Innovative Gender-Responsive and Transformative Approaches for Inclusive, Resilient, and Sustainable Agrifood Systems

The proposed FAO project aims to challenge gender discriminatory norms, enhance gender equality, and foster inclusive and sustainable agrifood systems in Barbados, Kenya and Uganda. Leveraging participatory and community-driven approaches, user-led digital tools and innovative partnerships, it seeks to facilitate the empowerment of women and girls, promote gender-equitable institutions, and pioneer innovation in selected value chains. This initiative aims to generate knowledge and experiences for scaling up gender-transformative and gender-responsive solutions in FAO and United Nations (UN) projects, emphasizing FAO's role in advancing women's rights and empowerment in agrifood systems.

To enhance the robustness of evidence generation, this subprogramme will partner with another one titled: Building Evidence on the Impacts of FVC Subprogrammes. This collaboration aims to conduct two impact evaluations of GTAs in Kenya and Uganda, offering fresh insights and pathways for gender transformative change. The goal is to inform FVC and FAO programming with a comprehensive understanding of results and impacts, thereby improving the implementation of gender-transformative approaches for greater impact on gender equality outcomes.

The subprogramme will build on FAO's expertise in promoting gender-transformative approaches (GTAs) aimed at addressing the root causes of gender discrimination. Over the last decade, GTAs have gained prominence in the research and development sector and have been increasingly used within the Organization. Notably, FAO has pioneered "Dimitra Clubs" at the community level, recognized as a landmark community-led and gender-transformative model that challenges gender discriminatory norms and enhances social cohesion through inclusive consultation processes with rural communities.

Furthermore, FAO has collaborated with partners like Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) and Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) to develop the Women’s Empowerment Business School (WE-FBS) approach, focusing on women's economic empowerment in commercial farming while addressing deeply rooted gender inequalities in households and communities. Besides the use of GTAs, FAO is also committed to developing gender-sensitive and gender-responsive values-chains. These approaches can be integrated into policies, programmes, institutions, and working methods to bring about change at various levels, from individuals and households to communities, organizations, and policies.

The specified gender approaches, designed to advance gender equality and women's empowerment will drive the interventions outlined in the subprogramme. The Dimitra Clubs will be applied in Uganda, the WE-FBS in Kenya and the gender-sensitive value chains in Barbados. This selection was guided by contextual factors, specific needs, and existing capacities on the ground. Operating in multiple countries with various approaches broadens the subprogramme’s reach, facilitates innovation and lessons learnt and optimizes value for money while maximizing impact.

The implementation of the project will prioritize inclusivity by targeting marginalized groups, particularly women and youth, in rural areas, and providing special attention to Indigenous People’s groups.

The proposed activities will leverage existing partnerships cultivated through previous gender-related initiatives within FAO. These collaborations involve informal groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), farmer-based organizations, government entities at various levels. These partners will contribute services and technical expertise to support project activities. Furthermore, the project aligns with ongoing UN gender-related multi-country initiatives, promoting outcomes in gender equality, women's empowerment, inclusive rural development, land governance, peacebuilding, and climate adaptation. As part of the community engagement component, exemplified by Dimitra Clubs, the subprogramme will ensure the continued provision of technical and methodological support in eleven additional countries where Dimitra Clubs are being implemented, seamlessly contributing to generate catalytic effects in terms of inclusivity and gender equality in FAO programming. The WE-FBS approach paired with Amplio Talking Books offer a flexible methodology that allows for curriculum expansion into various thematic areas and amplify the outreach of the project by involving the household members of the primary beneficiaries from producers’ groups, as well as other relevant stakeholders.