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Gender

Gender equality and women’s empowerment are crucial to end hunger, malnutrition and poverty. Women constitute 48 percent of the agricultural labour force in low-income countries and are critical agents of change and resilience builders. As farmers, agricultural workers, food processors, traders, entrepreneurs and community leaders, women play a central role in rural economies, natural resource management and food production – they make significant contributions to food security, nutrition and the well-being of families and communities.
 

Empowering women and achieving gender equality

Compared to men, women experience greater constraints in accessing resources, services, institutions, markets, decent employment and other economic opportunities. The “gender gap” in agriculture is still substantial and prevents women from reaching their full potential and undermines agricultural production and rural development.

FAO works with member states and partners to design and implement gender-equitable laws and policies and gender-transformative programmes. Priority actions include, among others: increasing women’s access to and control over productive resources; developing gender-sensitive value chains;  investing in labour-saving technologies; and addressing gender issues in climate change adaptation and resilience building.
Key messages

Closing the gender gap in farm productivity and the wage gap in agrifood system employment would increase global gross domestic product by nearly USD 1 trillion and reduce the number of food-insecure people by 45 million.

If half of small-scale producers benefited from development interventions which focused on empowering women, it would significantly raise the incomes of an additional 58 million people and increase the resilience of an additional 235 million people.

Increasing their empowerment has a positive impact on their wellbeing, agricultural production, food security, diets and the nutrition of children.

This is key to improving the design and effectiveness of programming and policy in terms of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Inclusive and gender-responsive laws and policies require addressing multiple and intersecting forms of inequalities, and power imbalances in agrifood systems.

 
Featured resources

FAO-Dimitra Clubs: Community mobilization

Oct 4, 2023, 11:06 AM
The video shows how the members of the FAO-Dimitra Clubs in Niger and DR Congo have succeeded in improving their livelihoods and highlights the momentum they have created at community...
Title : FAO-Dimitra Clubs: Community mobilization
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*Publication Date : Jan 10, 2016, 00:00 AM