NSP Gender Group promoting how to enhance women’s visibility in agroecology

Rome, 05 July 2023 – The webinar “Boosting the potential of women farmers as protagonist of agroecological experiences: stories from the field’’ took place virtually with over 90 participants engaged to share the updates, lessons learnt and activities on the importance of the work women farmers are doing to implement agroecological experiences in all regions. NSP Gender Focal Points and the Gender Team of the Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division (ESP) organized the meeting.

Jingyuan Xia, NSP Director, opened the meeting and provided a brief update on why is important to take women’s knowledge and experience into account in the agroecological activities. Director Xia also underlined the importance of recognizing and integrating a gender-transformative approach in policies and programmes to promote agroecology, to increase equality between women and men. According to him, this can also realize the full potential of women to achieve food security, overcome rural poverty, combat biodiversity loss, and promote sustainable natural resource management.

The event hosted interventions by Emma Siliprandi, FAO Agricultural Officer and NSP Gender Focal Point, Swati Renduchintala, Center for International Forestry Research, Suzanne Phillips, FAO Agricultural Officer, Rodica Weitzman, Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, Anne Mottet, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and Joana Dias, Association for Cooperation and Development.

The webinar presented different methodologies that have been used by FAO and partners to enhance women’s visibility on agroecology experiences, such as the Farmer Field Schools, the Self-help Groups, the Agroecology Logbooks, the Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation (TAPE) and training proposals. Participants agreed that it is important to raise awareness on these methodologies and increase their dissemination, in other to support women’s empowerment on the field.

Lauren Phillips, Deputy Director of the Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division, shared her closing remarks and appreciation for a highly informative and relevant webinar. She underlined the importance of continuing promoting gender equality and women’s inclusion in rural areas through the tools and methodologies discussed by the panellists. She thanked the Plant Production and Protection Division for organizing this well-planned and well-attended event, looking forward to future engagements on gender and plant production.