CSW69 Side Event | Measuring Women's Empowerment in Large Scale Surveys

Join us on the sidelines of the 69th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) for a side event organized with IFPRI titled “Measuring Women's Empowerment in Large Scale Surveys” on Thursday, 20 March 2025 from 16.45 to 18.00 New York Time.

Gender inequality has a tremendous cost not only for women but also for the agricultural sector and the broader economy and society. FAO’s report on the Status of Women in Agrifood Systems (2023) explains that empowering women is essential to women’s well-being and leads to improved agricultural productivity, food security, and better outcomes for future generations.

Building on the WEAI experience, IFPRI, Emory University, and Oxford University worked in partnership with the World Bank on the development of a new metric for measuring women’s empowerment: the Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS). The metric was launched in 2023 after validation and testing in four countries (Bangladesh, Guatemala, Malawi, Nepal).

FAO is contributing to the improvement and uptake of the metric. Under the umbrella of the 50x2030 Initiative to Close the Agricultural Data Gap, FAO integrated WEMNS in the agricultural surveys of three partner countries: Sierra Leone, Liberia and Tanzania.

The side event aims to present an overview of the development of WEMNS and describe the effort made by FAO and partner countries for integrating WEMNS in agricultural surveys. FAO, IFPRI and partner countries will share their experiences, successes, lessons learned and propose steps forward.

SPEAKERS

• Dr. Jessica Heckert, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
• Dr. Chiara Brunelli, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
• Mr. Shelton Kanyanda, National Statistical Office of Malawi
• Ingeniera Regina Valiente, Dirección de Políticas Públicas, Secretaría Presidencial de la Mujer en Guatemala
• Honorable Theresa Dick, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Sierra Leone

MODERATOR

• Dr. Jemimah Njuki, Chief, Economic Empowerment Section, UN Women

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