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The status of women in agrifood systems

Year of publication 2023

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 264 p.

Author FAO

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Book (stand-alone)

ISBN 978-92-5-137814-4

Synopsis (short abstract) The status of women in agrifood systems report uses extensive new data and analyses to provide a comprehensive picture of women’s participation, benefits, and challenges they face working in agrifood systems globally. The report shows how increasing women’s empowerment and gender equality in agrifood systems enhances women’s well-being and the well-being of their households, creating opportunities for economic growth, greater incomes, productivity and resilience.The report comes more than a decade after the publication of the State of food and agriculture (SOFA) 2010–11: Women in agriculture – Closing the gender gap for development. SOFA 2010–11 documented the tremendous costs of gender inequality not only for women but also for agriculture and the broader economy and society, making the business case for closing existing gender gaps in accessing agricultural assets, inputs and services. Moving beyond agriculture, The status of women in agrifood systems reflects not only on how gender equality and women’s empowerment are central to the transition towards sustainable and resilient agrifood systems but also on how the transformation of agrifood systems can contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the available evidence on gender equality and women’s empowerment in agrifood systems that has been produced over the last decade. The report also provides policymakers and development actors with an extensive review of what has worked, highlighting the promise of moving from closing specific gender gaps towards the adoption of gender-transformative approaches that explicitly address the formal and informal structural constraints to equality. It concludes with specific recommendations on the way forward. Last update 03/08/2023

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    Cite this content as:

    FAO. 2023. The status of women in agrifood systems. Rome.

    https://doi.org/10.4060/cc5343en

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    Language English

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      In 2011, the State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2010–11 made the “business case” for addressing gender imbalances and the empowerment of women in agriculture and rural employment. Much has changed since then, and while the approaches available ten years ago are still important, they are no longer enough. Women are increasingly moving out of agricultural production and into jobs related to processing, preparing and marketing; those that remain in agricultural production face greater challenges due to overlapping crises, including climate shocks, conflicts, price and economic shocks. While continuing to take on a heavy burden of care and unpaid work, women also still face gender-based barriers in access to resources, services, opportunities and decision making and get lower returns on their labour. To respond to these challenges, group-based, agency, employment, transformational and policy approaches and digitalization are needed at the structural level to foster women’s more equitable participation in the evolving agrifood systems. In this context, the FAO report on The status of women in agrifood systems aimed to shed light on the current status of rural women, providing the latest data, lessons learned and recommendations for policy- and decision-makers. It would also help put gender equality and the empowerment of women at the centre of debates and research agendas on agriculture, food systems, food security and nutrition.
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      Women play an important role in food systems as producers, wage-workers, processors, traders, entrepreneurs, and consumers. It is therefore essential that the food systems transformation agenda takes full cognizance of their needs and priorities, so that they can contribute and benefit equally from interventions. In ECOWAS countries, women still lag behind in accessing land, finance, technologies, services and markets. Their voices are not equally heard in the elaboration of policies, programmes and investment plans in the agrifood sector as their representation in leadership positions remains lower than that for men. Walking the talk in Rwanda is the result of ongoing partnership with ECOWAS Network of Parliamentarians on Gender Equality, Investments in Agriculture and Food Security, and its Advisory Group made of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Oxfam and Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF) to advance gender equality in efforts to accelerate progress towards zero hunger. This report summaries the Learning Exchange that gave the ECOWAS Parliamentarians an exposure to the comprehensive Rwanda Model for gender equality and women’s empowerment in terms of governance, accountability, vision, and actions. it includes comments and reactions from some of the Parliamentarians.
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      Despite their critical role in agrifood systems, millions of rural women face significant challenges to access resources, information, services and opportunities. They cope with excessive work burden and are underrepresented in institutions and decision-making processes. Moreover, they experience higher rates of food insecurity and are disproportionately affected by health, economic and environmental crises. Closing the gender gap in farm productivity and the wage gap in agrifood systems employment would increase global gross domestic product by 1 percent. This would reduce global food insecurity by about 2 percentage points, reducing the number of food insecure people by 45 million. FAO has extensive expertise in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment in agrifood systems and rural development to eliminate poverty and promote inclusive rural transformation for a better life.
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