Challenges and opportunities for mothers in rural areas

26.01.18

UN New York / 62nd Commission on the Status of Women - Supporting mothers living in rural areas offers the potential for important changes in the context of the 2030 Development Agenda.

Rural women are key actors in agriculture, food security, and more generally sustainable development. Their contributions are however too often unpaid and invisible since they work in family farms or carry out subsistence farming to feed their families – And this work is in addition to domestic duties, and to their work of care and education within the family.

Women living in rural areas face many challenges, especially when they are mothers

These challenges are first linked to the lack of public infrastructure and services like water and sanitation, electricity/energy, transportation, healthcare, etc.. In addition rural women face discriminations linked to access to resources like land, loans and other financial services, modern tools, etc. These challenges, which are also made worse by global economic and food crisis, and by climate change, make mothers and their children particularly vulnerable to poverty.

MMM’s written statement draws attention to all these challenges that mothers face in rural areas, but also to the opportunities: supporting mothers in rural areas offers the possibility for enormous change, specifically in the context of the 2030 Development Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.


The 62nd UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62) will be held from 12 to 23 March 2018 at UN headquarters in New York. Its main theme: Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls.

The statement was supported by seven others NGOs:

MMM statement submitted in October 2017

MMM statement as published by the UN – Ref. E/CN.6/2018/NGO/147

 

Most read articles

Leave no single mother Behind: solutions from across the world

05.02.23

UN New York, CSocD61 - The virtual event we are organizing as part of the 2023 UN Commission on Social Development will draw attention to the specificity of the situation

Lire plus

Women at the peace table: international Conference

14.04.23

Make Mothers Matter, together with the city of Ypres, and its grass roots partners Mothers for Peace, Mama Kivu and the Vrouwenraad, is organizing an international peace Conference Women at

Lire plus

Single Mothers within the European Union

14.12.22

Despite the growing number of families headed by a single parent, single parents remain one of the most vulnerable groups when it comes to poverty, housing and energy deficits, and

Lire plus
See all the articlesof the category

Latest News from MMM and its Network

A Green Deal must include a Care Deal – maternal mental health under the spotlight at EU Parliament

23.11.23

On November 7th, we co-hosted an event at the EU Parliament on peripartum depression with MEP Maria Noichl.

Read more

Breaking the Silence on Maternal Mental Health

13.11.23

Make Mothers Matter launched a new video series on Maternal Mental Health, addressing mothers, their families and society in general. Our aim is to highlight the latest research surrounding maternal health in o

Read more

Our members highlight why and how young mothers must be counted

24.10.23

A look back at our LP4Y event in New York

Read more

Join us in New York to find out why young mothers must be counted

12.10.23

As part of the LP4Y Youth Inclusion International Forum, which will take place on 18-19 October 2023 in New York/Brooklyn, Make Mothers Matter is organizing a session entitled Make Young Mothers Count, whose ma

Read more

MMM welcomes first ever Human Rights Council resolution on Care

11.10.23

UN Geneva, Human Rights Council - Entitled ‘Centrality of care and support from a human rights perspective’, this landmark resolution was presented by the governments of Argentina, Iceland, Mexico and Spain

Read more

Call to action: make 2024 the EU year for Women’s Mental Health

09.10.23

In June this year, the European Union (EU) Commission announced a new high-priority initiative to address the mental health of all Europeans.

Read more