International Day of Rural Women

Rural Women make a lasting impact, but are hit hardest by extreme poverty and food insecurity; Let's Celebrate Rural women work in 💚 Protecting the environment. 💚 Mobilizing communities; 💚 Influencing policies. On #RuralWomensDay, join our call to advance their livelihoods and leadership. Statement by the UN Women on the International Day of Rural Women, October 15th. On this International Day of Rural Women, we call for bold action to advance the equality, rights, and empowerment of women and girls living in rural settings. Every day, they feed communities, protect the environment, and power sustainable development. Investing in them is both an act of justice and a safeguard for our shared future. For generations, women in rural settings have driven collective movements for change: mobilizing communities, influencing policies, and championing vital issues such as climate justice. Their leadership continues to build bridges between local action and global progress, even as rural...

 Observed on October 15th , the  International Day of Rural Women  is to recognize the vital role rural women play in agriculture, food security, and rural development . It also aims to highlight the challenges they face, such as unequal access to resources , and to promote policies that empower them and improve their livelihoods . The observance of the day promote the crucial work of rural women in crop production, processing, preparing, and distributing food . It acknowledges their role in agricultural and rural development, the eradication of rural poverty, and achieving sustainable development goals. It promotes awareness of their challenges, such as lower incomes and food insecurity, and advocates for increased access to resources, decision-making power, and opportunities.

The International Day of Rural Women recognizes the critical roles and contributions of rural women , including Indigenous women, in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and nutrition, and eradicating rural poverty . These are vital for protecting and securing our common future. The 2024 International Day of Rural Women invites all stakeholders to celebrate rural women’s essential role in building climate resilience, conserving biodiversity, and caring for the land . Members of SCOCCOMAD, Cameroon, pose for a group photo near a section of their cassava crop in December 2018. There is much to protect against and to restore. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation have had significant impacts on the rights, resilience, and resources of rural women and girls. UN Women’s latest research estimates that globally, under a worst-case scenario, climate change may push up to 158 million more women and girls into poverty and 236 million more...

The celebration of the  International Day of Rural Women recognizes that rural women are uniquely situated to help mitigate the causes of global warming and adapt to its impacts on the ground . Additionally, it acknowledges that climate variability has a more pronounced impact on women, primarily indigenous and peasant women, whose agricultural dependence, living conditions and marginalization expose them to a greater degree of changes due to climate, loss of diversity and pollution.

The theme for the International Day of Rural Women ( 15 October ), “ Rural Women Cultivating Good Food for All ”, highlights the essential role that rural women and girls play in the food systems of the world. From production of crops to processing, preparing and distributing foods, women’s labour – paid and unpaid – feeds their families, communities and the world. Yet, they do not wield equal power with men, and as a result, they earn less income and experience higher food insecurity. Despite our planet’s capacity to provide sufficient and good food for all, hunger, malnourishment, and food insecurity are rising in many parts of the world. The COVID-19 pandemic, along with climate crises, have made matters worse: some 2.37 billion people did not have enough to eat in 2020 –that’s 20 per cent more than the year before. UN Women’s latest report, Beyond COVID-19: A feminist plan for sustainability and social justice , calls for rebuilding the broken global food system from the bottom...

Rural women ensure food security for their communities, build climate resilience and strengthen economies. Yet, gender inequalities, such as discriminatory laws and social norms, combined with a fast-changing economic, technological and environmental landscape restrict their full potential, leaving them far behind men and their urban counterparts.

Rural women make up over a quarter the world population and majority of the 43 per cent of women in the global agricultural labour force. They till the lands and plant seeds to feed nations. They ensure food security for their communities and build climate resilience. But when it comes to owning land, accessing agricultural inputs, financing and technologies for climate resilience, they are left far behind men. Rural women: the invisible mainstay of sustainability. In a statement for the International Day of Rural Women (15 October), UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka highlighted the importance of the social and physical infrastructure that enables rural women’s participation in sustainable, climate-resilient agricultural production, processing, transport and marketing. Read more► This year, International Day for Rural Women (15 October), focuses on the theme, “ Challenges and opportunities in climate-resilient agriculture for gender equality and the empowerment of ru...

Women and girls in far flung villages are very rarely in the spotlight. From 15 – 17 October, UN Women commemorates three key United Nations observances related to women’s role in development— International Day of Rural Women (15 October), World Food Day (16 October) and International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (17 October). Rural women’s rights, food and poverty are issues that are inextricably linked. In 2016, the International Day of Rural Women and World Food Day will focus jointly on the theme “Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too”. A high-level commemoration event will take place at the United Nations Headquarters on 17 October, 1.15 - 2.30 p.m. Today, farmers, fishers and pastoralists stand on the frontlines of food insecurity as temperatures rise, weather patterns become less predictable and climate-related disasters become more frequent. As key actors in food systems, as small-scale farmers and those in charge of ensuring adequate nutrition for famil...

Empowering rural women through the SDGs. This week, UN Women marks three UN observances that reflect women's key role in development, beginning with International Day for Rural Women on 15 October, World Food Day on 16 October and International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October. These interconnected issues are more relevant than ever before, as the new Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development has just been adopted by world leaders as the new global roadmap. Gender equality and women’s rights and empowerment are cross-cutting throughout the 2030 Agenda , with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Goals are intrinsically linked to the lives of women and girls globally, including that of rural women, who are vital to its success. Particularly the goal to end poverty in all its forms everywhere, the goal to end hunger , achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture as well as the goal to achieve gender equality and women’s...

This week, UN Women marks three  International observances that reflect women's key role in development , beginning with International Day for Rural Women on October 15th , World Food Day on October 16th and International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on October 17th . Rural women, the majority of whom depend on natural resources and agriculture for their livelihoods, [1] make up over a quarter of the total world population. [2] In developing countries, rural women represent approximately 43 per cent of the agricultural labour force, [3] and produce, process and prepare much of the food available, thereby giving them primary responsibility for food security. Bearing in mind that 76 per cent of the extreme poor live in rural areas, [4] ensuring rural women’s access to productive agricultural resources empowers women and contributes to decreasing world hunger and poverty. [5]  UN Women supports the leadership and participation of rural women in shaping laws, poli...

This week, UN Women marks three UN observances that reflect women's key role in development, beginning with International Day for Rural Women on October 15t h, World Food Day on October 16th and International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on October 17th . Rural women are key agents for development. They play a catalytic role towards achievement of transformational economic, environmental and social changes required for sustainable development. But limited access to credit, health care and education are among the many challenges they face. These are further aggravated by the global food and economic crises and climate change. Empowering them is essential, not only for the well-being of individuals, families and rural communities, but also for overall economic productivity, given women’s large presence in the agricultural workforce worldwide. UN Women supports the leadership and participation of rural women in shaping laws, policies and programmes on all issues that affect ...

This week, UN Women celebrates three days which reflect women's key role in development, beginning with International Day for Rural Women on 15 October, World Food Day on 16 October, and International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October. Gender inequality and limited access to credit, healthcare and education have posed a number of challenges for rural women. Meanwhile, the global food and economic crisis and climate change have only aggravated the situation. Some 925 million people go hungry every day. In many parts of the world, tradition dictates that women eat last, after all the male members and children have been fed. Women are also strong contributors to the economy, and form a large proportion of the agricultural work force globally. They can do much more given equal resources. FAO estimates if women farmers (43 per cent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries) have the same access as men to agricultural resources, this could increase produc...