Women are central to agriculture in South America, driving food production, biodiversity conservation, and rural development. Yet, despite their essential role, many women face systemic barriers that hinder their full participation and economic advancement. Let’s explore the challenges they encounter, such as land access, financial inclusion, and technological gaps, while...

In the furrows of the earth, where life and hope germinate, Colombian peasant women have forged a path of struggle and resistance. Through the National Unitary Agricultural Trade Union Federation (Fensuagro), along with other rural Colombian organizations, we are protagonists in the construction of peasant and popular feminism, a feminism...

La igualdad de género es fundamental para erradicar el hambre y la malnutrición, objetivos esenciales de la Agenda 2030 para el Desarrollo Sostenible. Esta guía práctica está dirigida a parlamentarias y parlamentarios, brindándoles herramientas para integrar la perspectiva de género en su labor legislativa. Dado que las mujeres desempeñan un...

As the world grapples with food security, climate change, and economic inequality, one group stands out as both crucial to overcoming these challenges and often overlooked in decision-making: women and girls. Women play a central role in food systems, contributing to agricultural labor, production, household nutrition, and the wider economy. However,...

This article examines how rural women farmers in India's Sundarban region are leading the revival of indigenous rice varieties to adapt to increasing soil salinity and climate-related vulnerabilities. Highlighting key figures such as Barnali Dhara, it details the shift from chemical-intensive hybrid rice cultivation to organic practices, driven primarily by...

The Gender Equality and Governance Index (GEGI) report for 2024 reviews both the progress, and setbacks, that women worldwide have faced over the past two years and since the publication of the last report. European countries under a democratic form of governance – such as Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain...

Promoting women’s empowerment and gender equality is crucial for achieving in particular the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5. It implies that all countries worldwide have committed to achieve gender equality by empowering girls and women for having equal changes and conditions in societal development. Research in development economics...

Empowerment offers opportunities, but does it enhance well-being? In this blog, Vijayalaxmi Khed explores the challenges rural women face in balancing both. 

In this blog, Nimisha Mittal reflects on her experience with the range of approaches used in teaching and learning in the MA Gender and Development postgraduate program at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, United Kingdom.

This study explores the linkages between gender and rural transformation in Indonesia. Utilising time-series data from the National Labour Force Survey from 32 provinces in three different years (2010, 2015, and 2020), we analysed the linkages between rural transformation and gender-related variables such as womenʼs access to healthcare, education, and...

En una época de inestabilidad mundial, las mujeres y las niñas son la clave de la estabilidad de las zonas rurales. Pero una discriminación profundamente arraigada les impide labrarse un futuro mejor para ellas mismas, sus hogares y sus comunidades. Y hoy en día, la dinámica mundial no hace más...

A pesar de su importancia en la seguridad alimentaria y la economía rural, las mujeres enfrentan barreras que limitan su crecimiento dentro del sector agrícola. A medida que el país busca avanzar en equidad de género, es fundamental reconocer y potenciar su rol clave en la sostenibilidad del agro.

In this good practice note, Salome highlights the Mobile Biodiversity Festival, an initiative by the Deccan Development Society (DDS) to promote agro-biodiversity and cultural exchange in Telangana, India. Over 25 years, it has brought together local communities to discuss and celebrate sustainable farming, biodiversity, and traditional knowledge. 

Over the past 50 years, the world’s food systems have evolved tremendously amid major economic, environmental, and social changes. Throughout this period, policy research has played a critical role in providing evidence and analysis to inform decision-making that supports agricultural growth, better livelihoods, and improved food security, nutrition, and well-being...

In this Good Practices Note, Tanya and Syed Qaisar share the strategies that enabled the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) effectively reach farmers, chakkis (small flour mills), and consumers with Biofortified Zinc Wheat (BZW) in Pakistan’s Punjab province. CONTEXT  Pakistan faces triple burden of malnutrition—the coexistence of undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and...

Walk through any village in India and you will find countless women brimming with potential — sharp, skilled, immensely resilient. Yet, they remain largelyinvisible in our workforce statistics. Even today, India’s female labour force participation hovers around32%, and for rural women it’s often lower. This is despite the mushrooming of skilling...

In the tribal and agrarian heartlands of Central India, climate change is not a forecast—it is a lived reality. Monsoons arrive late or little. When they do, they flood rather than nurture. Heatwaves now stretch for months, scorching both crops and people. Agriculture has become a risky gamble, and when...

From childhood to adulthood, we all dream. We imagine a future filled with possibilities, and every time someone asks, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” — the answers change with age, exposure, and imagination. But in rural India, this question carries a different weight—especially for girls. While children...

In the heart of India’s villages and underserved communities lies an untapped potential—women whose dreams remain buried beneath poverty, tradition, and lack of opportunity. For decades, rural and underprivileged women have been relegated to the margins of society. Their contributions, though vital, often go unrecognized, and their aspirations are dismissed...

International Women’s Day 2025 is a rallying call to the global community to put their weight behind action ‘For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.’ Thirty years on from the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, gender equality remains a distant reality for millions of women and girls worldwide. Despite...