Marta de Olarte

In: UA Magazine No. 12 - Gender and Urban Agriculture

Urbanisation and de-population of rural areas in Peru have advanced dramatically over the past 60 years. Today, almost three-quarters of the Peruvian population live in urban and periurban zones. As a result, the cities' resources and services for their own residents, including health care, education, employment, and access to food, have become increasingly stretched.. Urban agriculture has steadily grown in the past few decades in metropolitan Lima, largely brought in by rural migrants. This context led the Resources for Development Association (REDE) to promote "communal gardens" in the southern cone of Lima as a way to fight hunger and malnutrition. The work of REDE has a "gender in development" focus, through which an effort is made to analyse the roles and the needs of men and women in order to empower women.