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The Mozambique land law provides statutory recognition of customary land rights and is considered one of the most progressive legislations in Africa. However, the law continues to face implementation challenges, including the realization of equal rights for women and institutional reform. Simply having a progressive law ‘is not enough’ to bring about transformative change in a country. Recognizing these challenges, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) developed a programme to support the legislation through the capacity development of both direct beneficiaries and those responsible for implementing it. This publication, presents an overview of how this programme [...]

This technical paper focuses primarily on price transmissions in small-scale and large-scale fishery and aquaculture value chains in 14 developed and developing countries. Although the study is focused on the small-scale sector, both the small-scale and large-scale sectors were analysed in order to demonstrate differences between the two. The document begins with an overview of the entire project and its global implications, reviewing the importance of fisheries and aquaculture to livelihoods, food security and trade as well as the rationale for value chain analysis. It then presents detailed and summarized country-specific information on the research and analysis conducted, presenting analysis [...]

In rural societies, where local culture and traditions are still very vibrant, responsibilities and tasks are often assigned to women and men on the basis of traditional gender roles, defined as those behaviours and responsibilities that a society considers appropriate for men, women, boys and girls. These roles change over time, have different characteristics in every local context and are shaped by ideological, religious, cultural, ethnic and economic factors. They are a key determinant of the distribution of resources and responsibilities between men and women . In many cases gender roles are biased and favour certain social constituencies at the expense of others. Rural women, for instance, face [...]

Policy-makers worldwide have traditionally assumed that fisheries are a male domain. The policy agenda has for decades given priority to the production sphere,  where men generally predominate, and has largely neglected processing and  marketing activities, where women often play a key role. Recent sex-disaggregated  data (from the World Bank, FAO and WorldFish Center) represent an initial, positive  step in providing the quantitative evidence needed to convince policy-makers of  the impo rtance of women in the sector. The data indicate that women represent  47 percent of the 120 million people engaged in capture fisheries. Worldwide,  they are even more important in [...]

Gender equality is central to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations’ (FAO’s) mandate to achieve food security for all by raising levels of nutrition, improving agricultural productivity and natural resource management, and improving the lives of rural populations. FAO can achieve its goals only if it simultaneously works towards gender equality and supports women’s diverse roles in agriculture and rural development. Gender equality is not only an essential means by which FAO can achieve its mandate, it is also a basic human right. Available in French and Spanish.

Agricultural policies should redress gender inequalities to ensure that development interventions in the sector are effective and can achieve enduring positive impacts on the lives and economic potential of rural women, men, girls and boys. One powerful instrument for promoting realization of the rights and potential of rural women and girls is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The purpose of these guidelines is to provide guidance on how FAO and national ministries of agriculture (MoAs) can support and use CEDAW at the country level as a tool for policy development and programming [...]

The purpose of the passport is to support them in mainstreaming a gender perspective during planning, implementation and management of agricultural water management projects and programmes. This implies assessing the implications of any intervention on women and men, girls and boys, through a participatory approach, while designing gender sensitive interventions. The expected outcome is improved performance of water management projects and systems, while strengthening the position of rural women or other disadvantaged groups. The passport is designed to be a rapid appraisal tool to identify the main gender-related problems and gaps that require attention during the design, implementation and monitoring of a project or programme. If the project is at the planning [...]

Cooperatives in the small-scale fisheries sector are a way of maximizing long-term community benefits to deal with the threats of fisheries mismanagement, livelihood insecurity and poverty – harsh realities for many of the world’s small-scale fishers. Communities with successful community-based organizations are better off than those without (Ostrom, 1990). Successful cooperatives are possible, feasible and desirable and play an important role in community development. Cooperatives have the potential to empower small-scale fishers against environmental and socio-economic shocks such as catch shortfalls, sickness and death in their families, natural disasters and hunger. The following case studies show how fisheries cooperatives contribute to [...]

Identifies the links between decent employment and food security and shows how improving policy coherence between employment and agricultural initiatives and investing more in the promotion of decent rural employment will contribute highly to the interlinked challenges of fighting rural poverty and feeding a growing world population in a sustainable way.

Women make significant contributions to the rural economy in all developing country regions. Their roles differ across regions, yet they consistently have less access than men to the resources and opportunities they need to be more productive. Increasing women’s access to land, livestock, education, financial services, extension, technology and rural employment would boost their productivity and generate gains in terms of agricultural production, food security, economic growth and social welfare. Closing the gender gap in agricultural inputs alone could lift 100–150 million people out of hunger.  No blueprint exists for closing the gender gap, but some basic principles are universal: governments, [...]