Housewife Maria Helena dos Santos, 38, has spent her life tending crops, yet her name has never appeared in any list of beneficiaries for emergency aid or agricultural credit. As a former resident in the rural area of Iraçuba (CE) who almost single-handedly brought up 10 children, she has often tried to get help. "I applied for a bank loan to help improve my plantation, but they told me that was difficult for a woman. I had to own land" she remembers. That ‘no’ given to her is typical. It shows just how little public policies aimed at the semiarid region take women into account. This question will be central to many of the debates about desertification and will be one of the main themes during the 12-day UN conference in Recife.

But apart from properly discussing the role of women in the areas affected by the phenomenon, the conference participants will draw up a list of practical actions. "Everyone knows that the rural exodus results in men leaving home, which means that the woman effectively becomes the head of the household. The struggle now is for space, better working conditions and access to information", relates Valda Torres, technical co-ordinator at the Multiprofessional Co-operative for Social-economic and Environmental Undertakings (Completa). The institution has been working on the problem of desertification in the Cabrobó region for three years now. Valda complains about the lack of a credit policy to reach women workers. " We must recognise the role women play in the productive process and their importance in the development of sustainable agriculture".

Anthropologist Adélia Branco, who co-ordinates the ‘Gender, Family and Age’ area at the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation (Fundaj), says that one way to view women’s situation in the countryside is the fact that the income-generation programmes available are all aimed towards men. " What we are looking for is gender equality in family farming so that women are given the same conditions currently available only to men". The anthropologist draws attention to another point: women’s leadership in the desert regions. "In many areas women have shown themselves to be firmer in the fight against the problem"

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