FAO Report on the Status of Rural Women in Agrifood Systems - High-level Global Launch Event

FAO Report on the Status of Rural Women in Agrifood Systems 

High-level Global Launch Event

Statement

By

Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General

13 April 2023

 

Excellences, 

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

 

#letsgrowequality!

I am pleased to launch the 2023 report on The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems.

For the first time in more than a decade, FAO is providing a comprehensive picture of the status of rural women working not only in agriculture, but across agrifood systems.

Rural women’s empowerment and gender equality are not only a key part of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, but are also critically important for the well-being of all human beings.  

Evidence over the past decade shows that increasing rural women’s empowerment has a positive impact on agricultural production, food security, diets and child nutrition,

And strengthens and improves household resilience to shocks.

Despite the increased attention placed on gender equality and rural women in key international processes, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, progress in closing gender gaps in agrifood systems over the past 20 years has been slow and uneven.  

In too many areas, gender gaps are either unchanged or growing and this has become extremely evident during the COVID-19 Pandemic, particularly for rural women – as set out in the report – showing they are also more vulnerable to the effects of shocks and crises.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the gap between women’s and men’s food insecurity has grown from 1.7 percentage points to 4.3 percentage points, with significantly higher food insecurity among rural women.

This means that 126 million more women than men globally experienced food insecurity in 2021.

It is, however, encouraging that gaps in women’s access to financial services, mobile internet and mobile phones have narrowed over the past decade.

Yet, women continue to have low or no legal protection for their equal rights to land in half of the countries that have reported progress on the SDGs.

Gender gaps in access to irrigation, extension, agricultural mechanization and ownership of land and livestock remain significant.

As a result, women are more likely than men to be in lower paid, and in more vulnerable forms of employment, in both primary agriculture and off-farm segments of agrifood systems.

Transforming the way women work in agrifood systems – in particular by reducing the gender gaps in wages and productivity – would also positively contribute to the global economy.

FAO estimates that by closing these gaps, there could be a one-off increase of nearly 1 trillion US dollars – which means 1% of global GDP - and the number of food insecure people could be reduced by 45 million.

Gender equality and women’s empowerment is embedded in the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31,

And is also mainstreamed in our efforts to achieve the Four Betters: Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment and a Better Life for all, leaving no one behind.

With the publication of this report, FAO reaffirms its commitment to further increase our work on gender equality and women’s empowerment,

With a particular focus on rural women facing additional constraints and vulnerability due to their age, ethnicity, indigenous identity, and remoteness of where they live.

This includes advocating for policy frameworks and laws that seek to address discriminatory social norms and structural constraints.

It also includes utilizing gender-transformative approaches to a greater extent in our projects and programming for inclusive rural development.

And to continue to work for the collection and use of high-quality data, disaggregated by sex, age and other forms of social and economic differentiation.

Transformation of our agrifood systems to more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable depends on the empowerment of all women, and on gender equality.

We encourage all stakeholders to make a commitment to continue working together with us in an efficient, effective and coherent manner to increase equality and leave no one behind.

Thank you.