FAO calls for increased financing for gender equality in agrifood systems at CSW68
At CSW68, FAO cohosted several side events and participated in more, highlighting the importance of women's empowerment in building sustainable agrifood systems
Photo of an FAO and African Development Bank organized side event on 15 March: Investing in Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment to Mitigate/Prevent Food Crises and Transform Agrifood Systems
©FAO
11-22 March, New York – Empowering women and investing in gender equality is a must to have resilient, inclusive and sustainable agrifood systems, said FAO at the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) in New York in March 2024.
In its intervention during the General Debate, FAO advocated for investment in solutions which have proven to work and require scale – such as improving women's ownership and registration of land, investing in social protection and formal childcare for women in rural areas, and adopting approaches which combine increasing access to assets and resources with reducing and addressing discriminatory social norms.
FAO also highlighted that closing the gender gap in agrifood systems is essential to building the resilience of households to shocks and crises. In a recently published report titled ‘The Unjust Climate’, FAO has estimated that for every 1 degree increase in global temperatures, the losses suffered from climate change by female-headed farming households are 34 percent higher than male-headed households.