Cape Town - Women leaders from around the world took centre stage at the United Nations General Assembly in New York calling for the investment in women’s equal access to land, to mark the recent annual Desertification and Drought Day.
The event was jointly organised by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), UN-Women, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, UN Human Rights and the UN Development Programme.
Less than a third of all UN member states have ever had a female head of state or government. Several of them participated in the high-level event in New York in person or virtually.
UN deputy secretary-general Amina Mohammed said women must be recognised and valued as owners and managers of lands and resources.
“Women make up the majority of rural farmers, but less than 15% of agricultural landholders are women, and their right to inherit property continues to be denied under customary and traditional laws in over 100 countries,” she said.
Sonia Guajajara, Brazil’s first-ever Minister of Indigenous Peoples, delivered an impassioned plea in support of indigenous women leaders in her country.
UNCCD Goodwill Ambassador, Malian artist and singer Inna Modja, was joined onstage by her daughter, Valentina Conti, aged 3, to read out a powerful call to action, urging world leaders to remove the legal barriers that prevent women owning and inheriting land.
Speaking about the generations of farmers in his family, Csaba Kőrösi, president of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, said: “The data could not be clearer. When women farmers have access to own land, they grow more and so do their children and nations. Together, these positive shifts in women’s empowerment have a ripple effect on income, and children’s welfare.”
For many people around the world, land represents power and identity, added UN-Women executive director, Sima Sami Bahous.
“Women’s control over land is therefore fundamental to the achievement of gender equality and also the economic independence of women … We must break down barriers to women’s rights to land.”
Cape Times