This year is the International Day of Rural Women under the theme “Rural women grow quality food for all people”, which in 2021 focuses on highlighting the fundamental role that rural women and girls play in food systems around the world.

This year the International Day of Rural Women under the theme “Rural women grow quality food for all people“, which in 2021 focuses on highlighting the fundamental role that rural women and girls play in food systems around the world. This international day, established by the UN General Assembly in 2007, recognizes “the decisive role and contribution of women to the rural women, including indigenous women, in promoting agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty.”

The United Nations organization, UN Women, considers that women and girls in rural areas play an essential role in food systems; from production to processing, preparation and distribution of food, as well as in ensuring the nutrition of households and communities. 

UN Women states that despite the planet’s ability to provide food in sufficient quantities and of good quality to all humanity, hunger, malnutrition and food security are increasing in many parts of the world. The health crisis generated by COVID-19, together with the climate and environmental crisis, has aggravated the situation at a global level: approximately 2,370 million people did not have access to adequate food in 2020, which represents an increase of almost 20%, that is, 320 million more people in just one year. A reality that disproportionately affects women and girls in rural areas due to food insecurity.

At the national level and taking into account this context, the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge supports different projects that aim to highlight the role of rural women for their contribution to green and blue employment and as active social agents in the generation of wealth and the conservation and protection of biodiversity. In addition, we provide support to improve their skills and promote green business entrepreneurship in rural areas.

Along these lines, within the framework of the Pleamar Programme, the REDMAR project has been developed, executed by FUNDAMAR, with the aim of promoting the employability of women, strengthening a network for the exchange of experiences of entities linked to the fishing sector and providing maritime-fishing training centres with sufficient tools to educate from a gender perspective to promote equal opportunities between women and men, as well as the implementation of the first employment platform for women graduates in fishing, ship-owning companies and other entities in the sector.

For its part, the DEPOMAR project developed by the Provincial Council of Pontevedra works on different actions with the aim of making visible the trade of the shellfish gatherer as a key generator of wealth, to promote the empowerment and leadership of women in the shellfish tradition, and to highlight their important role in the protection and conservation of natural resources and ecosystems in Natura 2000 Network environments and coastal habitats of shellfish interest.

Within the framework of the Empleaverde Programme, the University of Salamanca is developing a project aimed at training rural women in the identification and assessment of the environmental, social and economic contributions associated with the different activities linked to the territory in order to value the environments affected by depopulation.

Finally, and also focused on rural environments, the E-Rur@l project works on the creation of green companies and on improving the skills of entrepreneurs in rural areas of Castilla-La Mancha and Murcia, with women being one of the priority groups to which this initiative is directed .