Empowering more women to ensure they are included in agrifood systems not only reduces hunger rates and stimulates economies, but also reinforces a country’s resilience to shocks like climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. This was revealed in a new report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The report titled, “The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems,” highlights that, globally, the role of women tends to be marginalized and their working conditions are often worse than those of men. Similarly, women who work as wage earners in agriculture earn 82 cents for every dollar that men receive.
“If we seriously tackle the gender inequalities endemic in agrifood systems and empower women, the world will certainly take a leap forward in addressing the goals of ending poverty and creating a world free from hunger,” says FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, in the foreword of the report.
Indeed, the study explains that closing the gender gap in farm productivity and the wage gap in agricultural employment would increase global gross domestic product by nearly US$1 trillion and reduce the number of food-insecure people by 45 million.
Similarly, the report states that benefits from projects that empower women are higher than those that just mainstream gender. The authors of the document also explained that if half of small-scale producers benefited from development interventions that focused on empowering women, it would significantly raise the incomes of an additional 58 million people and increase the resilience of an additional 235 million.
“It is clear that efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems depend on the empowerment of all women and gender equality. Women have always worked in agrifood systems. It is time that we made agrifood systems work for women,” adds Qu.
Overall, the report concludes that reducing gender inequalities in livelihoods, improving access to resources, and promoting resilience is a critical pathway towards gender equality, women’s empowerment and more just and sustainable agrifood systems.
This includes closing gaps related to access to assets, technology and resources. The study shows that interventions to improve women’s productivity are successful when they address care and unpaid domestic work burdens, provide education and training, and strengthen land-tenure security.
The full report can be accessed by following this link: [https://www.fao.org/documents/card/es?details=cc5343en](https://www.fao.org/documents/card/es?details=cc5343en “”)
