to integrate gender considerations into local planning. The workshop analysed the current status of and constraints to the promotion of gender-sensitive approaches in local planning. The outcome resulted in the development of a framework for gender-sensitive local planning.

20.An expert consultation session on agrobiodiversity conservation and the role of rural women was organized with partners from the International Potato Centre — Users Perspectives with Agricultural Research and Development and Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture. The session explored gender concerns in agrobiodiversity management in the context of local knowledge systems and local community rights in natural resources, as well as women’s rights to these resources.

21.In collaboration with the Credit Union League of Thailand and the Micro Economic Development Project, a handbook on small enterprises for hill tribe people in Thailand was developed.

22.Following a decade of work in promoting agricultural cooperative development through a regional network known as the Network for the Development of Agricultural Cooperatives in Asia and the Pacific, a training kit was developed. The kit was the outcome of a FAO technical cooperation project that focused on capacity-building for the promotion of cooperatives for small farmers and women group activities.

23.An expert consultation session was held to address the issue of rural women, distance learning and the current disparity in education resource allocation in the region. The session offered recommendations for FAO and other member countries to better address and improve rural learning, specifically among rural women and girls, by taking advantage of the regional distance learning resources.

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

24.The population of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela was estimated to be 26.17 million in 2004,1 of which 12 per cent were living in rural areas. Seven per cent of the economically active population work in agriculture.

Women in agriculture

25.The total share of female participation in the labour force in 2004 was 36 per cent, but only 1 per cent were working in agriculture. Of the total number of people economically active in agriculture, 5 per cent were women.

Activities of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nationsfor the empowerment of rural women and gender equality

26.Through the Telefood campaign, launched in 1997 to promote greater awareness of the need and urgency to combat hunger and promote gender equality, FAO has supported several projects in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to empower rural women. The projects focus on poultry, vegetable and fruit production. There are 14 Telefood projects in Venezuela that directly or indirectly empower rural women.

27.In coordination with the United Nations Development Fund for Women, a gender-disaggregated data workshop was held in Caracas. The objective of the workshop was to develop and strengthen the capacity of specialists responsible for the production of statistics and data, with particular emphasis on agriculture and rural development, in order to integrate a gender perspective into the production of statistics. The participants were selected from the FAO Special Programme for Food Security, the Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres and the Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment.

28.Research is currently being carried out on the situation of rural women in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in collaboration with a local non-governmental organization. The findings will be published early 2006.

Notes

1Data provided by FAOSTAT.