The event will honour the achievements of women on the continent and facilitate inter-generational discussions and mentorship amongst women with a view to inspire future women leaders.

South Africa has already prioritised the empowerment of rural women through the mainstreaming of gender as part of a Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP), whose elements include providing access to funding, training, transfer of technology, building partnerships, ensuring food security, access to land as well as monitoring inequality in the redistribution of land.

According to the UN, rural women, constitute one-fourth of the world's population and continue to face more difficulty than men in accessing public services, social protection, employment and markets, due to cultural norms, security issues and lack of identification documents.

“The plight of the world’s rural women and girls, mirrors that of women and girls throughout society,” said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, at an event at the UN Headquarters to commemorate the day on Wednesday.

He said rural women performed most of the unpaid care work in rural areas and were a major part of the agricultural labour force, making up almost half a billion smallholder farmers and landless workers.

“Countries where women lack land ownership rights or access to credit have significantly more malnourished children. By empowering rural women we could end the hidden development tragedy of stunting, which affects almost 200 million children worldwide,” said the Secretary-General.

He urged governments, civil society and the private sector to commit to gender equality and the empowerment of women – as a fundamental human right and a force for the benefit of all.

In her message to mark the day, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged governments, community leaders and heads of families to recognise and tap the enormous potential of women to positively impact the world around them.

“This is a call directed not at any particular region of the world – it is a global call because the failure to capitalise on women’s potential is a global problem,” she said.

She stressed that participation requires that women are able to access relevant information and are empowered through education and political access.

She underlined the need to ensure inclusion of women from minority groups, the poor, the elderly, those with disabilities and other vulnerable groups.

The messages from the top UN officials all echoed that no enduring solution to the major global challenges can be solved without the full empowerment and participation of women across the world.