Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

The Joint Programme on Gender Transformative Approaches for Food Security and Nutrition (JP GTA)[i] is a collaborative initiative of the three United Nations Rome-based Agencies (RBAs) —FAO, IFAD, and WFP—in collaboration with and through financial support from the European Union. 

Its objective is to contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) by supporting the RBAs and their partners to embed gender transformative approaches (GTAs) in their policy dialogues, programmes, working modalities and institutional culture, and enhancing their collaboration on zero hunger and gender equality.

A gender transformative approach “seeks to actively examine, challenge and transform the underlying causes of gender inequalities rooted in discriminatory social institutions. As such, a gender transformative approach aims to address the unequal gendered power relations and discriminatory gender norms, attitudes, behaviours and practices, as well as discriminatory or gender-blind policies and laws, that create and perpetuate gender inequalities.”[ii]

GTAs operate across multiple levels of the socio-ecological model (individual, household, community, organizational, and macroenvironmental), and each level is vital for transformative change to occur. Community-level GTAs are essential in fostering collective agency and participation and in facilitating the empowerment of community members to address discriminatory gender norms and unequal power relations within their own contexts. Through inclusive and participatory methods, community-level GTAs promote dialogue and strengthen social cohesion, creating an enabling environment for sustained gender equality and social transformation that can ripple out to broader societal levels.

For insights on GTAs, The ‘Compendium of 15 good practices’, published by the JP GTA in 2020, showcases successful GTAs across different settings, including at community-level, such as Dimitra Clubs, Community Conversations, and Social Analysis and Action (SAA)[iii].

Additionally, the JP GTA has developed several guidance documents that can be of relevance to community engagement approaches: 

Guidelines for measuring gender transformative change in the context of food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture

• These Guidelines include step-by-step guidance to formulate qualitative and quantitative indicators of gender transformative change to help gender experts and food security, agriculture and nutrition programme specialists in their efforts to design, implement, monitor and evaluate gender transformative interventions. They also present an overarching framework for measuring gender transformative change, including key dimensions and a socio-ecological model for identifying spheres of influence.
• The Guidelines are available in English and Spanish.
• The abbreviated "At a glance" version is also available in English and Spanish.

Guide to formulating gendered social norms indicators in the context of food security and nutrition 

• This guide will assist with formulating indicators to measure changes in gendered social norms in the context of food security and nutrition. It also offers an initial set of example indicators that programme implementers can draw on to assess social norms change in the context of food security and nutrition programmes. It draws from existing indicators from literature and programme experiences around measuring social norms, including in other sectors, and creates original indicators as well.
• The Guide in available in English and Spanish.

Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to consultation and best regards,

The JP GTA Team