We sow in fertile ground: the Decade of Rural Women is already a reality

By Luz Haro Guanga, Ecuadorian peasant and leader of RedLAC

“We can no longer be last in everything: last in line for rights, last to be heard.” I said this with my heart in my hand a few days ago, at a regional meeting in Panama, celebrating a historic achievement: the declaration of the Inter-American Decade for the Rights of All Women, Adolescents, and Girls in Rural Settings (2024-2034). I said it out loud, but not just for those present. I said it for all my rural sisters who inhabit and care for the Andes, the pampas, the coffee plantations, the coasts, the valleys, and the seas of this continent.

This declaration, adopted by the OAS at its 53rd General Assembly, is not a simple document. It is the institutional response to a struggle sown from below, from the deep roots of the land we work, from the calloused hands of thousands of women who have sustained life and territories even in conditions of neglect and injustice. It is—as I also said—the seed of a long-delayed justice. Now it is up to us to make it germinate with public policies, concrete resources, and, above all, with the firm will of decision-makers at all levels.

This victory didn't come overnight. The idea for the Decade was born in 2012, when we gathered at the Third Latin American and Caribbean Meeting of Rural Women. We were 270 female leaders from 17 countries, and we presented a clear demand: that our historic contribution be recognized with actions, not empty rhetoric. We, who have sustained the countryside and life despite exclusion, deserved this act of justice. And we didn't stop walking, insisting, and uniting. That's how we made it flourish.

The Decade is not just for the Americas. It's a call to the world. Because there is no country on this planet where there aren't rural women farming and caring for their communities, often without pay or hours, ensuring food for their communities. Our fight is global. And this Decade must inspire real change for all rural women around the world.

Through the Network of Rural Women of Latin America and the Caribbean, we have woven a vibrant network of more than 250 organizations in 21 countries since 1990. Over these years, we have condemned the structural injustices that affect us: limited access to land, lack of credit, exclusion from markets, overburdened domestic work, violence, institutional sexism, and environmental degradation. We have raised our voices for water, forests, seeds, our bodies, our daughters, and our communities. Today, finally, that cry has been recognized.

Another important step has been the declaration of April 17 as the Inter-American Day of All Rural Women and Girls. It will not be just another symbolic date. 

It will be, as I warned, a day of accountability. To measure whether we are moving toward a more just America, with us as protagonists of development.

From this fertile ground that is our struggle, we make a clear and urgent call to the States and all levels of government: it is not enough to recognize us. It is time to act.

We need fair laws, allocated budgets, access to services, respect for our knowledge, protection of our territories, and, above all, full participation in decision-making spaces.
Because in our fields we don't just plant food. We plant life, dignity, and a future. And the cry of rural women is not an echo of the past: it is the heart that beats for a more equitable, more humane, and more ours Latin America.

Firm in our knowledge, persistent in our rights.