This report builds upon FAO’s work promoting gender mainstreaming in extension and advisory services, cataloguing challenges and suggesting strategies for increasing the gender responsiveness of rural advisory services globally. The purpose of this review is to apply FAO’s accumulated knowledge about gender equality in the context of rural advisory services...

Vietnam’s largest deltaic region, the Mekong Delta offers great potential for rice production and aquaculture. With an area of 747,000 hectares in 2022, it is the country’s largest shrimp-producing area. The shrimp-rice area covers nearly 190,000 hectares, accounting for 26.8 per cent of the total shrimp farming area in the...

Youth networks and organizations of young farmers, producers and entrepreneurs play a central role as partners in development initiatives that target youth in rural and agrifood spaces. By understanding and applying gender‑transformative and socially inclusive approaches, youth organizations can become more equitable, accessible, impactful and pluralistic platforms that legitimately represent...

This report showcases gender equality and women’s empowerment highlights in 2022 and 2023 and is divided into global and regional highlights. Its overall objective is to share major achievements, good practices and lessons learned in 2022–2023 and to guide FAO’s upcoming work to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment. Gender...

This report is based on the high level forum and capacity development for parliamentarians held in Sierra Leone in November 2020 organized by FAO,IISD, OXFAM and WILDAF/AMNet, in partnership with the Sierra Leone Parliament. The forum provided a unique opportunity to facilitate dialogue at national level between parliamentarians and other...

This blog post is part of a special series on the global and regional food security implications of high food and fertilizer prices originally stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and now exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine war. 

This study explores how livelihood assets, strategies for accessing the assets, and enabling and discouraging factors in the value chain shapes the inclusion of women and youth in on-farm, off-farm and non-farm activities. It is based on the Safeguarding Sahelian Wetlands for Food Security (SaWeL) program that aims to make...

This is a open access book. In the agriculture sector, the language of gender integration often ignores the politics and the power dynamics that are central to critical, and feminist, analysis of gender relations. This volume explores largely neglected topics such as power dynamics, masculinities, gendered social norms, feminist research practice,...

The journey of coffee from farm to cup involves numerous intricate steps, each crucial in determining the quality and price of the final product. At the heart of this process is the grading and pricing of green coffee, a task undertaken by professionals known as Q Graders. Anete Dinne, a...

Malho Marndi, a tribal farmer from Odisha, India, faced declining rice yields and labor challenges due to worsening climate conditions. With support from the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) and the Odisha government’s DSR-Odisha project, she adopted Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) technology, which reduces labor and water needs....

The Secretariat of the World Banana Forum (WBF), a multi-stakeholder network coordinated by the Markets and Trade Division (EST) of FAO, is delighted to extend an invitation to Members to the Fourth Global Conference of the World Banana Forum, to be held at the FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy on Tuesday, 12...

Despite facing significant barriers, rural women play an increasingly central role in Costa Rica’s agriculture sector, making key contributions to sustainable farming and livestock management. The SCALA programme , co-led by FAO and UNDP, recently convened with three Costa Rican experts —Sylvia Chaves Acuña (Gender Specialist, FAO), Rafaella Sánchez Mora (Senior Specialist in...

The Water–Energy–Food–Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus Leadership Program in Nepal aims to not only strengthen leadership and negotiation skills, but to create champions equipped with the technical knowledge and tools, and create the enabling conditions (including recognition and support networks) these champions need, to advance equitable WEFE nexus decision-making and implementation.

"Unleashing the potential of women livestock keepers" explores how enhancing women's roles in livestock production can significantly contribute to Sustainable Development Goal 5, which aims at achieving gender equality and empowering women. In developing countries, women constitute a large part of the agricultural labor force, particularly in small-scale livestock farming,...

SDG 5 calls for achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. Women spend far more time on unpaid and domestic work than men, on average an additional 2.4 hours a day. One in five girls get married before the age of 18. Climate change threatens to worsen these...

The last of the series of IYAFA workshops was convened by the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) in collaboration with Low Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE) and Mulleres Salgadas (MuS). The regional workshop for Europe was held on November 13-16, 2023, in Galicia, Spain. With its participatory and...

Agricultural technologies can support women’s empowerment, but they can also reinforce unequal gender norms and fail to benefit women. Gender tools can help researchers better understand the unique experiences of women and men to guide the design, deployment and evaluation of agricultural innovations at all stages of their development.

My name is Amelie Bonner. I am 15 years old. I love art, film, reading and music. I speak French, English and Irish. I am from Arranmore Island off the coast of Ireland. It is a beautiful island and is currently home to around 500 people. The community is small....

Since 2013, IFAD has recognized projects from every corner of the world that go the extra mile for gender equality. Acknowledging that sustainable development is impossible without rural women. Their empowerment is crucial to transforming food systems, building thriving rural communities and creating lasting prosperity for all. Let’s visit the five inspiring...

This guidance provides information to IPC analysts on conducting gender-sensitive IPC Acute Food Insecurity analyses. More specifically, the guidance is divided into two sections: the first section addresses the rationale and parameters for gender-sensitive analysis, whereas the second section focuses on practical guidance for conducting gender-sensitive analysis. In addition, the...