The focus of the seminar is appropriate since we all know that in spite of a significant increase in awareness concerning gender roles and the necessity to apply a gender perspective, much remains to be done to apply systematic work on gender as regards agriculture and food security. For me personally, it is a golden opportunity to combine my two ministerial roles, those of Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Equality. The next step into the next millenium marks a step forward for the practical implementation of gender equality. To be able to that we have to find the tools for it. I would like to start this panel discussion by giving you a couple of Swedish examples.
Information is the basic tool.
It is however, also obvious that information on women's needs and opinions is of the utmost importance for efficient rural development planning. In Sweden all official statistics must be disaggregated by sex unless there are special reasons for not doing so. This has helped us identify the differences between men and women - especially on the labour market. However, it must be remembered that the existence of high quality information alone constitutes a necessary but not sufficient condition for gender equality and poverty reduction. The goal must always be to empower women.