Inter-American Commission of Women and IICA to carry out joint actions to boost the empowerment, inclusion, and well-being of rural women in the hemisphere

Primera — Cindy Quesada, Minister for Women’s Affairs of Costa Rica, Jhenifer Mojica, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Colombia, Alejandra Mora Mora, Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM/OAS) and Manuel Otero, Director General of IICA.

San José, August 23 , 2023 (IICA). The Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM), part of the Organization of American States (OAS), and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) have signed a technical cooperation agreement to promote women’s rights and gender equality in agriculture in the Americas.

The purpose of the partnership is to support rural women by providing them with training in areas such as empowerment and leadership, financial management and the economics of their businesses, as well as new technologies applied to agriculture.

The activities planned also include efforts to promote rural women’s access to spaces for the sharing of experiences, with a view to improving their businesses and undertakings, strengthening gender equality in spaces of that kind, and making them more competitive in a demanding, changing marketplace.

The agreement was signed during the IV Forum of Female Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Senior Officials of the Americas, which took place at IICA headquarters in San José, Costa Rica.

“What better than this space provided by IICA, whose clearly defined purpose is to continue shining the spotlight on issues related to rural women in agriculture, making this a virtuous win-win partnership,” commented CIM Executive Secretary Alejandra Mora.

Mora also stressed the importance of understanding what the differentiated impacts on rural women are, raising awareness of affirmative actions such as mechanisms for balancing gender differences, and continuing to promote the idea of women occupying decision-making positions, “in light of a wonderful concept called parity.”

“Everyone at this forum has stressed the importance of men and women sharing care responsibilities on equal terms and, once again, of reinforcing the need to work in a coordinated manner to bring about more telling, concrete changes in society,” observed IICA Director General Manuel Otero.

Another area of work proposed in the CIM-IICA agreement is the implementation of regional-level actions with a rights, gender and crosscutting approach designed to promote equality in the agriculture sector of the Americas, so as to contribute to the inclusion, leadership, empowerment and well-being of rural women in the hemisphere.

Segunda — *The partnership will support rural women by providing training in empowerment, leadership, finance, and technologies applied to agriculture.*

The two organizations also aim to promote the leadership and participation of rural women in decision-making processes, and the inclusion of their perspectives, skills, and know-how in the formulation of policies, projects, and technical cooperation actions in the Americas.

The forum of ministers from the agriculture sector was held at IICA headquarters with the participation of the ministers of agriculture of Peru, Colombia and Honduras (Nelly Paredes del Castillo, Jennifer Mojica and Laura Suazo, respectively); deputy ministers and senior officials from Canada, the United States, Brazil and St. Vincent and the Grenadines; and international cooperation and funding agencies.

More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int