Rural Women — Show Notes — DOING GOOD PODCAST

So, unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s hard not to miss all the events, news, and general PR buzz about International Women’s Day that was recognised this month. Countries celebrate it in different ways. This year you would have heard about the Day Without Women in the US and many other western countries around the world such as Australia. It is an official holiday in a number of places including: Afghanistan, Armenia, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cuba, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Laos, Mongolia, Montenegro, Russia, Uganda, Vietnam. Zambia and in China & Nepal for women only. Many brands such as Nike and P&G launch powerful ad campaigns, while companies around the world ranging from huge multinationals host an array of events, women’s breakfasts and conferences in recognition of the day.

If we move past all the marketing spin, is International Women’s Day still even important? Why do we still celebrate it? Is there an international men’s day? And, looking in to the future, what are the 6 things that we should be focussing on when it comes to gender equality.

This is a very special episode in partnership with CGIAR and CGIAR Gender and Agriculture Research Network to recognise, International Day of Rural Women (15th October), World Food Day (16th October) and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (17th October). CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science is dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources and ecosystem services. Its research is carried out by 15 CGIAR Centers in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations and the private sector. Now the participation and inclusion of rural women is so important to meet the growing need for food and eradicate poverty. Women are central to many development projects around the world. In this episode, I interview Maria Alejandra Garcia who is an Assistant Researcher at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia. She works on projects related to rice production in Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia, which is culturally seen as "male crop" in the region. As such, the work that women do in rice production is often not recognized and therefore not supported. Maria Alejandra’s work is to understand how gender plays a role in agriculture and what can be done support rural women in having access to the same resources and opportunities as men. This episode brings to light the importance of good research, how it affects development programs, government policies and business decisions, and what happens when women are left out.