Deputy Director Lauren Phillips in Washington, DC and Ottawa to Highlight FAO's Work on Gender Equality, Women's Empowerment and Inclusive Rural Transformation
Washington, DC/Ottawa Deputy Director Lauren Phillips of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division (ESP) had four productive days of meetings in Washington, DC and Ottawa, Canada during the week of the 7th of November.
While perhaps lesser known by name, the ESP division coordinates FAO’s work on critical social dimensions underlying food and nutrition insecurity. ESP covers rural institutions, social protection, gender equality, decent rural employment, tenure rights, migration, and the right to food. The goal of the division’s rights-based approach is to empower people through:
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enhanced social protection systems
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diversified rural employment opportunities
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reduced gender gaps and other social equalities
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strengthened producers’ organizations
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improved governance of tenure and the rural poor’s access to resources and financial services
Deputy Director Phillips began the week with the US Department of State Bureau of International Organization Affairs (IO), meeting with Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary Kristen Pisani. Later in the week, Phillips help discussions with the State of Global Women’s Issues (SGWI) highlighting the confluence of FAO and the SGWI work to ensure the rights of women and girls, particularly through the lens of climate change, migration, and technology.
At USAID, Lauren Phillips met with Acting Assistant to the Administrator of the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, Dina Esposito, and her team as well as Inclusive Development Division Chief Meredith Soule and the Gender Development team to discuss women’s empowerment in agriculture.They discussed persisting gaps in food security and food productivity between women and men farmers. Healthcare, education, and improved access to technology are central to closing these gaps. Later in the week, the Deputy Director met with the USAID Land Tenure. For billions of people, tenure is crucial to livelihoods and intrinsically linked to food security. Women overwhelmingly have weaker tenure rights, adding to the gender gap in agricultural productivity and economic opportunity.
In conversation with the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) the focus remained on issues related to women and children, as well as empowerment and decent rural employment. Globally, seventy percent of child labor occurs in the agriculture sector, violating their rights and endangering their health and education.
During the week, there were several meetings on Capitol Hill, including the offices of Representative Chellie Pingree, member of both the House Appropriations Committee and Agriculture Committee; Senator Susan Collins, member of the Committee on Appropriations; Senator Jean Shaheen, senior member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; and Senator Tina Smith, member of the Committees on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and on Indian Affairs.
At the end of her mission, Deputy Director Phillips travelled to Ottawa for a full-day of high-level meetings with Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), as well as with representatives from Canadian civil society (CARE Canada) and Parliament Hill (Office of Senator Paula Simons, Deputy Chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry). The meetings demonstrated significant alignment and interest in the ESP division's work.
It is noteworthy that Marie-Claude Bibeau, Canada’s Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, has played a leadership role in the development and implementation of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP). Canada provides an excellent example of how to effectively mainstream a feminist approach to policy across an entire government.
To specifically answer questions surrounding the gender equality gap, its impact on food security and agricultural outcomes, and transformative approaches to women’s role in agrifood systems, FAO will launch the Status of Rural Women in Agrifood Systems late in the second quarter of 2023. This marks the first flagship report by FAO since the 2011 State of Food and Agriculture to focus on gender gaps in agrifood systems. The report aims to reframe the discussion by putting gender equality and women’s empowerment at the center of the research agenda.