U.N. News Centre: Rural women’s empowerment critical to U.N. Sustainable Development Agenda — Ban
“Marking the International Day of Rural Women, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that rural women are critical to the success of almost all of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as they all ‘have gender equality and women’s empowerment at their core.’ Rural women make up 25 percent of the world’s population and in developing countries they make up 43 percent of the agricultural labor force that produces much of the world’s food…” (10/15).