ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, MARY ROBINSON, AT THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME CELEBRATION
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, MARY ROBINSON, AT THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME CELEBRATION OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
It is a special honour for me to be present today at the Headquarters of the World Food Programme and to celebrate with you International Women's Day. I greatly appreciate this opportunity and salute the work of the WFP for all the peoples of the world. I am grateful for the warmth of your welcome and for your kindness in inviting me to join you today.
A few days ago I had the opportunity to hear about the work of the FAO on the ground in Rwanda, assisting the Government there in its short, medium, and long-term objectives in the field of food security and rural development. I learned that with the return of the refugees the number of vulnerable people has increased from 700,000 to 2.1 million. A high percentage of these are women, many of them heads of families. This reflects the imbalance in the population created by the genocidal killing, in that somewhere between 60% and 70% of the population are women.
I also listened to a number of women representing local women's organisations in Kigali and rural parts of Rwanda. They spoke in French and gave eloquent accounts of how they are coping with the scale of problems there. They spoke of the many difficulties facing widows, including the lack of legal right to land ownership. They spoke of the ways they are coping with poverty and displacement, the lack of housing or shelter, the need for trauma counselling, the large number of orphans, the AIDS problem, the need for training skills and access to local credit to help women to help themselves. A number of the organisations are working to promote reconciliation with the returned refugees, others help women victims of violence, including rape. They are committed to self-help and self development, but lacked the resources to match their courage and commitment.
It seemed particularly appropriate that my reason for returning to Rwanda was to attend a pan-African conference on Peace, Gender and Development. I was delighted to join women leaders from 16 African countries, including Rwanda, and women from several European countries, the US, China and Japan, in recognising the central role of women in conflict prevention and in securing and maintaining peace. We affirmed together that to promote sustainable development women must be empowered politically and economically and represented adequately at all levels of decision making.
These issues are at the heart of what I want to say here today in Rome. I want to focus on the importance of integrating gender issues in development cooperation, as part of the mainstreaming of gender issues which provides the best potential resource for harnessing fresh energies as we prepare for a new millennium.
I wish to focus today, in this Institution dedicated to achieving international food security, on the particular challenges facing the international community in respect of women and food security. Let me first, however, emphasise three related dimensions: changing patterns of Development Co-operation; the impact of globalization and the specific challenge of achieving food security as a general goal.
It seems to me that there are several important themes we must increasingly endorse today: that development matters, perhaps more than ever before; that the record of development, contrary to some pessimistic claims to the contrary, is an effective one of considerable achievement; that new global economic trends require new approaches and practices in the field of development, including the setting of specific goals and targets; that a new partnership between developed and developing countries requires shaping a shared future based on fundamental concepts such as long term sustainable development, enhanced economic and social progress, full development of human and social capacity and the achievement of adequate food security.
Development Co-operation in the coming years will increasingly relate to assisting least developed countries to strengthen macro economic and sectoral policies as well as the mobilisation of domestic resources. It will involve enhancing human resources, especially by enhanced investment in health, education and training. The agreement reached on the 20:20 compact at the World Social Summit in Copenhagen should result in focusing international efforts on the alleviation of poverty and meeting these basic needs. The range of commitments agreed to at the World Food Summit last November will place the attainment of global food security as a paramount international goal.
We hear much today from political leaders and economists of globalization and liberalisation and its impact on development as well as the unprecedented opportunities - and, sometimes, difficulties - which this presents to developing countries.
We know also, however, that globalization and liberalisation is not a magic formula which automatically guarantees economic development. If benefits are to be derived from a more open and liberal trading system, a comprehensive effort is necessary to ensure that all developing countries are capable of responding to the opportunities presented and of successfully dealing with often difficult exposure to international competition.
There is increasing recognition, as the Food Summit acknowledged, that good governance and sound national economic policies are essential ingredients in laying the foundation for economic and social progress in any domestic economy.
I believe that democracy, including an open and participatory system of Government, and respect for fundamental human rights, are core requirements in advancing the aspirations - political, social and economic - of all peoples. They also underpin and reinforce national efforts to achieve economic progress and constitute necessary conditions in which shared energy and creativity can contribute to enhanced economic and social capacity based on the needs of people.
At the same time, I also believe that the process of globalization and liberalisation should not be allowed to lead to a system of international trade and economic relations based exclusively on competition between nations, a system under which the strong win at the expense of the weak, and which excludes essential concepts such as partnership and co-operation. The global market place must not become a threat to this process of enlarging the aspirations and rights of people.
We live in an increasingly integrated and interdependent global economy. In the face of this ever more apparent reality, the former Secretary General of the United Nations called, in the "Agenda for Development", for a culture of development in which peace, economic growth, social justice, democratic participation and food and health security are all included.
Since becoming President, I have visited Africa on many occasions. I profoundly believe that Africa poses particular and compelling challenges for the entire international community today.
For the first time since the 1980s, many African countries this year are likely to experience an increase in per capita income. At the same time, half the population of Sub-Saharan Africa continues to live below the poverty line. It is clear that sustained patterns of growth are an essential requirement for measures to substantially alleviate poverty in Africa. It is also clear that poverty reduction is the key to enhanced economic and social development and to the achievement of lasting food security.
There is now an increasing and welcome confidence, at national and international level, in the ability of African countries to overcome the unprecedented difficulties which they have encountered in seeking to improve the quality of life of their people. At the same time, we should not underestimate the many, and often overwhelming, problems with which Africa is today confronted including lack of food security, marginalisation, underdevelopment, population pressures, environmental degradation and widespread poverty.
For Africa, a major challenge for the future must be to increase the productivity of land and labour without degrading the natural resource base.
There is an initial temptation to view the problem of food insecurity as simply one of production, a problem encountered mainly by the rural poor. However, we must look at the wider causes and implications of this problem.
Theoretically, there is now enough food in the world to feed the entire population but huge numbers of people still suffer from malnutrition. The food is being produced, but it is not available to those in need. Our joint efforts to reduce poverty are efforts to provide food security, to make the available food financially accessible to those in need. These efforts must not only take place at the level of households and communities : on a global level, within the multilateral trading system, we must ensure that low-income food importing countries are given every assistance in meeting this most basic of needs.
The assistance provided to these countries by others in the trade and supply of food products must be closely scrutinised. In the trade and provision of food stocks, every effort must be made to support the traditional markets that exist in the poorer countries. Measures must be taken so that prices are not distorted and the introduction of inappropriate types of foodstuffs must be avoided. It is imperative that the real long-term needs of the beneficiaries always take centre-stage.
The World Food Summit urged the international community to develop a coherent policy framework for the achievement of sustainable food security. It rightly noted that rural to urban migration, changes in trade patterns and resource degradation can be both the cause and the effect of food insecurity.
The Food Summit set for the international community a new agenda for food security. Policy areas that will now need to be addressed, and that are explicitly endorsed in the agreed Commitments, include promotion of increased production through sustainable systems that build resource productivity and lessen environmental impacts; establishing conditions for sustainable livelihoods and access to markets; support for diversification in production patterns and identification of ways in which food aid can contribute effectively to long term food security.
The World Food Summit and the commitments made at it should not be seen in isolation. In the context of the major UN Conferences of recent years, the Summit has to be seen as addressing one of a range of inextricably linked elements of our efforts to advance the goal of sustainable global development.
The concept of sustainable development has many inter-related aspects. It means that the development process must be people centred with the achievement of food security, health care, education and employment, as primary objectives. It also means reducing population growth levels and protecting the environment through the introduction of sustainable agricultural technologies.
Addressing the problem of food insecurity requires addressing all issues of underdevelopment.
Given the key role of women in the development process, and their generally disadvantaged position, it is clear that development programmes that do not take on board the different economic and social roles of men and women cannot succeed. Unfortunately, much of this knowledge has been garnered in the light of real-life experience, experience of development work which has sometimes impacted negatively on the position of women.
It is essential that development agencies recognise the need to address the position of women in the developing world. While simple statistics may not portray the full picture, they can highlight the starkness of the disparities which exist :
- on average, women earn 30-40% less than men for work of equal value, and in some areas the differences are far greater;
- while female illiteracy has fallen considerably in the last twenty years, over 40 % of young women in Africa and parts of Asia are illiterate, while the rates for young men are far lower
In drawing attention to these imbalances, there is always the danger of portraying women in the developing world simply as victims who must be helped. However, in the context of development it is more important to recognise the role of women as agents of the necessary change, and not just potential beneficiaries of it.
Women are a major economic force, making up over 80% of the agricultural workforce in many parts of the developing world. However, the power they wield, or are allowed to wield, does not reflect that contribution.
Women are responsible for almost all aspects of family welfare, including health, education and nutrition. Above and beyond their role within the family, women play a key role in the community.
The scale of the contribution of women engaged in subsistence agricultural production is all too often seriously undervalued. While the importance of the so-called subsistence sector to food security is obvious, the difficulty and complexity of the task facing farmers in that sector is often unrecognised. For example, the subsistence sector is hardly ever an enclosed system engaged only in production for direct consumption. On the contrary, the typical subsistence household engages in trade in agricultural inputs and outputs and other items on a scale that is significant for the people concerned, even if it fails to make an impact on macroeconomic statistics as conventionally measured. There are complicated calculations to be made regarding requiring, using, storing and disposing of assets. Long - and short - term considerations have to be balanced. Complex risk management is required, for example, in relation to unreliable rainfall. Scarce family labour has to be allocated in the face of competing demands.
Notwithstanding all these difficulties, the level of food security actually achieved by the subsistence sector is quite high. That this is so is clear testimony to the ingenuity and commitment of the people concerned, and particularly to the women among them, who provide so much of the "intellectual capital" which makes that achievement possible.
The position of women at times of crisis is often wrought with particular difficulties. Increased responsibility in difficult circumstances can be coupled with new and complex constraints. Shifts in gender relations brought in the wake of natural or man-made disasters are not always recognised by donors and the perception of women's roles may not match the reality on the ground. In the past this has, unfortunately, often resulted in women being marginalised in the design of food aid management and distribution and in the work of agricultural rehabilitation. The international community has made considerable progress in this regard in recent years but more remains to be done. The Gender Action Plan adopted by the World Food Programme is a comprehensive and welcome step and it may serve as an example to other organisations working in this area.
In this, it is also important to note that food aid operations, while meeting real and immediate needs must also contribute to the goal of long term food security. In this area also, the World Food Programme has been involved in advancing the agenda and developing new ideas.
Women are, and must continue to be, key actors in the development process. The contribution they can make must be recognised and supported, particularly at political and decision-making levels.
The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 focused the minds of Governments and non-governmental organisations on these issues; at Beijing governments dedicated themselves to addressing the unacceptable constraints that women often are placed under. The commitments made at Beijing must be given proper expression in the actions of governments and international agencies. We must recognise that Beijing was a catalyst in an ongoing process. The Conference must serve as an impetus for everyone working in development to incorporate a clear focus on the roles of both women and men in all policies and programmes.
There is now growing international acceptance in both developed and developing countries that achieving sustainable development cannot be separated from the achievement of greater political and economic accountability, transparency and enhanced participation by people in all the structures of society.
The Rome Declaration last November explicitly affirmed that "a peaceful, stable and enabling political, social and economic environment is the essential foundation which will enable states to give adequate priority to food security and poverty eradication". We know from experience that famine and starvation today are often the consequences of political decisions. Internal repression, disregard for human rights, internal and external conflict, are all too often the basis for economic collapse and disintegration leading to famine situations.
Concern for human dignity and human security must be the core motivation for development co-operation. This means that the international community must make a clear and coherent linkage between advancing sustainable development and addressing what are all too often viewed as unrelated concerns about regional conflict, social divisions, international migration and the global environment.
Food security is ultimately about poverty and hunger. In the case of women, it is about recognising the role of women in many developing societies: reproductive work including child bearing and rearing; productive work, which can be defined as work for market reasons or in the context of subsistence production; community management including provision of care resources such as water, health and education.
Women have clear rights to security of land tenure; income control; involvement in decision making systems that enables them to identify particular needs.
Heads of State and Government at the Rome Summit stated that "We pledge our political will and our common and national commitment to achieving food security for all and to an ongoing effort to eradicate hunger in all countries, with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015". If this commitment is to be honoured, it means by definition addressing the particular challenge of women and food security.
Across the world today, women are demanding equality of rights as a fundamental principle. They are rightly, in the words of the 1995 UNDP Human Development Report, seeking to become agents and beneficiaries of change. By definition, this must involve empowerment of women and ensuring that they play a full and rightful role in society at all levels.
I salute the work of the World Food Programme in your continuing commitment to give assistance to those without a voice and a helping hand to those reaching out to you in hope.
It is for me a privilege and honour to be here. I wish to express particular appreciation to Mrs. Bertini for the kind invitation to join you today. I wish, above all, everyone in the WFP every success in your future work and in all your undertakings.
Thank you