Gender Latin America and the Caribbean

Latin America and the Caribbean face a context of economic slowdown, with an increase in food insecurity, malnutrition and the risks associated with climate change. This situation strongly affects rural women and constitutes a significant obstacle to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.

That is why FAO is committed to promoting gender equality and protecting women's rights as fundamental human rights.

Consequently, FAO Policy on Gender Equality 2020-2030 mandates the Organization to focus its work on achieving equality between women and men in sustainable agriculture and rural development with a view to eliminating hunger and poverty.

This site reports on the work in favour of gender equality carried out by FAO in cooperation with Latin American and Caribbean States, providing information on initiatives, good practices, methodologies and tools that contribute to the achievement of gender equality.

Stories

Rural women in Haiti invest in themselves

Village savings and loan associations help Haitian women build their businesses and futures

Women move mountains

Supporting inspiring mountain women as they overcome discrimination, livelihood disruptions and climate challenges to carve out new futures

Mujeres Rurales, Mujeres con Derechos [Rural Women, Women With Rights] Campaign

The campaign convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), is a collaborative work initiative that joins efforts, articulates networks, disseminates knowledge and positive experiences to promote the full autonomy of women in the rural world.

Since 2016 this campaign articulates government entities, civil society organisations and United Nations agencies around regional and national advocacy actions in favour of the empowerment of rural women in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Actions

Year	Action
2016	Regional social media campaign
2017	Regional campaign on social networks and competitions at territorial level.
2018	Regional social media campaign and platform to energize sub-regional agendas.
2019	Days of social media activism and national activities.
2020-2021	Regional campaign on social networks and competitions at territorial level.

Photos

Join the conversation

@MujerRuralALC

Featured publications

The status of women in agrifood systems

01/2023

The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems report provides the latest data, lessons learned and recommendations for policy and decision makers about gender in agrifood systems. It reviews and analyzes women’s opportunities and constraints in economic and social processes, while taking stock and assessing progress made in closing a series of gender gaps.

Practical guide for the Incorporation of the Intersectionality approach in sustainable rural development programmes and projects

11/2022

In Latin America and the Caribbean, access to food and nutritional security, the poverty situation, and the capacity to respond to climate change are strongly related to gender, ethnic-racial origin, age group, and territory differences. A situation that demands observing the intertwined nature of these inequalities and proposing new ways to achieve sustainable development, leaving no one behind.

FAO Policy on Gender Equality 2020–2030

06/2021

Gender equality is essential to achieve FAO’s mandate of a world free from hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. The Organization recognizes that persisting inequalities between women and men are a major obstacle to agriculture and rural development and that eliminating these disparities is essential to building sustainable and inclusive food systems and resilient and peaceful societies.

Transformative initiatives

Uruguay

Dec 19, 2023, 19:39 PM

Title : Uruguay

Open on load : No

National Plan for Gender in Agricultural Public Policy

In Uruguay, rural and agricultural women face inequalities in access to land, productive resources and technical assistance, as well as horizontal segregation in technical agricultural training. This has led to a process of masculinisation of the agricultural world, reducing women's economic autonomy in the sector.

At the same time, the country's public agricultural and livestock institutions often operate in the rural and agricultural environment without integrating a gender perspective into their actions. As a result, agricultural policies do not reduce gender inequalities and sometimes even exacerbate them.

In this context, the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries is leading the National Plan for Gender in Agricultural Policies. This initiative is being implemented in partnership with FAO and other public institutions in the agricultural sector.

This plan aims to transform the approach to public agricultural policies to include a gender perspective in a planned, feasible and effective way, with concrete impacts.

To build this initiative, a national process of citizen, technical and academic consultations is being promoted, as well as the construction of a relevant and viable roadmap with the possibility of impacting on the living conditions of women in the sector.

Among the actions foreseen in the plan are gender sensitisation of officials in public agricultural institutions, and a systematized and agreed diagnosis of the living conditions of rural and agricultural women, for mass dissemination.

The result will be a five-year strategy for mainstreaming a gender perspective into the policies of the country's public agricultural institutions.

The Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries of Uruguay, together with the public institutions that serve the country's agricultural sector, has proposed to integrate a gender perspective into its agricultural policies in order to accelerate the pace of women's empowerment in agriculture.

This action plan is built on three fundamental premises:

Rural women play an important role in the economy and production, and have many points of contact with public policies. This means that a gender work policy in its productive dimension must be constructed jointly by all the institutions of the sector.
Women's productive potential is underestimated and undervalued. Defending their role can improve their working, social and productive situation, fulfil the objectives of agricultural institutions and contribute to social justice.
To ensure the relevance and feasibility of a public policy, it is necessary to establish a close link with the target population and policy implementers from design to evaluation.