Participation of WOCAN delegates in United Nations Meetings on the agenda of agriculture, rural development, food security and climate change. Timeframe: July to December 2009
During the past two years, the world has focused on two major crises related to agriculture and sustainable development: food insecurity and climate change. Both of these have major implications for the women who are the primary farmers and environmental managers in much of the world, yet the gender dimensions of these crises have received scant attention. WOCAN has sought to rectify this neglect by assuring women's active participation and advocacy for the inclusion of gender perspectives and women's voices in key meetings and processes relevant to issues of agriculture, rural development, food security and climate change.
Since the NORAD funding arrangement was only finalized in July 2009, WOCAN was not able to participate and to use the funds for CSD 17th Session (New York, May 2009) and for the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources (ITPRG) (Rome, July 2009), as originally planned. As such, WOCAN's request to NORAD was approved in July 2009 to support funding for participation of at least three rural women leaders from developing countries (Africa, Asia and Latin America) to participate in the subsequent international meetings where WOCAN is already actively participating and has been invited to actively participate. WOCAN was therefore able to actively participate in and lead delegations to the following three major UN processes: the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), the World Summit on Food Security and the UN Framework on Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC). This report provides a description of WOCAN's participation in these three major global policy fora, and the outcomes achieved.
Conclusion
It is well founded that women in the agriculture and natural resource management sector - particularly women farmers and rural women leaders - are much under-represented in global and regional policy making processes. WOCAN's approach in bringing women farmers and rural women leaders in UN processes and partnering them with professional women who have technical expertise, together with a coordination support from WOCAN's team of global advocacy experts and linking them with key international women's organizations has proven to have been an effective approach. This approach not only provides a good partnership model but also builds a tremendous capacity for mirroring the global advocacy experience at the regional and country-levels. The need for women to speak with one voice and with common key messages has shown to have positive outcomes during the CSD 16 & 17 when WOCAN coordinated the women major group processes and again during the FAO-related processes (CFS and the World Summit on Food Security).
