Session 3: Productive Organization and Associativity: Collective action and economic autonomy of rural women

Background

The FAO Regional Technical Platform for Family Farming continues its 4th edition of the Cycle of Technical Exchanges. Following three previous editions dedicated to family farming registries (2023), public procurement (2024), and rural youth (2026), this 4th edition focuses on rural women and their fundamental role in agrifood systems.

The declaration of 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer by the United Nations, together with the ongoing United Nations Decade of Family Farming, provides a timely opportunity to explore the structural challenges faced by women who live and work in rural areas.

Previous sessions, organized jointly with the Specialized Meeting on Family Farming of MERCOSUR (REAF/MERCOSUR) and UN Women, addressed access to financing tailored to local needs and territorial contexts, as well as women’s access to natural resources and land.

This 3rd session will examine the barriers and opportunities related to productive organization and association of rural women, identifying experiences and models of collective action that have proven to be effective, sustainable, and inclusive.

This issue is particularly important given that collective organization among rural women is an essential means of strengthening their bargaining power, accessing markets, adopting technologies, reducing transaction costs, and, fundamentally, influencing decisions that affect their livelihoods.

Objective

• Analyze how material, political, labor, and gender-related conditions shape the ways rural women organize themselves for productive purposes.
• Identify the factors that facilitate or hinder women’s access to leadership positions within organizations and their influence on decision-making processes.
• Explore experiences of productive organization, including women’s cooperatives with different approaches, women farmers’ networks, direct sales initiatives, community-based agroecological systems, and solidarity-based and inclusive economy initiatives.

Identify good practices that contribute to the economic autonomy and organizational leadership of rural women.

Target audience

The 4th cycle of technical exchanges provides a horizontal space that encourages the participation of technicians, specialists, government representatives, and especially organized rural women from different countries across the region.

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