Recalling its resolution 34/14 of 9 November 1979, in which it endorsed the Declaration of Principles and the Programme of Action as adopted by the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, and its resolutions 44/78 of 8 December 1989 and 48/109 of 20 December 1993,

Recalling also the importance attached to the problems of rural women by the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women and by the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women on 15 September 1995,

Recalling further its resolution 47/174 of 22 December 1992, in which it welcomed the adoption of the Geneva Declaration for Rural Women by the Summit on the Economic Advancement of Rural Women, held at Geneva in February 1992, and urged all States to work for the achievement of the goals endorsed in the Declaration,

Welcoming the growing awareness of Governments of the need for strategies and programmes to improve the situation of women in rural areas,

Noting with deep concern that the economic and financial crises in many developing countries have severely affected the socio-economic status of women, especially in rural areas, and the continuing rise in the number of rural women living in poverty,

Recognizing the urgent need to take appropriate measures aimed at further improving the situation of women in rural areas,

1.Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General;

2.Invites Member States, in their efforts to implement the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the World Conference on Human Rights, the International Conference on Population and Development, the World Summit for Social Development and the Fourth World Conference on Women, bearing in mind also the Geneva Declaration for Rural Women, to attach greater importance to the improvement of the situation of rural women in their national development strategies, paying special attention to both their practical and their strategic needs, by, inter alia:

1. Integrating the concerns of rural women into national development policies and programmes, in particular by placing a higher priority on budgetary allocation related to the interests of rural women;

2. Strengthening national machineries and establishing institutional linkages among governmental bodies in various sectors and non-governmental organizations that are concerned with rural development;

3. Increasing the participation of rural women in the decision-making process;

4. Undertaking necessary measures to give rural women full and equal access to productive resources, including the right to inheritance and to ownership of land and other property, credit/capital, natural resources, appropriate technologies, markets and information, and meeting their basic requirements in water and sanitation;

5. Investing in the human resources of rural women, particularly through health and literacy programmes and social support measures;

3.Requests the international community and relevant United Nations organizations and bodies to promote the realization of the programmes and projects aimed at the improvement of the situation of rural women within the overall framework of integrated follow-up to recent global conferences;

4.Invites the World Food Summit to be convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1996 to give due consideration to the issue of improving the situation of rural women, taking into account their role in food production and food security, and the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) to give due consideration to the gender aspects of rural-urban migration and its impact on the situation of rural women, in formulating relevant strategies and actions;

5.Requests the Secretary-General to prepare, in consultation with Member States and relevant United Nations organizations, a report on the implementation of the present resolution and to submit it, through the Economic and Social Council, to the General Assembly at its fifty-second session, taking into account possible measures to improve the reporting procedure.

99th plenary meeting
22 December 1995