THE President, Mrs Robinson told a packed gathering at the World Food Programme's Rome headquarters yesterday that women in the developing world must play a more crucial role in ensuring food security.
"It has taken most of this century for women to become agents of change and that they have done so is one of the most important developments of the century," she said.
Making reference to commitments undertaken at the Beijing UN Women's Conference in 1995 and at the UN World Food Summit in Rome last November, Mrs Robinson said: "Food security is ultimately about poverty and hunger.
"In the case of women it is about recognising the role of women in many developing societies...
"Women have clear rights to security of land tenure, income control and involvement in decision-making systems that enable them to identify particular needs... Across the world today, women are demanding equality of rights as a fundamental principle."
Ms Robinson, who was speaking on International Woman's Day, and on the second day of a four-day visit to Italy, was also officially received by the Italian state President, Mr Oscar Luigi Scalfaro.
Referring to her recent trip to Rwanda to attend the Pan-African Conference on Peace, Gender and Development, Mrs Robinson highlighted the "central role of women in conflict prevention and in securing and maintaining peace", adding that the conference had concluded it was crucial for future sustainable development that women "be empowered politically and economically and represented at all levels of decision-making".
In a wide-ranging speech that also focused on the changing patterns of development co-operation and on the impact of globalisation, Mrs Robinson underlined the essential role played by democracy and by respect for fundamental human rights in advancing the political, social and economic aspirations of all people.
Introducing Mrs Robinson, the World Food Programme's executive director, Ms Catherine Bertini, described her as a world leader who had worked hard to draw attention to developing world issues in general and to the role of women in the developing world in particular.
With a budget of $1.5 billion and with more than 4,000 humanitarian workers spread across 90 countries, the World Food Programme is the world's largest international food aid organisation.
At yesterday's gathering, Mrs Robinson received an award for her work on behalf of developing countries, as, did WFP workers based in Afghanistan, Pakistan and southern Sudan.
Mrs Robinson will be received by Pope John Paul II in private audience at the Vatican this morning
She returns to Ireland tomorrow.