Chair, the United Nations, reports that the number of women living in poverty continues to increase disproportionately to the number of men, particularly in developing countries, South Africa being one. Poverty is particularly acute for women living in rural households. Women's poverty is directly related to the absence of economic opportunities, lack of access to economic resources, credit, land ownership and inheritance, limited access to education and minimal participation in decision-making processes. More often, poverty forces women into situations in which they are vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Women contribute to the economy and to combating poverty through both remunerated and unremunerated work at home, in the community and in the workplace.
The economic empowerment of women is therefore of critical importance to the eradication of poverty. Women are mothers, givers and nurturers of life. We are born of women and we all carry a responsibility to change the status quo of women as it relates to poverty. The feminising of poverty is unacceptable. We must all condemn in the strongest terms that in the world women produce about 80% of food yet own 1% of land.
When the majority of people living in poverty are women, it means the majority of our children live in poverty, and that is a sad state of affairs. We who are gathered here are the voice of those voiceless women. As much as we must magnify the issues of rural poverty and more, we must be mindful of our responsibilities and suggest ways in which problems can be addressed.
Among other things, we must restructure and target the allocation of public expenditure to promote women's economic opportunity and equal access to productive resources. We must address the basic social, educational and health needs of women, particularly those who live in rural areas. We must continue to formulate and implement specific economic, social, agricultural and related policies in support of rural female-headed households. We must at all times strive to be empathetic to women's poverty and make an effort to affirm women in their daily struggles. Each one of us here can make a difference. [Applause.]