VOA标准英语2012--US Aims to Empower World's Women Farmers

US Aims to Empower World's Women Farmers

Women face a number of obstacles that men do not. They tend to own less land and have fewer rights to that land. They have less access to credit and training. And they have less input¹ in decision-making.
With world population expected to grow by another two billion in the next four decades, maximizing food production is a key goal for everyone in the agricultural sector².
Women are key
Aid agencies including the U.S. Agency for International Development see women's empowerment as key to meeting that goal.
“Without addressing women, we cannot effectively and sustainably address global poverty and hunger,” says USAID Coordinator³ Tjada McKenna
To help evaluate their efforts to fight poverty and hunger, USAID called on experts at Oxford⁴ University and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to identify ways to measure women’s empowerment in agriculture.
The researchers looked at five areas: control over production, resources, and income; leadership in the community; and use of time. They compared the roles of women and men in the same household in these areas. And they did pilot studies in three very different countries: Guatemala, Bangladesh and Uganda.
Different in different countries
“What is actually quite interesting is that the areas of empowerment and disempowerment are quite different across the three countries,” says IFPRI Senior Research Fellow Agnes Quisumbing.
For example, in Bangladesh, researchers found the most significant factor for women was the lack of authority over resources such as land and livestock⁵. In Guatemala, it was the lack of leadership in the community that was the biggest problem; while in Uganda, it was time burdens that proved the biggest barrier for women.
The research turned up a few surprises.
“Often, we assume that empowered women are wealthy and educated and vice⁶ versa. But we found a more complex story,” says Sabina Alkire, director of Oxford's Poverty and Human Development Initiative.
Alkire says in Guatemala, for example, three-quarters of the women in the highest wealth category were disempowered.
On the other hand, she adds, “In Bangladesh, completing primary school hardly made any difference to empowerment in comparison with women who had not been to school.”
Signal to policy-makers
One of the most powerful aspects of this new approach is its ability to identify in which areas women are most disadvantaged, says Agnes Quisumbing.
“And so it’s a very clear signal to policy [makers] that this is the area where they have to go in and where you might have the greatest return on your investment.”
USAID’s Tjeda McKenna says the agency will base its funding and programming efforts on seeing improvements in these areas.
“It very much is meant to be a practical tool for us to guide our implementation,” she says.
And the experts say it will be useful as well for others working to improve women’s involvement in agricultural development.

1 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

2 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

3 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

4 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

5 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

6 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。