U.N. SG says eliminating discrimination, providing nutrition, health care will help women care for families

"Highlighting the role in women in producing much of the world's food and caring for the environment, [U.N.] Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in his message marking the International Day of Rural Women, [Monday] said that eliminating discrimination that prevents rural women from realizing their full potential is crucial to ending global hunger and poverty," the U.N. News Centre reports (10/15). "In his message, Ban said rural women typically live without the guarantee of basic nutrition, health services, and necessities such as clean water and sanitation," UPI writes. "When food and nutrition security are improved, rural women have more opportunities to find decent work and provide for the education and health of their children," Ban said, according to UPI (10/15). VOA News reports on an initiative launched recently by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Food Programme (WFP), and U.N. Women, which aims "to speed economic empowerment and gender equality of rural women," according to the news service (DeCapua, 10/15).