Presentación del Subsecretario Carlos Chango-Ecuador en el 50° Comité de Seguridad Alimentaria-CFS

Now we have the fortune of having representatives from the two specific countries of this joint program who will provide us with the country-level perspective and give us Examples regarding these transformative gender approaches and the methods as they have been used First I would like to give the word to Mr Carlos Chango Undersecretary of Agriculture From the Secretariat of the Ministry of Agriculture of Ecuador Many many thanks for being here with us at this event so late from Quito Carlos you have the first one question As we have heard when gender discriminatory rules are Essentials for transformative changes in the lives of women and men Can you Why is it essential to manage these unequal standards in terms of food security and gender equality in Ecuador Thank you very much Liz good morning good afternoon good evening to your excellencies Guests distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen colleagues friends First of all I will briefly talk about my country and then about family agriculture After hearing your questions Ecuador is probably the second The smallest country 55% of the population are women Another aspect of Ecuador is tha We are multicultural probably the smallest country or the second smallest country And 14 nationalities There are many mestizos here montuvios Afro-Ecuadorians and white people So all of this is important because we need to apply this intersectional approach to our work And where we can obtain and analyze the information not only regarding gender and age group but also in terms of ethnicity In Ecuador unfortunately 15.4% of the total population is undernourished and 13% face food insecurity a severe manner Then we have these essential documents regarding family farming and we need to reduce this insecurity and malnutrition Family farming generates More than 70% of rural jobs and produces approximately 60% of the food Consumed in my country of course along with generating environmental and cultural impacts And rural women like my mother Manuela are the ones responsible for agriculture Familiar and agricultural They play a fundamental role in ensuring food security improving livelihoods and responsible management of natural resources Without them It would not be possible to sustain the economy or contribute to food security and food sovereignty in Ecuador However as we have already said One of the major issues regarding family farming is gender inequality Despite the fact that 61% of rural women are involved in agricultural activities in Ecuador Therefore the key contributions are not appropriate Only 38% of the Women are active economically and formally compared to 71% of men As you can see in the slides they do not have the necessary conditions or resources To improve their productivity In addition they practically carry out all of them ousehold and caregiving responsibilities and as a result their workload is high Therefore their opportunities to be capable and entrepreneurial are limited They will see that since 2016-2017 there has been a big difference between men and women Gender inequality is even more evident As you can see we are talking about from the 13th to the 26% of wages are lower compared to men Women in rural areas They work an average of 23 more hours per week than men and 6 out of 10 rural women have experienced some form of gender-based violence in Ecuador Therefore the Ministry of the Agriculture acknowledges this inequality and wishes to overcome these barriers Therefore we believe We have a great opportunity to solve this type of problem Therefore regarding the National and Agricultural Strategy for Women the Government of Ecuador recognizes These inequalities that are the result of these discriminatory structures against the Women whose situations continue due to social norms They have determined that the actions will continue These are unfortunately Therefore it is within this context that the FAO IFAD and WFP operate Together regarding the program related to transformative approaches they must wor jointly with the Ministry of Agriculture to be able to translate these political wishes into actio Ecuador's government is moving towards transformative changes aimed at gender equality well-being of all rural women and girls as well as for men and the Children And here I stop and return to you Thank you very much Carlos Therefore here we see the challenges and see how important it is to manage these negative rules And we know it is extremely important It is difficult to carry out this work Can you tell us how the Ministry of Agriculture and Cattle ranching is taking steps to manage these negative regulations in Ecuador under this Joint program Yes of course With the joint program first and foremost this program contributes on the launch of the National Agricultural Strategy for Rural Women and the National Rural Women's Committee together with the National Government and at the same time supports The development strategies for the decentralized autonomous government and other involved parties Through synergies and to complement the whole with innovative methodologies and tools owards the goals of the joint GTA program in Ecuador which aligns with the priorities National and contributes to the reduction of barriers and gaps in agriculture familiar Therefore the change approach the transformative approaches aims to provide access To services for women and of course decision-making at all levels What is important to emphasize is that the activities of these joint programs are being implemented at multiple levels at the policy level at the level of the organizations From the producers communities and households and families and this manages the balance ecessary to create and enable an environment where women and me They can make decisions improve their livelihood and well-being Therefore we need to change Personal expectations and behaviors as well as the way they are represented and implemented in society at the micro and macro levels To start with we have been conducting diagnostics of these standards under the joint program in order to better identify and understand the prevailing standards They prevent gender equality Therefore the results of these studies will also help us design future programs and strategies At the political level in alignment with the National Agricultural Strategy for Women at the level of Rural the joint program and the ministry are working together to meet national objectives and include gender statistics in the public information systems that will allow us to highlight and value the contribution of women to the development of this sector Therefore our goal is to be able to Include gender norms and indicators in this system as well At the community level one of the implemented methodologies is the Dimitra Clubs They are groups formal gatherings of rural women and men who voluntarily come together to discuss and seek solutions to community problems relying on their own rural capabilities and results These clubs are open spaces They facilitate collective actions for To manage and challenge commonly adopted assumptions that perpetuate inequality Therefore at the organizational level some of the methodologies applied involve closing gap And these methodologies are based on a set of tools designed to jointly obtain information by the councils and members at an equal level gender achievements made by these organizations and also talking about the reasons why These actions have not been achieved in order to reduce existing gaps in these organizations And finally we are talking about changes in behavior and at the social level at the community level They apply at the local level to implement the methodologies of the Agricultural Secretariat To have an impact at the household level at the community level in order to be able to transfer the Knowledge And these transfers will also help overcome social barriers and structural factors and positively influence the attitudes of women and men As for their behaviors These methodologies are being implemented in four provinces In my country in Manabí in the coastal area Tawayas is also in the coastal area Imbabura In the Andean region and in the Santiago area in the Amazonian zone in my region achieving arrival A great many families including those involving the Ministry of Agriculture We know they are few personas but we are proud of having started This also includes the Ministry Social and Social Inclusion It's say the one that supports local-level support Therefore We feel confident that this collaboration with the joint program will make a contribution It is important to achieve these national strategies and we believe we are reaching a historical milestone that is simply the beginning of the hard work needed to achieve the conditions Equal to our countries So I would like to repeat what I just said conditions equal opportunities for women and men in our country We are proud of having taken the First steps with your support and experience Many many thanks to all of you