A/RES/68/139
Improvement of the situation of women in rural areas
Recognizing that rural women are critical agents in poverty reduction, that they
are crucial to the achievement of food and nutrition security in poor and vulnerable
households and to environmental sustainability and that, in other ways, they ar e also
critical to the achievement of all the Millennium Development Goals, and concerned
that rural women continue to be economically and socially disadvantaged because of
their limited access to economic resources and opportunities, their limited or lack of
access to land, water and other resources, their limited or lack of access to credit,
extension services and agricultural inputs, their exclusion from planning and
decision-making and their disproportionate burden of unpaid care work,
Recognizing also the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of
Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security 9
endorsed in May 2012 by the Committee on World Food Security, which embrace
gender equality as one of the main guiding principles of implementation in order to
help address the ongoing disparities with regard to land,
1.
Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General; 10
2.
Urges Member States, in collaboration with the organizations of the
United Nations system, and civil society, as appropriate, to continue their efforts to
implement the outcome of and to ensure an integrated and coordinated follow -up to
the relevant United Nations conferences and summits, including their reviews, and
to attach greater importance to the improvement of the situation of rural women,
including indigenous women, in their national, regional and global development
strategies by, inter alia:
(a) Creating an enabling environment for improving the situation of rural
women and ensuring systematic attention to their needs, priorities and contributions,
including through enhanced cooperation and a gender perspective, and their full
participation in the development, implementation and follow-up of macroeconomic
policies, including development policies and programmes and poverty eradication
strategies, including poverty reduction strategy papers, where they exist, based on
the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium
Development Goals, and the outcome document of the United Nations Conference
on Sustainable Development, entitled “The future we want”; 11
(b) Pursuing the political and socioeconomic empowerment of rural women
and supporting their full and equal participation in decision -making at all levels,
including through affirmative action, where appropriate, and support for women’s
and farmers’ organizations in which smallholder women farmers are members,
labour unions or other associations and civil society groups promoting rural
women’s rights;
(c) Promoting consultation with and the participation of rural women,
including indigenous women, women with disabilities and older women, through
their organizations and networks, in the design, development and implementation of
gender equality and rural development programmes and strategies;
(d) Ensuring that perspectives of rural women are taken into account and that
they participate in the design, implementation, follow-up and evaluation of policies
and activities related to emergencies, including natural disasters, humanitar ian
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9
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, document CL 144/9 (C 2013/20), appendix D.
A/68/179.
11
Resolution 66/288, annex.
10
2/6