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Gender, Equity and Rural Employment
 

Areas of work

The Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division (ESW) works to create a world where all rural women and men have equal opportunities to make choices that free them from hunger and poverty. To achieve this, the Division supports FAO’s efforts to promote the social and economic well-being of rural populations by assisting the Organization and its Member Governments and partners in integrating the issues of gender and social equity, decent rural employment and the reinforcement of rural institutions in their agricultural and rural development policies and programmes. The Division works in the following areas:

Gender and development
Rural women in developing countries face constraints in access to education, productive assets and decision-making. Promoting rural gender equality is central to reducing the number of hungry people and to creating more inclusive development that benefits men, women and children and improves their food security.

Rural employment
The creation in the rural agricultural and non-agricultural sectors of decent employment opportunities is critical for poverty and hunger reduction and for sustainable rural development.

Institution building
Strong, effective and inclusive rural institutions are essential to support small producers’ agricultural profitability and sustainability and to improve food security, poverty reduction and economic development in rural areas.

Indigenous people
The Division works to safeguard indigenous people’s environments and their knowledge of sustainable environmental management, biodiversity and environmental adaptation and to use it to improve development interventions.

Population dynamics
Population issues including demographics, health and migration influence patterns of farming, poverty and food security, trends in rural employment, and the outcomes of agricultural and rural development strategies. The analysis of population dynamics is key to designing effective agricultural policies.