CHAPTER 1: RURAL WOMEN AND ISSUES ON BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS RURAL WOMEN IN THE PHILIPPINES \ “Out of 10.4 million workers employed in agricultural, hunting and forestry sector in 2004, 27.3% were women” (Santiago, 2008). Based on this statistics, it can be derived that at least 2.8 million rural women workers are at risk of being affected by development aggression. This figure still does not include rural women whose participation as unpaid family workers make them invisible in the labour force. According to the National Statistics Office, females constitute 54.5% of unpaid family workers as compared to 45.5% for males (NSO 2006). A study by the Philippine Peasant Institute in 2002 showed that rural women are engaged in almost all areas of rice production, namely: planting, weeding, input and fertilizer application, drying and sacking. Aside from this, women are tasked to prepare and bring food to the field during meal times. The study also revealed that “ninety four percent (94%) of the women have borrowed money from informal moneylenders, small convenience stores, cooperatives, relatives and other sources to finance rice farming and augment household expenses” (Santiago, 2008). In the fisheries sector, while catching fish is mostly done by men, rural women are engaged in 50-70% of local fish processing and marketing activities. The women also mend the nets used by men for fishing (Santiago, 2008). In the dairy sector, women’s involvement is in sanitizing milk equipment and facilities, cleaning cattle barns and grazing areas and conversion of raw milk to milk products (FAO Fact Sheet Philippines, Women in Agriculture, Environment and Rural Production). These are just some of the many contributions of rural women in the Philippines. Globally and in various UN Conferences, the role of rural women in agriculture, rural development, food and nutrition, and poverty reduction have been recognized (CEDAW/C/GC/34). While rural women have been contributing significantly to the world food production, women worldwide account for 70% of the world’s hungry (Nuila and Claeys, 2016; Pruitt, 2011). They suffer much discrimination and challenges in various areas, including economic participation, access to resources and services, labor exploitation and participation in political and public life (CEDAW/C/GC/34). Globalization and development aggression have indeed aggravated the suffering of rural women including the decline in small-scale and subsistence farming because of trade liberalization (Butale, 2015) that resulted in multiple issues. These issues are discussed in the next part of this report. ISSUES ON BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS FROM THE STAKEHOLDERS’ PERSPECTIVE On February 20 to 21, 2018, a workshop-forum for rural women was held at the Commission of Human Rights office in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines. Day 1 focused on rural women’s issues on the subject of Business and Human Rights. Attended by women leaders from rural areas in various parts of the country, the workshop-forum helped surface the most pressing issues that were identified by the participants. Aside from geographical representation, the Indigenous Peoples (IP) sector was well-represented at the said activity. There were also representatives of women working in different industries, such as Agriculture, Fisheries, Mining, Logging and Plantation. Issues that came out pertaining to the effects of development aggression in their community are the following: 3