Lasting transformative change in agri-food systems and wider societal benefits require
fostering an enabling environment for empowerment and equality by gender and intersecting
social differentiation, while concurrently reducing existing inequalities in access to and control
over productive resources, services and technology, resilience and leadership. Fostering an
enabling environment hinges on addressing key structural constraints to equally accessing
resources, exercising agency and achieving desirable outcomes across multiple scales in a
holistic manner. This paper discusses the emerging thinking about key structural barriers at
the scales of the state, markets, communities, households and individuals that are rooted
in policy, discriminatory (formal and informal) social and economic institutions (including
social norms) and dampened aspirations; and their relevance for transformative change in
agri-food systems. It shows the trend and current status of key structural constraints, and
what has proven effective to relax such constraints. The paper lists key evidence-based
recommendations to promote an enabling environment for empowerment and equality in
agri-food systems.