Most rural poor are smallholder farmers who live in low-fertility regions and are dependent on uncertain rainfall. Their survival depends on subsistence crops, and sometimes on livestock. Although rural women are most affected by poverty, they are denied equity in household decision-making and community participation. They also have limited access to credit, technology, land, education and health services. Urban and rural poverty are interlinked.
Urban work encourages migration from the countryside to the city.
Urban-oriented policies alone may fail to reduce urban poverty. It is therefore important to address rural poverty in order to make sustainable progress on urban poverty. Poverty and Gender Women have less access to, and control of, land, credit, technology, education and health, and less access to skilled work. Women also suffer discrimination in pay, even for the same job or task, and in access to land, legacies and credit. Poor rural women face multiple tasks and, on a daily basis, rearrange competing priorities to ensure their own and their children's survival.