Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

This member contributed to:

    • Committee on World Food Security (CFS) Secretariat

      Viale delle Terme di Caracalla

      00153, Rome Italy

       

      Dear Committee on World Food Security Secretariat,

      We recognize and applaud the Committee on Food Security’s dedication to developing Voluntary Guidelines on Gender Equality and Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment in the context of food and nutrition.  These guidelines will be an essential component to ensuring a future planet that can nourish a growing population while achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. With the inclusion of the points below, we believe these guidelines will be strengthened and have the potential to further enhance gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment globally in the face of climate change.

      • Climate resiliency should be included as a core principle in achieving gender equality and women’s and girls empowerment in the context of food and nutrition (Part 2). Global food production systems are ill-prepared for the reality of our future: a growing human population and increasingly severe climate impacts. The current food production system is already unsustainable and without intervention we will continue to see depletion of soil health, water quality, aquatic foods, ecosystem function, wildlife abundance and more. Climate change will further exacerbate these challenges, increasing the number of malnourished and food insecure people around the world.[1],[2] Women are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change because they have less ownership and control over assets; they tend to manage tasks that are directly dependent on environmental health (e.g., fetching water, gleaning aquatic foods from reefs), and because gender roles in many cultures leave them with more of the burden of caring for family members while simultaneously reducing their own adaptive capacity.[3],[4] On top of this, the proportion of women already experiencing moderate to severe food and nutrition insecurity is consistently greater than that of men across every region of the world, and this is expected to worsen with the immediate and long-term impacts that climate change will have on vulnerable communities.[5] Thus, climate change has the potential to undermine efforts on behalf of Member States, development partners and other stakeholders to advance gender equality, women’s and girls’ rights and women’s and girls’ empowerment. However, evidence shows that deploying climate resilient management can help to mitigate these extreme impacts on people and the food system,[6],[7] and further, that including women in the decision-making around climate policies and interventions results in more effective interventions and leads to more equitable sharing of benefits. [8] Thus, by including climate resiliency as a core principle for achieving gender equity and women and girls’ empowerment, we can help to reduce impacts of climate change for vulnerable populations and maximize outcomes of interventions and engagements around both goals.
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      • Greater emphasis should be placed on the role of women and girls in the entire range of the blue economy throughout the Zero Draft. Blue/aquatic foods play an especially vital role in nourishing women and girls globally while providing opportunities for employment, income and livelihoods. In capture fisheries, catches from women are often used to contribute to consumption in their families and, therefore, contribute to ensuring local food and nutrition security.[9] Women are engaged  throughout the commercial and artisanal fish supply chain and the aquaculture sector.[10] In capture fisheries alone it is estimated that women make up 47% of the 120 million people employed, either part-time or full-time.[11]  Often these roles are low paid and informal; most are in low and middle income countries.[12] Women comprise 70% of the aquaculture workforce.[13] Despite their significant contribution to the workforce, the social security net for women in the blue supply chain often does not exist. This became apparent during the COVID pandemic when in most places only men were eligible for government support, further highlighting the inequality in the sector.

      The importance of aquatic/blue foods is heightened in small-scale fisheries and coastal communities as women fishers and fish workers contribute food and nutrition of their families as well as household income.[14] Despite the fact that improving gender equality in fisheries is linked to poverty reduction and greater development, most reform and equity efforts, especially in small-scale fisheries, fail to address existing gender inequalities.[15],[16] Gender-disaggregated data on the impact of women, especially resulting from their activities in small-scale fisheries, is needed to understand their important contributions to food and nutrition security and support proper management and policy creation.  Studies have shown that when interventions emphasize empowerment of women, consumption of fish and other aquatic foods and income; nutritional benefits can be achieved.[17]

      Thus, for example, financial literacy is another aspect of gender equity that deserves special attention. Financial literacy training for women can help to support improved livelihoods and local economies in fishing communities, enabling women -- who often have held only informal roles in managing household budgets -- to move into the more formal economy and gain experience and economic power.[18] In general these important contributions by women are often overlooked by policy makers, society, and industry.[19]

      Furthermore, women face special challenges and risks such as higher prevalence of HIV infection compared to men in fishing communities around the world -- for example, when they are forced by circumstances to trade sex for access to fish in order to be able to sell the fish in the marketplace.[20] Often resulting from “women’s diminished bargaining power, lack of income, and lack of nutritional security”,[21] these examples provide further evidence and justification for placing a greater emphasis on the need to recognize the role of women and girls in the blue economy within the Zero Draft. This can be achieved through the following suggestions:

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      • References to the roles of women and girls in the blue economy (including capture fisheries, aquaculture and throughout the blue supply chain) throughout the Zero Draft, including but not limited to paragraphs 7, 16c, 60, 62, 63, and 129.

      Recognition of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) including the importance of adoption of the key principles of these guidelines, through Constitutional, statutory or regulatory changes or via policy reforms  within Member States (specific reference in paragraph 17 and Section 3.5, ‘Access to and control over natural and productive resources’) and support for secure tenure rights that ensure access for women.

      *It is important to note that an impending report, developed by Duke University, WorldFish and FAO under the project Illuminating Hidden Harvests, will provide updated evidence and statistics on the role of women and girls in global small-scale fisheries and aquaculture.

      • Securing the benefits of Voluntary Guidelines via the rule of law. While the SSF Guidelines were unanimously adopted as a voluntary instrument, for their benefits to be fully realized they will need to be implemented in a way that secures their long-term application through national laws and governance structures. SSF Guidelines application is showing us that success of protecting women's rights, such as the right to secure access to fishing rights, depends upon mechanisms that allow for enforceability under the rule of law. To highlight this critical point, we suggest noting the importance of the adoption of implementing legal instruments, consistent with applicable national constitutions and laws, in order to effectuate these proposed guidelines in section 1.3 Nature of the voluntary guidelines and their intended users.

      In summary, we suggest that adding discussion on three key points will greatly strengthen and enhance the already valuable Voluntary Guidelines on Gender Equality and Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment in the context of food and nutrition. These points are: 1) the disproportionate impacts of climate change on women, especially in relation to food and nutrition security; 2) the importance of women in the production of aquatic foods and throughout the blue economy; and 3) the need for legally enforceable policies and mechanisms to support and protect the rights of women throughout the food system.

       

      Best Regards,

       

       

      Karly Kelso

      Director, Climate Resilient Food Systems

      Environmental Defense Fund

       

      Dr. Shakuntala Thilsted

      2021 World Food Prize Laureate

       

      Maria Honig

      Lead, WWF Accelerating Coastal Community-Led Conservation Initiative

      World Wildlife Fund

       

      Jim Leape

      Co-Director of the Center for Ocean Solutions/William and Eva Price Senior Fellow

      Woods Institute for the Environment

      Stanford University

       

      Kristian Teleki

      Director

      Friends of Ocean Action

       

      John Virdin

      Director, Oceans & Coastal Policy Program

      Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions

      Duke University

       

      Works Cited:

      [1] FAO. (2018). The future of food and agriculture – Alternative pathways to 2050 (Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; p. 224). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. https://www.fao.org/3/i8429en/i8429en.pdf

      [2] Impacts of climate change on fisheries and aquaculture: Synthesis of current knowledge, adaptation and mitigation options. (2018). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/I9705EN

      [3] Eastin, J. (2018). Climate change and gender equality in developing states. World Development, 107, 289–305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.02.021

      [4] Thomas, K., Hardy, R. D., Lazrus, H., Mendez, M., Orlove, B., Rivera-Collazo, I., Roberts, J. T., Rockman, M., Warner, B. P., & Winthrop, R. (2019). Explaining differential vulnerability to climate change: A social science review. WIREs Climate Change, 10(2), e565. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.565

      [5] The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021. (2021). FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb4474en

      [6] Burden, M., & Fujita, R. (2019). Better fisheries management can help reduce conflict, improve food security, and increase economic productivity in the face of climate change. Marine Policy, 108, 103610. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.103610

      [7] Sarkar, D., Kar, S. K., Chattopadhyay, A., Shikha, Rakshit, A., Tripathi, V. K., Dubey, P. K., & Abhilash, P. C. (2020). Low input sustainable agriculture: A viable climate-smart option for boosting food production in a warming world. Ecological Indicators, 115, 106412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106412

      [8] Cook, N. J., Grillos, T., & Andersson, K. P. (2019). Gender quotas increase the equality and effectiveness of climate policy interventions. Nature Climate Change, 9(4), 330–334. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0438-4

      [9] Harper, S. Ashade, Lam V.W.Y., Pauly, D., Sumaila, U.R. (2020). Valuing invisible catches: Estimating the global contribution by women to small-scale marine capture fisheries production. PLOS ONE 15 (3). https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228912

      [10] FAO. (2020). The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020. http://www.fao.org/3/ca9229en/online/ca9229en.html

      [11] Hidden Harvest The Global Contribution of Capture Fisheries (2012).  The World Bank. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/515701468152718292/pdf/664690ESW0P1210120HiddenHarvest0web.pdf

      [12] Matthews, Elizabeth, Jamie Bechtel, Easkey Britton, Karl Morrison and Caleb McClennen (2012). A Gender Perspective on Securing Livelihoods and Nutrition in Fish-dependent Coastal Communities. Report to The Rockefeller Foundation from Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, NY.

      [14] Bennett, A., Patil, P. Kleisner, K. Rader, D., Virdin, J., Basurto, X. (2018) Contribution of Fisheries to Food and Nutrition Security: Current Knowledge, Policy, and Research. NI Report 18-02. Durham, NC: Duke University, http://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/publication

      [15] Mangubhai, S. and Lawless, S. (2020). Exploring gender inclusion in small-scale fisheries management and development in Melanesia. Marine Policy Vol 123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2020.104287

      [16] Harper, S., Zeller, D., Hauzer, M., Pauly, D., Sumaila, U.S., (2013) Women and fisheries: Contribution to food security and local economies. Marine Policy Vol 39.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2012.10.018

      [17] Kawarazuka, N. 2010. The Contribution of Fish intake, aquaculture, and small scale fisheries to improving nutrition: A literature review. The WorldFish Center Working Paper No. 2106. The WorldFish Center, Penang, Malaysia. 44p.

      [18]Damayanti, O. and Fitriana, R. (2021). In Indonesia, financial literacy is key to sustainable fishery livelihoods for communities. http://blogs.edf.org/edfish/2021/11/09/in-indonesia-financial-literacy-is-key-to-sustainable-fishery-livelihoods-for-communities/

      [19] Harper, S. Ashade, Lam V.W.Y., Pauly, D., Sumaila, U.R. (2020). Valuing invisible catches: Estimating the global contribution by women to small-scale marine capture fisheries production. PLOS ONE 15 (3). https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228912

      [20] Matthews, Elizabeth, Jamie Bechtel, Easkey Britton, Karl Morrison and Caleb McClennen (2012). A Gender Perspective on Securing Livelihoods and Nutrition in Fish-dependent Coastal Communities. Report to The Rockefeller Foundation from Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, NY.