Social protection instruments include social assistance (such as cash transfers and public works programmes), social insurance (pensions and health insurance) and labour market programmes (e.g. vocational training). In rural contexts, social protection is an effective means to reduce poverty, build resilience and adaptive capacity, enhance food security, and foster rural development and livelihoods. Investments in social protection provide basic income security, adequate dietary intake, increased access to health care and education, and decent and productive employment, while building adaptive capacity and resilience to crises, for example, in the context of climate change. 

Men and women are affected by rural poverty and vulnerability in different ways due to rigid gender roles and their specific constraints and capacities in agriculture and rural livelihoods. Although rural women and girls play crucial roles in agrifood systems, they are more likely than men and boys to be food insecure and undernourished, and their access to productive assets and resources continues to lag behind.  

Women are often the intended beneficiaries of social protection programmes, as heads of household, individuals facing specific life-cycle risks (e.g. pregnant and lactating women) or as mothers and caregivers. Every aspect of social protection design and delivery, including targeting, conditionality and payment mechanisms, may affect power relations, gender equality and women’s empowerment and welfare. Women often face barriers registering for social protection programmes where procedures used to identify and enroll beneficiaries are gender insensitive. 

Well-designed social protection measures can reduce gender gaps in access to services, productive resources and decision-making, and increase women's employment. Cash or in-kind transfers and public works programmes can boost women’s social status, increase their financial autonomy and asset accumulation, and enhance their resilience. Social protection can also support socioeconomic inclusion and gender-responsive climate adaptation and mitigation, enhancing women’s adaptive capacities and resilience, and helping overcome discriminatory social norms. 

Social protection schemes need to be designed, implemented and monitored based on clear understanding of the specific risks and constraints faced by women to ensure equal benefits. More efforts are needed to overcome the barriers of rural women to access social protection due to their heavy care burden and weak bargaining power, poor services or infrastructure, illiteracy and limited access to information or land registered in their name.  

Gender-sensitive social protection gives special attention to the needs and vulnerabilities of women, men, boys and girls, while gender-responsive approaches take active measures to respond to the specific priorities of women and girls. Gender-transformative programmes go even further by addressing the underlying power structures and gender relations affecting inequality. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) works to inform the design of gender-responsive and gender-transformative social protection interventions by conducting quantitative analysis to assess their role on rural households’ well-being, women’s empowerment and decision-making, dietary diversity and economic empowerment. FAO has prepared materials to enhance the technical capacity of social protection practitioners to integrate gender issues into the design, delivery, monitoring and evaluation of programmes in rural areas. FAO also analyzes the role of cash+ programming, which combines cash transfers with productive assets, inputs and training, in supporting rural women’s economic empowerment.