The Global Hunger Index indicates that the level of poverty and hunger in sub-Saharan African countries has not improved, and in some countries levels of poverty and hunger have deepened. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) call for hunger and poverty to be reduced is seen as a challenge, one in which women need to be situated in the centre of rural development and not marginalised further. An analysis of rural women's role in agriculture and women's livelihoods reflects that although their contribution to rural livelihoods and household food security is well substantiated by research, their attempt to uplift themselves out of poverty in the second economy are contingent upon engendered access to markets, supportive institutions and engendered policies and programmes and not least of all, secure access to land for cultivation. The discussion of rural women's poverty and livelihoods is elaborated further in research which involved interviews with a group of 15 women in a rural district of KwaZulu-Natal. The women have decided to use their traditional status as chiefs’ wives to support the initiatives by women in the rural areas where they live to develop rural livelihoods. The interviews reflect that while rural women provide food for their households, they also contend with structural, institutional and cultural barriers. Contradictions in customary and statutory laws impede their efforts to build rural livelihoods for income generation. The research confirms the broader concern that poverty alleviation and hunger must be addressed by gender enlightened policies to support women's rural livelihoods development in order for the MDGs to be met.