Gender-responsive policy-making and budgeting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) provides countries with policy and governance support in building sustainable food and agricultural systems. As the world’s leading forum for policy dialogue, it also provides evidence that can form the basis for policymaking at national, regional and global levels, as countries work to prioritize challenges, implement decisions and monitor the effectiveness of their interventions.

FAO supports the generation of intergovernmental agreed treaties, declarations, norms, standards and voluntary guidelines, and strengthens the capacities of policy-makers for inclusive, transparent and effective decision-making and actions.

Women and girls are critical agents in the fight against rural poverty, hunger and malnutrition and in building resilient livelihoods. Despite their key role in agriculture, in all regions, rural women and girls continue to face numerous constraints, which affect not only their own well-being and that of their families but also undermines the productivity of the agricultural sector. The gender gap is imposing real costs in terms of food and nutrition security and social and economic growth.

FAO is supporting partners to reach their full potential in enabling more effective and inclusive agricultural and rural development processes and achieving long-term results in poverty reduction.

Gender-responsive policies are crucial to achieving sustainable agriculture and rural development, as they enable women and girls to participate fully in and benefit equally from socioeconomic opportunities. Yet national governments and relevant stakeholders often lack the technical knowledge and skills, such as data disaggregated by sex and the capacity to carry out a gender analysis, and to support the formulation of gender-responsive policies and strategies. As a result, gender equality and women’s empowerment considerations are not integrated, and the needs and aspirations of women and girls remain inadequately addressed in agricultural policy frameworks. This results in the perpetuation of gender disparities and the economic marginalization of rural women and girls.

Often, even when there is a political commitment towards gender equality, the insufficient investment in gender-responsive policy interventions can minimize positive impacts on the livelihoods and empowerment of rural women and girls.

FAO supports governments in developing policy frameworks and strengthening the capacities needed to achieve gender equality and the economic empowerment of rural women, as part of their efforts to end hunger, reduce food insecurity and malnutrition, and foster sustainable agriculture. FAO promotes a systematic inclusion of the gender equality principle throughout the policy cycle, from the analysis of the problem to policy formulation, the design of results indicators, budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

FAO advocates for the inclusion of gender perspectives in global frameworks and standards as well as policy dialogues on agriculture, food security and nutrition. Through the Committee on World Food Security, it supports countries to include gender equality considerations in agreed principles and international standards for food security and nutrition. FAO also develops gender-sensitive indicators to be integrated in data collection systems related to agriculture, food security and rural development.