Resources on Rural economy

  1. Publication

    Skills development, employment services and local economic recovery for the construction sector (Final Evaluation Evaluation Summary)

    16 March 2011

    Project LEB/07/03/ITA - Evaluation consultant: Wolfgang Schwegler-Rohmeis and Khalil Asmar

  2. Publication

    Breaking the rural poverty cycle: Getting girls and boys out of work and into school

    28 January 2011

    Instead of attending school, millions of girls and boys in rural areas worldwide are child labourers. They are everywhere, but often hidden, on farms, on fishing boats, in plantations, in mountain areas, herding livestock or toiling as domestic servants. Child labour perpetuates a cycle of poverty for the children involved, their families and communities. Without education, these rural boys and girls are likely to be the poor of tomorrow. Policies must address the root causes of child labour and promote decent work for adults in rural areas.

  3. Publication

    Making migration work for women and men in rural labour markets

    28 January 2011

    Many poor rural households see migration to urban or other rural areas, or abroad, as a strategy to escape poverty or improve the quality of their lives. Migration patterns vary by continent and even countries within continents, and change over time. One of the most significant changes in the last half century is the increasing proportion of women migrating: today, they constitute half of the international migrant population, often migrating independently as the main economic providers for their families. Driven by economic, social and political forces as well as new challenges (such as environmental degradation, natural disasters or climate change impacts), migration can bring, both benefits and costs to the migrants themselves, their families, and their communities of origin and destination, depending on the migrants’ profile and gender, and on labour market specificities.

  4. Publication

    Women in infrastructure works: Boosting gender equality and rural development!

    28 January 2011

    Gender is an important but largely neglected aspect of infrastructure planning and provision. Rural women pay a particularly high price for the lack of infrastructure, in time spent accessing water for domestic or agricultural uses, processing and marketing food and other agricultural or non-farm products, collecting firewood and reaching health services for themselves and their families. This ‘time poverty’ limits their ability to develop or access complementary sources of income. Rural infrastructure programmes can enhance women’s participation and benefits – as workers during construction and as beneficiaries of the asset(s) created.

  5. Publication

    Agricultural value chain development: Threat or opportunity for women’s employment?

    28 January 2011

    Agricultural markets are rapidly globalizing, generating new consumption patterns and new production and distribution systems. Value chains, often controlled by multinational or national firms and supermarkets, are capturing a growing share of the agri-food systems in developing regions. They can provide opportunities for quality employment for men and women, yet they can also be channels to transfer costs and risks to the weakest nodes, particularly women. They often perpetuate gender stereotypes that keep women in lower paid, casual work and do not necessarily lead to greater gender equality.

  6. Publication

    Rural women’s entrepreneurship is “good business”!

    28 January 2011

    Rural women increasingly run their own enterprises, yet their socio-economic contributions and entrepreneurial potential remain largely unrecognized and untapped. They are concentrated in informal, micro-size, low productivity and low-return activities. Enabling and gender responsive policies, services and business environments are crucial to stimulate the start up and upgrading of women’s businesses and thereby help generate decent and productive work, achieve gender equality, reduce poverty and ensure stronger economies and societies.

  7. Publication

    Investing in skills for socio-economic empowerment of rural women

    28 January 2011

    Skills development is key to improving rural productivity, employability and income-earning opportunities, enhancing food security and promoting environmentally sustainable rural development and livelihoods. Despite rural women’s major role in agriculture and other rural activities, higher barriers in education and training limit their participation in more productive and remunerative work, perform managerial and leadership roles and participate fully in the development of their communities. Targeted action is needed to dismantle these barriers.

  8. Publication

    Gender-equitable rural work to reduce poverty and boost economic growth

    28 January 2011

    Decent work is central to reducing poverty and achieving equitable, inclusive and sustainable development. Unleashing rural women’s socio-economic potential and fighting rural poverty involves tackling a number of decent work gaps: low productivity and low income jobs, lack of social protection, lack of basic work rights, and insufficient voice and representation.

  9. Publication

    Gender dimensions of agricultural and rural employment: Differentiated pathways out of poverty

    21 January 2011

    This interagency report on the gender dimension of agricultural work was produced by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Labour Office (ILO) following two years of work begun in 2009. It is the first comprehensive look at gender and work in rural areas since the start of the global economic crisis.

  10. I-News

    New UN report says rural women face increasing inequality: Calls for policies enabling women to drive rural economic growth and poverty reduction

    21 January 2011

    A new United Nations interagency report on the gender dimension of agricultural work says women still benefit less than men from rural employment and face new challenges due to the current economic and food crises.