Commit to Grow Equality attracts broad commitments from partners to increase gender equality in agrifood systems

FAO’s Commit to Grow Equality initiative has attracted an initial set of wide-ranging commitments from a diverse group of stakeholders that could benefit up to 54 million women in agrifood systems.

These commitments are matched against evidence-based suggestions on how to close gaps between men and women in agrifood systems, and support women’s empowerment. Commitments range from USAID, who committed to adding USD 114 million to existing efforts to tackle urgent challenges women face in agrifood and water systems, to South Sudan, who pledged to increase policy efforts to protect women’s land rights in the country. Meanwhile, the International Trade Centre plans to increase the quality of programming worth USD 300 million for gender equality and women's empowerment in agrifood systems along the reach, benefit, empower, transform framework.

“In total, through our collective ambition, we will be able to reach the equivalent of 10% of women working in agrifood systems, and approximately USD 1 billion of investments will initially be aligned to the initiative,” said Lauren Phillips, Deputy Director of FAO’s Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division. “All of these commitments are particularly meaningful because they come from a variety of actors across sectors, including governments in both the Global North and the Global South.”

Commitments were announced during a high-level event, titled “Commit to Grow Equality: Investing in the Future of Women and Girls”, which took place on the sidelines of the Summit of the Future and the 79th session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on 24 September 2024.

“We cannot claim to be championing the transformation of our food systems if we are not championing gender equality,” said H.E. Micheál Martin, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ireland, delivering the keynote speech at the event.

He announced that Ireland would provide EUR 150 000 to FAO for its work in coordinating and managing the Commit to Grow Equality initiative and an additional EUR 1.5 million to work with FAO on women’s economic empowerment in agrifood systems in low-income countries.

The latter commitment will benefit a joint programme implemented by FAO, the World Food Programme, International Fund for Agricultural Development and UN Women, all of whom made significant commitments during the event.

Ministers from the Republic of Ecuador, the Kingdom of Norway and the Republic of Türkiye joined Ireland in expressing their support for the initiative and showcasing commitments and key actions being taken in each country to support women in agrifood systems.

The non-governmental organization Save the Children committed to conducting a Gender and Power (GAP) Analysis across all of its agriculture and climate programs, as well as a scoping review on the intersection between climate change and gender-based violence. Private sector actor ofi aims to provide enhanced nutrition and health support to 750 000 households in the communities where it operates.

Among sister UN agencies, the World Food Programme pledged to mobilize support for 10 million women through their own financial accounts, while IFAD will reach several million women through commitments to include gender transformative actions in 35% of their portfolio and through the Gender Transformative Mechanism in the Context of Climate Adaptation.

FAO’s commitments, announced by Director-General QU Dongyu, focus on taking a gender transformative approach to 10% of the organization’s projects, launching an internal gender transformative prize to recognize teams that demonstrate the use of gender transformative approaches in their projects and programmes, promoting the uptake of the CFS Voluntary Guidelines on Gender Equality and Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment in the Context of Food Security and Nutrition in ten countries by 2026, and increasing the availability of gender-related data in its FAOSTAT statistical database.

FAO’s Chief Economist Máximo Torero noted that “commitments made to this initiative are not just promises”. He explained that FAO will lead an annual tracking and reporting process to ensure transparency and accountability, with a first annual progress report published by March 2025.