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Evidence platform for agrifood systems and nutrition

This FAO evidence platform provides evidence and tools to support governments and stakeholders in the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition (VGFSyN) of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS).

To find relevant documents for a VGFSyN recommendation, select a focus area from the left menu and the sub-focus area of your interest. You will be redirected to a page listing all relevant VGFSyN recommendations. Select a recommendation to access the links to the relevant online documents

Focus Area VI
Gender equality and women's empowerment across food systems

This focus area highlights the importance of improving women’s wellbeing, ensuring direct access to financial, technical and biophysical resources, improving and enabling agency and participation in decision-making, and balancing the power relationships and overcoming legal impediments that limit equality and choices. It provides guidance on: empowering women and recognizing and addressing women’s nutritional status and deprivation.

3.6.3 Recognizing and addressing women's nutritional status and deprivation

The four digit numbering of each recommendation follows the numbering in the VGFSyN, whereby the first digit represents the chapter 3 of the document that includes the 105 recommendations, the second digit the focus area, the third digit the sub-focus area and the letter the specific recommendation.

  • Recommendation 3.6.3.a

    Governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, development partners and other relevant stakeholders should acknowledge and advance the nutritional wellbeing of women and girls throughout the lifecycle, including through the provision of health, nutrition and other essential services. This can be done by promoting and supporting that national development strategies are informed by participatory gender and age analyses, and that women and girls throughout the lifecycle, with compromised nutritional status and higher levels of deprivation, access gender-responsive social protection programmes and benefits.

  • Recommendation 3.6.3.b

    Governments and other key stakeholder should acknowledge and vale women’s crucial contributions as caregivers, in agriculture, food production an preparation, recognizing women significant time and workload commitments, including unpaid care work and domestic chores at the household level. This should be addressed through the effective implementation of gender-sensitive and transformative policies, social protection programmes and other benefits, and the promotion of equitable sharing of domestic chores.

  • Recommendation 3.6.3.c

    Governments should create an enabling policy framework, as appropriate, and supportive practices to protect and support breastfeeding, ensuring that decisions to breastfeed do not result in women losing their economic security or any of their rights. This should include promoting and implementing policies and programmes ensuring maternity protection and paid parental leave and removing workplace-related barriers to optimal breastfeeding (lack of breaks, facilities, and services).