There is the issue of global market forces that make it difficult in any country to have a strong, local, vibrant agricultural economy. During the pandemic we even spoke about that here in Canada, in Quebec, about local agricultural production and not being so dependent on imports.
In poor countries, it's very different. If you have a strong economy, you have the cash reserves and the economic strength to be able to import during any given month of the year, whereas, in poor countries, you're too vulnerable to price increases and to market dynamics, like the ones we're seeing now.
What we've seen in this region is an under-investment in rural economies, in the capacity of people living in rural communities to make a living in their regions. This implies access to infrastructure: roads and water infrastructure as well as services to people. You can't have a vibrant agriculture economy if you're not also investing in things like schools and child care. Women, who make up the vast majority of the agricultural workforce in some areas, can't go off and have productive agricultural small-scale businesses if there's no one caring for their children, if they're spending all of their time collecting water or if they have no way to leave their children and go to market.
It's also recognizing that we need investments in rural economies as a whole that take into account gender dynamics, that take into account climate change, that take into account women's care responsibilities so that these economies are fit for purpose for the future, where we have a lot of women and children who are left behind in these rural areas because there aren't the services to survive.