UNGA79 SUMMIT OF THE FUTURE High level Event: ‘’Commit to Grow Equality: Invest in the Future of Women and Girls’’ Opening Remarks

Excellences, 

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Girls and Boys,

It is my great pleasure today to convene this important event highlighting our collective commitment to grow gender equality, youth, and women's empowerment in agrifood systems.

Each of us gathered here is dedicated to our shared vision.

We therefore have to join forces to do more and better, together, as an international community.

Rural women’s empowerment and gender equality are not only a key part of achieving SDG2, SDG1 and SDG5, but are an integral part of the entire 2030 Agenda, and civilization.

And are intrinsically important for women’s well-being and the well-being of their families.

At FAO, gender equality is embedded in our Strategic Framework 2022-31.

It is also mainstreamed across all our work towards the Four Betters: Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment, and a Better Life for all - leaving no one behind.

Closing gender gaps and empowering women and girls in agrifood systems would greatly improve economic growth, food security, access to technology and opportunity, and resilience for women, their households and communities.

We have the evidence to show us how to overcome these gaps – evidence that calls upon all of us to act, collectively and urgently.

The FAO Report on The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems, released in 2023, was one of the catalysts for this initiative.

It demonstrated that in far too many domains, gender gaps are either unchanged or growing, particularly for rural women.

In light of this evidence, FAO is committed to do even more to deepen our work on gender equality, youth and women’s empowerment.

Today I would like to highlight three specific objectives FAO will pursue in the coming years.

First: FAO commits to track gender transformative actions in its projects, and to include these actions in up to 10% of projects by 2030.

We will also launch incentives to promote these actions in the implementation of projects by March 2025.

Gender transformative approaches are effective at addressing discriminatory norms, which hold back women and have shown to be cost effective.

Second: FAO commits to promote the dissemination and uptake of the Committee on World Food Security’s Voluntary Guidelines on Gender Equality and Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment in 10 countries by 2026.

Third: FAO commits to launching a gender domain in our statistical database by 2026.

This will make it possible for the public to access - in one place - all available data on key dimensions of gender equality such as women’s work, training, and asset ownership in agrifood systems, as well as data on women’s food security and nutrition.

More broadly, FAO will continue to lead the Commit to Grow Equality Initiative, which we hope will foster investments in demonstrated approaches at scale.

The Commit to Grow Equality process will also promote coordination and transparency, enhance our knowledge base and better understand our collective progress.

Finally, FAO looks forward to implementing, in coordination with partners, the International Year of the Woman Farmer in 2026.

We have made significant progress, but there remains much more to achieve.

I invite you to join us to reaffirm your individual and collective commitment to accelerate our efforts towards gender equality by 2030.

Together, we can do more for women and girls and for a more harmonized future.

Thank you.