When you think farmer – think female!

In many parts of the world, women carry out a majority of the agricultural and household work. Yet, they do not have the same access to resources or power in decision-making as men. To bridge the gender gap, FAO and UNDP work with countries to empower women and achieve gender equality in the agriculture sector for a more sustainable future that will benefit all.

Women are key to food production. In developing countries, women comprise 45 percent of the agricultural labour force, with that figure rising to 60 percent in parts of Africa and Asia. They therefore play a fundamental role in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 on Zero Hunger. However, female farmers have limited access to land, markets and education compared to men, and are not equally involved in decision-making. According to FAO estimates, if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20–30 percent, potentially resulting in 100-150 million fewer hungry people in the world.

Women bear the brunt of climate change impacts

Considering the differences in roles and access to resources between men and women, climate change impacts on agriculture affect them in different ways.

In Viet Nam, most agricultural workers are women, as many men migrate to cities to find more profitable jobs. It is thus mainly the women who experience the direct impacts of climate change. For instance, when sea level rise causes salt water to intrude and destroy whole fields of rice; food security and livelihoods are put at risk. Desperation grows and as described by a Vietnamese farmer in a similar situation: all she can do is pray. This is just one example of how climate change directly affects smallholder farmers.

Viet Nam is one of 11 countries where FAO and UNDP worked in close collaboration with the government and other relevant stakeholders to tackle climate change, concentrating on issues related to gender, through the Integrating Agriculture in National Adaptation Plans (NAP-Ag) programme funded by the German Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) through its International Climate Initiative (IKI).

New knowledge improves gender mainstreaming

For the past six years (2015-2020), the NAP-Ag programme supported countries to address the challenges and priorities of both women and men in adaptation planning in agriculture, focusing on monitoring sex disaggregated data and gender mainstreaming. The programme was not only able to promote women’s participation in activities related to agriculture and climate change planning, but also to integrate gender-sensitive adaptation options in countries’ climate change strategies and plans.

In addition, knowledge products developed within the programme focus on gender concerns and present solutions and continue to serve as useful tools for countries and organizations.

Pandemic has increased the gender gap

Evidence shows that men and women are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in different ways, as they are by climate change. Despite the efforts and successes in recent years, new data from UN women reveal that existing social biases and gender-based discrimination have become worse since the outbreak of COVID-19. Women’s workloads have multiplied and while incomes have decreased for both men and women, women who are more often working in informal employment suffer serious economic disadvantages. This financial stress, together with an increased workload is taking a toll on women’s mental and emotional health.

It is more important than ever to make sure that governments take gender aspects into consideration both in their COVID-19 response and climate strategies.

Gender mainstreaming at the heart of a new climate programme

In response to this need, and based on the NAP-Ag experience, gender mainstreaming is a cross-cutting theme of the Scaling up Climate Ambition on Land Use and Agriculture through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and National Adaptation Plans (NAP) (SCALA) programme, co-led by FAO and UNDP with funding from International Climate Initiative.  The programme’s approach is closely linked to the UNDP Gender Equality Strategy 2018-2021 and the new FAO Policy on Gender Equality 2020-2030, recognizing that gender equality and the empowerment of rural women are essential to achieve its mandate of a world free from hunger, malnutrition and poverty.

In all 12 SCALA partner countries, the aim is to integrate gender-responsive priorities into plans and budgets and to increase women’s participation in decision-making around climate in agriculture.

Further information:

Website: Integrating Agriculture in National Adaptation Plans (NAP-Ag) programme

Toolkit: The Toolkit for value chain analysis and market development integrating climate resilience and gender responsiveness (2020)

Guidebook: Gender in adaptation planning for the agriculture sectors: Guide for Trainers (2019)