Colombia

The Colombian government’s move to revive the country’s Rural Women’s Development Fund has been met with skepticism by rural women leaders, IPS News says. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Juan Camilo Restrepo has recently announced that the government would provide USD850 million dollars to the fund in 2011 but several rural women leaders noted that they will wait and see if the government will follow through with this commitment. Others added that the Colombian government has also yet to act on other pending measures aimed at women’s empowerment, such as the codification of the eight-year-old Law on Rural Women, IPS News says.