Topic: 2024-Gender Equality in Rural Areas
Country: Bangladesh
Delegate Name: Annika Barnas
Country: Bangladesh
Committee: United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC); UN Women
Topic: Gender Equality in Rural Areas
Delegate: Annika Barnas
School: Mattawan High School
The topic of gender equality in rural areas is a reference to the concept of both men and women who live in rural communities having equal opportunities in all aspects. These aspects include education, resources, decision-making power, healthcare, employment, land-ownership, and more. The issue is that in these rural areas, as a result of entrenched societal norms and limited access to the necessary services, rural women often face lower literacy rates, limited economic autonomy, disproportionate amounts of domestic labor, all of which impact their ability to fully participate as a member of society. Key topics within this issue include rural women having significantly less access to land ownership, credit, and agricultural opportunities, all of which hinder their participation in economic activity. Additionally, girls in rural areas are less likely to complete their schooling as compared to boys; this is due to cultural expectations and social norms. Rural women also bear the burden of domestic labor which significantly limits their time for leisure, education, employment, and personal development; this is in addition to their exclusion from domestic and community decision making. Rural women are also extremely impacted by climate change as they depend on agriculture and have limited access to adaptation strategies.
The United Nations has previously implemented various initiatives to empower rural women, such as supporting rural female leadership and women’s participation in law and policy development. They have also focused on improving the status of rural women through the Millennium Development Goals, by observing the International Day of Rural Women, working to improve access to education for rural women, and supporting economic empowerment of these women. The United Nations has also adopted several resolutions to improve the conditions of women in rural areas. A/RES/64/140 was passed in 2009 and aimed to address and improve the conditions of rural women. A/RES/62/136 passed in 2007 and also focused on improving the situation of women in rural areas. A/RES/78/150 was passed in 2023 and worked to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls in rural areas to work for sustainable development; it also reaffirmed the importance of eliminating discrimination against women and girls, and ensuring their access to education, justice, and accountability. Finally, S/RES/2467 was passed in 2019 and emphasized a survivor-centered approach to addressing sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations, directly improving conditions for rural women.
Bangladesh has been affected by the issue of gender equality in rural areas, as gender norms are very patriarchal and the number of men in formal employment and education continues to outnumber that of young women. There remains a large financial gap between men and women; there are also other forms of inequality- child marriages and gender based violence- that continue to persist.
In Bangladesh, progress towards gender equality in rural has resulted in positive impacts such as, increased female enrollment in schools (resulting in higher literacy rates), better health and economic opportunities for families, reduced maternal mortality rates, more women participating in the workforce, increased household income and financial independence, increased decision-making power of women, reduction of poverty, etc. However, challenges such as early marriage, gender stereotypes, limited access to finance, and gender-based violence, continue to restrict improvements. Overall, Bangladesh supports the improvement of the conditions of rural women.
Some proposed solutions to this issue include, expanding access to schools by building more education institutions so that more women have access to them, providing financial literacy education and market access to women (particularly women in agriculture) so that they better understand the finances and can have more financial independence, increasing employment opportunities for women so that they can participate in the workforce, promoting land-ownership rights for women, ensuring access to technology and agricultural training that is specifically tailored to the needs of rural women, working to eliminate gender-based violence and child marriage, and challenging gender stereotypes and patriarchal social norms. All of these solutions would allow for an increase in equal opportunities for women in rural areas.
Citations:
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2011/09/22/getting-to-equal-how-educating-every-girl-can-help-break-the-cycle-of-poverty#:~:text=Educating%20girls%20is%20one%20of%20the%20strongest,making%20sure%20education%20counts%20and%20that%20it
https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/317db554-c763-4654-a0d3-24a8488bbc3a/content/status-women-agrifood-systems-2023/transforming-agrifood-gender-equality.html#:~:text=Targeting%20both%20spouses%20with%20extension%20services%20is,co%2Dheads%20in%20an%20agricultural%20extension%20training%20for
https://www.usaid.gov/bangladesh/gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8293807/
https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/un-documents/document/s-res-2467.php#:~:text=Overview%20of%20Security%20Council%20Resolutions,abstentions%20(China%20and%20Russia).
https://www.un.org/en/ga/78/resolutions.shtml
https://www.un.org/en/ga/62/resolutions.shtml
https://research.un.org/en/docs/ga/quick/regular/64
