the notion that rural women should stick to the home and are politically inept is an inaccurate assessment the mobilisation of women throughout the global arena is crucial for meaningful change and the centred struggle for equality peace and development however seventy percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas and seventy percent of the world’s poor are women no segment of rural society experiences the burden of rural poverty and hunger like rural women do if we are serious about achieving sustainable development peace security and full respect for human rights the empowerment of women