Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Boa tarde,

Segue uma pequena contribuição a respeito dos projetos executados, por cooperativas de mulheres no âmbito do Programa Alimenta Brasil relacionadas a Segurança alimentar e nutricional.

Programa Alimenta Brasil PAB

O Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos (PAA) foi criado pelo Art. 19 da Lei nº 10.696, de 02 de julho de 2003, no âmbito do Programa Fome Zero. Esta Lei foi alterada pela Lei nº 12.512, de 14 de outubro de 2011 e regulamentada por diversos decretos, o que está em vigência é o Decreto nº 7.775, de 4 de julho de 2012. Considerado uma das principais ações de incentivo à agricultura familiar, possui duas finalidades básicas: promover o acesso à alimentação e incentivar a de renda na agricultura familiar [1].

Um programa que com a dispensa de licitação, o Governo Federal, através do Ministério e Cidadania, consegue atingir este objetivo e, além disso, proporcionar a alimentação para as famílias em situação de insegurança alimentar e nutricional e àquelas atendidas pela rede sócio assistencial, pelos equipamentos públicos de segurança alimentar e nutricional e pela rede pública e filantrópica de ensino.

Este programa contribui para a formação de estoques públicos de alimentos produzidos pelas cooperativas da agricultura familiar e promove o abastecimento ao adquirir os alimentos destas organizações, promove o fortalecimento dos circuitos e locais de comercialização. Possui um leque de incentivos à produção agro ecológica, orgânica, fortalecendo a biodiversidade e a construção de hábitos alimentares saudáveis, além de estimular o associativismo e o cooperativismo entre os pequenos produtores.

Esta política é executada com recursos do Ministério da Cidadania, abrangendo duas modalidades para sua implementação:

• Parcerias estabelecidas por meio do Termo de Adesão, com estados, Distrito Federal, municípios ou consórcios públicos de municípios
• Formalização de Termo de Cooperação com a Conab – companhia nacional de Abastecimento.

Este programa é executado nas seguintes modalidades: Compra com Doação Simultânea, Compra Direta, Apoio à Formação de Estoques, Incentivo à Produção e ao Consumo de Leite, Compra Institucional e Aquisição de Sementes. Todos os estados brasileiros e municípios possuem acesso a este programa que coloca semanalmente alimentos frescos na mesa dos asilos, creches, escolas, restaurantes populares, entre outros equipamentos de proteção social.

A Compra com doação simultânea

Este é um Programa que beneficia milhares de agricultoras brasileiras, possibilitando a geração de renda no campo, melhora sistemática da alimentação em seus lares, alémm de transferir renda para estas mulheres, de forma que estas sejam motivadas as boas praticas de produtividade no campo, com doação simultânea de sua produção para famílias em situação de insegurança alimentar, entidades assistenciais, asilos, escolas etc…

Atualmente o programa traz, por força da legislação brasileira como preferência as cooperativas constituídas por mulheres para recebimento destes recursos, tendo o governo como mais um dos clientes para aquisição de sua produção excedente.

[1] 1 https://www.conab.gov.br/images/arquivos/agricultura_familiar/Cartilha_PAA.pdf p.3

Eni’s feedback on the Zero Draft of the Guidelines

Eni’s comments to the FAO’s guiding questions

1. Does the Zero Draft appropriately capture the main challenges and barriers that hinder progress in achieving gender equality and the full realization of women’s and girls’ rights in the context of food security and nutrition? If not, what do you think is missing or should be adjusted?

We have no contributions on this.

2. Does Part 2 of the Zero Draft satisfactorily reflect the core principles which should underpin the Guidelines? If not, how do you propose to improve these principles?

Paragraph 17: We would suggest integrating the Gender guidance for the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights published the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) into the reference documents.  This reference could be particularly relevant since both public and private sector are explicitly included among the intended users of the voluntary guidelines. 

3. Do the nine sections of Part 3 of the Zero Draft comprehensively cover the policy areas to be addressed to achieve gender equality and the full realization of women’s and girls’ rights in the context of food security and nutrition? If not, what do you think is missing?

a) 3.1 Women’s participation, voice and leadership in policy- and decision-making at all levels 

• Paragraph 32 states that “Women are insufficiently represented in decision-making processes for food security and nutrition at all levels. This contributes to the design and implementation of policies which fail to recognize their key roles in food security and nutrition, and to deliver the realization of their rights and the promotion of their interests, needs and priorities. Promoting women’s effective participation and leadership and supporting them as agents of change are vital to advancing food security and nutrition for themselves, their household and society.”. Besides processes for food security and nutrition at all levels, however, other economic activities could generate impacts (either positive or negative) on women’s and girls’ food security, including but not limited to large-scale infrastructure projects and energy sector projects. Considering also that the guidelines’ declared objectives don’t seem to be limited to agricultural projects it might be worth considering calling upon States to make sure that women and girls are adequately involved in consultation and decision-making processes for any process potentially affecting their food security and nutrition. This would raise better opportunities for women and ease the private sector’s efforts to reach this goal.
• Paragraph 33 highlights advantages associated to women’s voice and active participation. Consider integrating a short description of negative consequences potentially deriving from women’s exclusion (i.e.: failure to adequately promoting women’s effective participation and leadership could validate and strengthen existing gender imbalances in social norms and power dynamics). 
• Paragraph 35: reference is made to decision making at both high-level processes and at household level. We would suggest adding a reference to community-level consultations and possible constraints due to failure to considering gender norms and unequal distribution of unpaid labor in the design of such processes (i.e.: lack of provisions on women’s focus groups and a gender-responsive selection of times and venues of the meetings).

b) 3.2 Elimination of violence and discrimination against women for improved food security and nutrition

• Paragraph 45: Consider including reference to transactional sex in the fisheries sector (between male fishers and local female buyers seeking access to fish), as extensively documented in some regions. As reported by FAO, the impact of this phenomenon seems to be so serious that it contributes to explain gender gaps in prevalence HIV rates [1]. 
• Paragraph 47: Reference could be made to support to shelter houses and other initiatives focused on gender-based violence in the context of public-private partnerships.

c) 3.3 Access to education, capacity building, training, knowledge and information services

• Paragraph 51: Consider including poor menstrual hygiene management [2] and gender-based violence in or around schools among the obstacles to girls’ education [3] among the factors hampering girls education, especially at secondary and tertiary levels.
• Paragraph 53: literacy and numeracy can also improve women’s access and control over financial inputs as well as income and savings [4]. This in turn affects the scale and quality of their food production and, as a consequence, their opportunities to access high-value markets. 
• Paragraph 54: consider adding numeracy and financial education in point iv.

d) 3.5 Access to and control over natural and productive resources

Paragraph 97: As stated in the paragraph, “Most farm implements, including mechanized tools, have been designed based on the height, strength and body type of men, inappropriate for use by, or even harmful to, women”. Similarly, it was found that fertilizers are commonly sold in packages and quantities which have been designed based on the strength and financial means of men [5]. Conversely, smaller packages would be easier to both transport and afford for women (especially because they are more cash-constrained). Furthermore, women are reported to be exposed at higher health risks due to incorrect usage of insecticides because they have less knowledge of how to use pesticide safely (due to more limited access to both extension services and education) [6]. 

4. Does Part 4 of the Zero Draft provide all the elements necessary for effective implementation and monitoring of the use and application of the Guidelines? If not, what do you propose to add or change?

We have no contributions on this.

[1] FAO, “Towards gender-equitable small-scale fisheries governance and development - In support of the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication - A handbook”, 2017, page 62

[2] UNESCO, “Puberty education & menstrual hygiene management”, 2014

[3] According to UN Women, “More than 246 million children are subjected to gender-based violence in or around schools every year”.

[4] FAO, “Gender and agriculture”, 2014

[5] ibidem

[6] ibidem

Comments on the zero draft of CFS VOLUNTARY GUIDELINES ON GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S AND GIRLS’ EMPOWERMENT in the context of food security and nutrition

Shameem Sheik Dastagir, India

• Does the Zero Draft appropriately capture the main challenges and barriers that hinder progress in achieving gender equality and the full realization of women’s and girls’ rights in the context of food security and nutrition? If not, what do you think is missing or should be adjusted?

The very term mainstreaming is interpreted in multiple ways as per convenience of the implementer rather than doing justice to the actual meaning. Is it possible that the voluntary guidelines makes a simple checklist to ensure gender equity and equality to ensure the transformation of the marginal women, girls and gender non-conforming persons which is the desired outcome? Similarly, engagement with men also need to be handled carefully so that the aim for transformation of the real marginalised is not at risk. Though there are innumerable papers, mandates, etc. when actual implementation happens in many instances, its misinterpreted as focus on men, widening the inequality. So positive masculinity should be appropriately explained to result in gender transformation.

The scope of violence itself should be expanded to multiple gender identities, instead of only women. It could be women, young girls, LGBTQ persons identified as women, etc. The draft talks about intersectionality and multiple forms of discrimination which is good. But application of this approach is crucial in identifying the source of violence in private and public realms.

• Do the nine sections of Part 3 of the Zero Draft comprehensively cover the policy areas to be addressed to achieve gender equality and the full realization of women’s and girls’ rights in the context of food security and nutrition? If not, what do you think is missing?

Under 3.2, the scope needs to be expanded to violence by state, violence at work places including informal sector and continuing practices like bonded labour where the food security is severely compromised along with denial of basic life needs.

Under 3.2, the policy areas of discussion includes engagement of men and boys. It is necessary that policies should be gender friendly expanding scope to women, men and gender non-conforming persons with stress that application of such policies should not become tokenistic. Intersectional analysis should be preceding the identification of different forms of violence and address them appropriately with suitable policies and multiple sets of actors as given in the draft. This will feed in to apt gender transformation which the guideline is hoping for.

Adaptation and implementation of such policies has been a challenge as states are often not mandated Though its voluntary, the guidelines should include the directive for resource allocation and appropriate execution in addition to making the public services gender responsive.

Under 3.3.1, one more reason needs to be added. In many countries, the education curriculum itself remains a drive to reinforce the adverse social norms, attitudes, and practices. Though this has been changing, the change is too gradual and not sustainable as the students succumb to the cultural pressures which results in negative health seeking behaviour of women and biases in consuming available food with preference to men. The girl stays much behind in terms of health and nutrition. This is a vicious cycle with early marriage of the girl (as she is liability), early motherhood, maternal mortality, etc.

Under 3.3.3, we could consider addition of Gender Sensitive value chain to increase the skills, capacity and market access to the small vendors, farmers. More details could be accessed on the handbook by ActionAid through https://actionaid.org/publications/2018/gender-sensitive-access-markets.

3.3.4 Access to appropriate ICT-based, digital and innovative technologies

A very careful consideration is required to assess the access of gadgets by the most marginalised. The Covid pandemic brought out the sad reality of very inadequate access to even a cheap smart mobile phone by vulnerable in many developing and under developed countries. We have seen the ugly face of digital divide which discriminated many from access to information and education. The guidelines could mandate the states for enhanced access to IT as a whole which will ensure adequate information access regards food security and nutrition too.

3.4 Women’s economic empowerment in the context of sustainable food systems

There is a need to build strong women agencies who is equipped with updated knowledge, information on resources, ability to critically analyse internalising the situation and build resilience adapting sustainable food value chains and ability to give testimonies /case studies/ ground experiences with process documentation to influence multiple actors at national, regional and international level.

Community led social protection measure addressing food security with contextualised, climate resilient and diverse livelihood alternatives. Frameworks could be developed using participatory methods to assess the scope and need. The states/NGOs could pitch in with initial capital for women’s collectives/collectives of vulnerable persons including gender non-conforming ones, after assessment.

3.5 Access to and control over natural and productive resources

Please consider including types of all climate effects affecting even the access to natural and productive resources. Human made disasters, corporatisation, etc. also play a crucial role in adverse migration, displacement taking the affected population far away from the resource without preparation for alternatives. The gendered roles put the women and vulnerable more at risk in taking care of the family and children. Addressing cultural norms, patriarchal practices becomes necessary while dealing with climate crisis – right from conceptualisation to implementation of the apt policies without red tapism.

3.7 Recognition, reduction and redistribution of unpaid care and domestic work

Kindly refer https://actionaid.org/publications/2021/guiding-principles-and-minimum-standards-unpaid-care-and-domestic-work for minimum guidelines and standards for this policy area. This talks about 6 areas that are as follows. These could be considered to adapt for food security and nutrition.

1. 1. Recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid care and domestic work
2. 2. Maximise public financing for universal, quality gender-responsive public services
3. 3. Address broader economic justice for women, including access to decent work
   1. 4. Recognise the differential impact of unpaid care and domestic work on different groups of women          and girls
4. 5. Apply a life-cycle approach to care work and
5. 6. Ensure that the process of policy formulation is participatory and accountable

3.9 Social protection and food and nutrition assistance

Community led social protection measure addressing food security with contextualised, climate resilient and diverse livelihood alternatives. Frameworks could be developed using participatory methods to assess the scope and need. The states/NGOs could pitch in with initial capital for women’s collectives/collectives of vulnerable persons including gender non-conforming ones, after assessment.

Would like to give example of a community led social protection measure using participatory approach designed for a consortium (Thadar Project) in Myanmar where no state mechanisms are available for social welfare.

Food

Rationale: Food comprises the core of human well being and it emerged as a major priority during the discussions with the communities. The increasing food prices and unbalanced inequitable economic growth has severely affected poor people and thus their food security. Families in the delta on average have five family members. With inadequate household income, the poor are forced to go with no food or eat minimal food with no nutrition. This has multiple impacts especially on the sick, aged and children. While discussing the enormity of the issue, the communities in the sample villages readily prioritized supporting the families with not enough food throughout the year. Communities are already doing such actions but not in an organized/systematic manner.

In the discussions with the communities the proposed mechanisms for meeting food insecurity of the vulnerable families are:

1. a. Dependents like aged and persons with disability get free food for themselves

    and their dependents.

1. b. The most vulnerable, but able bodied get food on credit in times of difficulties.

a. Free Food

Target population: “Dependents” are the most needy/vulnerable category in the village and include the destitute aged, orphans and people with disabilities without any one to take care of them, especially women. Usually this category comprises a maximum of 10% of the village population.

The mechanism: Presently the communities provide food and grains to these families during festivals and crop harvesting times as per their convenience. People also have the practice of collecting grains as part of religious culture to give to monasteries. As mentioned earlier in report, there is a strong faith element built in the minds of people which encourages giving. However this collection is not streamlined and happens depending on the need. Under this social protection option the idea is that all the identified most needy families will be provided free food on a monthly basis to ensure their food security. The village development committees or other community based groups will take the responsibility of collecting grains and usage will be streamlined so that there is a stock of grains available at all times in the village. Participants suggested that the collection of the grains in the village itself can be done in different ways like:

• 1. Top two categories in the well being analysis (typically the wealthy/rich and middle class) of the              village give grain on a weekly/monthly basis
• 2. Simple collection of handful of grains everyday from those who can volunteer to give
• 3. Allocating specific quantity of grain during the harvesting time to responsible VDC or other                     community based group
• 4. Securing grains monthly during non lean season
• 5. Donation from the monasteries and other religious places
• 6. Donation from the rich people

Participants thought that the above could meet 50% of the requirement for providing free food. The remaining 50% requirement is to be met by the following methods:

-  Support from NGOs – There are some NGOs working in some of the villages and distributing food to some of the most vulnerable. The village development committees will negotiate with the NGOs to contribute this food to the VDC/common store so that all the vulnerable people are taken care of in a systemic way.

-  From the food for credit (see next section) – 10% of the interest from the food for credit money can be spent to purchase food to provide to dependents. As per the community’s idea, this is affordable and would be sufficient for the additional requirement of grains.

Method of distribution: Though there are many ways of distributing food grains, it has to be done in a way not to affect the dignity of the recipients. Giving free food can easily be mistaken for sympathy, for both the giver and the receiver. So it is very important that this is avoided. The poor need to have their self dignity and confidence intact and see this as a service for which they qualify. Hence it will be appropriate if a community resolution is passed for the monthly ration for the defined category of people. There should be agreement among all the community members that these families will receive the free food as their entitlement. This principle is applicable to all the community based social protection options.

Capital required: This program is not capital intensive. The 10% of the interest from the food for credit program (explained in next section) will be adequate as additional support. The Thadar project, with its funds can meet the needs for building the storage for the grains. It should also build the community capacity in maintenance and technical inputs in improving the grain preservation.

b. Food on credit

Rationale: As per the seasonal analysis with the participants in all 3 villages, two to four months every year is the lean season where food availability is almost nil especially for the landless and asset-less families who are daily wage workers. With meager and staggered income, it is impossible for them to save and be ready for this season. Most of the time they either borrow at heavy interest rates, borrow food, reduce their consumption or go without food. The food on credit program is designed to streamline the food availability to all even during the lean season.

Target population: Families with food insecurity who are able bodied in the village like single women, women headed families, families with large numbers and no income, landless wage labourers and people who have no choice and access to employment qualify for this. In the survey villages this category roughly comprises about 30-40% of the village population which is quite high. The food scarcity is acute during the lean seasons for 2-4 months in a year.

The Mechanism: A seed capital fund is provided by the NGO which is used to build a store and to buy the grains. The families in need are given the grains which they can repay after the lean season with 10% interest (which will be used to provide food for dependents in (a) above). The repayment will be flexible and will start after they start to work and earn. The Village Development Committee will decide on the period and nature of repayment as per the beneficiaries situation. The grains will be given on a monthly basis during the lean period depending on the need. The village committees will devise the guidelines for giving these grains so that the distribution is uniform and not discriminatory or favoured.

Support from the NGOs: The NGO will support the community to set up the guidelines and add value in strengthening community decisions in streamlining the provision credit and repayment of grains. The NGO will also build capacities of the community in setting up the records, documentation and train them in technical know-how to improve the storage quality. It will also mobilize support from the other NGOs present in the area for additional support.

Capital required: The NGO will support with the initial seed capital, building the storage facilities. This seed capital will be a revolving fund which the VDC/communities manage and increase the capacity of the grain banks. In the long run this will make the community self sustainable with little or no dependence on the NGO. The mechanism is not cost intensive and will serve as a replicable model for other villages as well.

• Does Part 4 of the Zero Draft provide all the elements necessary for effective implementation and monitoring of the use and application of the Guidelines? If not, what do you propose to add or change?

The guidelines has to ensure the interrelatedness and interdependency of all 9 policy areas. Else there is a danger of perceiving each policy area as a silo which will damage the intention of gender transformation.

There needs to be clarity that the policies and interventions do not add burden on women but rather transform their position ensuring equity, equality and justice.

English translation below

Saludos cordial.

Sin duda el borrador cero de las Directrices, pone la mayor parte de situaciones a trabajar en el contexto de género, de mujeres y niñas con claridad, así como, las áreas de trabajo. Por ello, no emito criterio desde las preguntas propuestas, sino más bien, porque nos es claro, que las mayor parte de acciones para el cambio propuestas son de índole política. Si bien es cierto se han ido obteniendo logros en algunas áreas para las mujeres y niñas, todavía se adolece de cambios profundos, los cuales son, de carácter cultural, político y constitucional. No hay nada nuevo bajo el sol. Y viendo desde una perspectiva general lo propuesto en el borrador cero y su impacto en las políticas globales a través del tiempo y al no ser vinculantes, dejando de manera voluntaria las accciones a tomar, se manienen muchos de los obstáculos y retos sin resolver. Por tanto, hay que procurar un marco de acción más asertivo y vinculante, que lleve a los países a derribar esas barreras que anota el borrador y presentes todavía la sociedad. Una acción que podría llevar a acelerar este cambio de paradigma y de hábitos, es crear los mecanismos y herramientas para la gobernanza ciudadana, fomentar esa empatía en los hombres, en la sociedad, marcadamente machista y dotar de recursos financieros, de capacitación y de espacios de encuentro a las mujeres y niñas.

Se deben establecer enlaces de acción conjunta en las instituciones, en los mecanismos o tratados  internacionales a que se han adscrito la mayoría de los países, deberían ser suficientes para caminar a mayor paso, pero al quedar en manos de forma voluntaria, es poco lo que se puede esperar, dado el antecedente histórico de muchos países o regiones. Todo lo escrito, puede quedar en el papel, ejemplo de ello, lo tenemos, en las COP, Los avances son lentos ante la urgencia de los hechos. La seguridad alimentaria y la nutrición serán impactadas fuertemente en algunas regiones y las mujeres y niñas llevarán la peor parte. Por eso, debemos dar un paso más allá de "Las Directrices Voluntarias", y enmarcarlas en Convenios vinculantes y en un plano multinivel y multilateral para darle la fuerza requerida y necesaria a las necesidades de mujeres y niñas. 

Saludos,

Dear members,

The Zero Draft of the Guidelines clearly sets out the situations and areas of work that require progress on gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment. Therefore, my contribution will not focus on the proposed questions, as most of the suggested actions are of a political nature. Albeit progress has been made in some areas for women and girls, profound cultural, political and constitutional changes are still required. Nothing new. In general terms, the proposed actions in the Zero Draft and their impact on global policies over time are insufficient. Many of the obstacles and challenges remain unresolved due to the voluntary/non-binding nature of the proposed measures. Therefore, a more assertive and binding framework for action is needed, driving countries to overcome all the barriers identified in the Zero Draft. Some actions that could accelerate this change of paradigm and habits are the creation of mechanisms and tools for citizen governance; the promotion of male and social empathy, markedly sexist; and the provision of financial and training resources and shared spaces for women and girls.

Links for joint action should be established in international institutions, mechanisms or treaties signed by most countries. They should be sufficient to make further progress. If action remains voluntary, the track record in many countries/regions suggests that achievements will be modest. All the proposed measures might be a pie in the sky. The Conference of the Parties (COP) is an example of the latter. Progress is slow compared to the urgency of the situation. Food security and nutrition will be severely affected in some regions and women and girls will bear the brunt. This is why we must go beyond these Voluntary Guidelines and frame them in binding conventions, on a multilateral basis at multiple levels, with the necessary force to address the pressing needs of women and girls.

Best regards,

From the perspective of our company, the VG on Gender Empowerment and Equality, may the proponents integrate companies’ current inclusive and sustainable best practices into the guidelines. We also propose that the private sector integrate these in their programs, and have these programs per participating company, scaled and mainstreamed then monitored and evaluated by CFS.

Under Section 3.4. Women’s economic empowerment in the context of sustainable food systems. Our company is a majority women-owned organization and 90% of those involved in our value chains are women. Women have the biggest roles in our agribusiness framework. We see women as a vital component of our value chain and as our partners in achieving our shared corporate and sustainable development goals. For our business model to be effective, our ecosystem needs not only to be functioning but healthy. Like our farms, for it to have a bountiful harvest, this needs to be nurtured, as would the most basic unit of our society- the families. As would our communities. Our values need to be aligned and that the communication lines must be open at all times with our women partners especially during the critical phases in the value chain. Our women partners understand our needs and requirements. Our women partners help us nurture our ecosystem so that we can be more effective in our deliverables. We provided our partners with the tools they need to deliver. As a company, we are not after transactional relationships of buy and sell but more of transformative relationships where our business takes us in providing impact within the value chain and the communities. We are committed to ethical, safe, and fair trade practices where the women growers dictate the prices of their harvests. Moreover, we work with them to grow their trade capabilities either by the direct purchase of their produce, consolidating their crops, or strengthening their organizations. Together, we bring to fruition the stringent requirements of our clients. We lend support to their research and testing capabilities by bringing in effective trade practices while respecting their local traditions and expertise. We rely on women’s local impact enterprises because their innovation, local know-how, and presence are crucial in activating our value chain. Their expertise makes possible goods, interventions, and solutions that could not be generated by Morination alone.

Women have a place in our business model and our company. They easily sync into our business processes as our growers are forward-thinking and entrepreneurial. They find ways to meet our requirements and do not waste opportunities provided to them. They are lifelong learners while confident with their local knowledge and skills. They work on their farms with the end of ensuring that funds will be enough to sustain their families, uplift their quality of lives and ensure that these would be enough to reinvest in their farms and for the next planting cycles. The care that women provide their farms and families also extends to their relationships with our company.

These best practices and from other companies as well need to be reflected in the Voluntary Guidelines for replication, scaling, and mainstreaming.

From Morination, Philippines, we welcome and support the CFS VOLUNTARY GUIDELINES ON GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S AND GIRLS’ EMPOWERMENT in the context of food security and nutrition. Thank you, CFS for this initiative. We look forward to its release.

Relaying the 9 point position of the Private Sector View on the Voluntary Guidelines on Gender Equality and Empowerment (Private Sector Mechanism, UN Committee on Food Security),

1) Promote the adoption and implementation of policies by national

governments that ensure legal equality for women, including rights to land and other productive resources; access to financial services, business registration and operation, healthcare, education, and employment opportunities. Women’s rights are human rights.

2) Encourage women’s capacity to organize themselves and foster women leaders. Protect rural women workers’ wages and labour conditions and cultivate their roles as small-scale entrepreneurs. Ensure that women’s leadership and expertise feed into work on food security such as guidelines and initiatives related to land, investment, and nutrition, particularly for women smallholder farmers.

3) Provide access to proper maternal health services for women and focus particularly on nutrition for the first 1000 days of mother and child. Include improvement of women’s, adolescent girls’ and children’s nutritional status as an explicit goal and expected outcomes of agriculture, food and

nutritional security-related programmes, strategies, and policies.

4) Encourage investors, donors, and governments to focus on supporting women smallholder farmers, including access to resources such as inputs, irrigation, energy, agricultural extension services, grain

storage, processing and packaging centres, and information.

5) Education programs should make specific reference to the needs of women, including rural women. There is a pressing need for literacy—both traditional and digital—basic math skills, and general education for women in developing countries. Multiple studies have also found women’s education plays a positive role in achieving goals for child schooling and nutrition.

6) It is important to have gender-sensitive approaches to increase access to agricultural extension services. Specific training with mechanisms to manage gender-based biases on access to land, banking, and marketing opportunities are needed to close gaps for rural women and avoid

perpetuating long-term gender inequities.

7) Access to banking services that ensure women directly receive payment for their agricultural production. Savings accounts are needed, as are affordable micro-credit, insurance, and access to opportunities in the value chain.

8) Supporting co-operatives and other enterprises that allow smallholder women- farmers to aggregate their harvests, negotiate better prices, and introduce value-added processing, package, storage, and marketing.

9) Educational goals for orphans and vulnerable children in developing countries should be assessed at a national level. In many developing countries, agriculture can be the primary means of employment for the vast majority of the population. When the family unit is disrupted, many of these

children lose their opportunity to learn basic farming skills.

The Zero Draft Guidelines is a great start to bringing the gender gap smaller and finding the balance in our society for equality. 

I still want to encourage that we incorparate in the writing more specifics- for example, we write about the importance of  giving more acces to women and girls to technology and extension services - but how?- these girls start to get their period and then do not feel comfortable to go to school in case they will bleed in their clothes. SO what can we do? let's bring the extensions servies to them- let's think of other ideas more realistic and hand's on. Let's make it accecisble maybe by making it more online and on zoom, let's make some courses only for women so that it is a safe space- there are many solutions and ideas, but we need to be specific and realistic.

I also think it is important to encourage garden and nutrition education from grade one, and integrate these classes in the curriculum for all ages. 

thank you for this forum and all the good ideas that are forming and coming out.

amber

The following are the comments contributed by the CSM women regional group (Arab states in North Africa and Middle East). We drafted them in Arabic, I hope it is ok.

English translation below

السيادة الغذائية مسألة سياسية

أولاً- جزء 1- مقدمة

ألف 1-1 المعلومات الأساسية والأساس المنطقي

السيادة الغذائية مسألة سياسية: لا يمكننا أن نرى الحق بالوصول إلى الطعام منفصلاُ عن الحقوق الإقتصادية. إن تظهير السيادة الغذائية كمسألة سياسية ضروري اليوم، نتيجة لوضوح العلاقة بين السياسات الاقتصادية النيوليبرالية والأزمات المتتالية على مستوى السيادة الغذائية. بعيداً عن القليل من الأمثلة المعدودة، ما يهدّد السيادة الغذائية من صنع الإنسان، مخطّط له، سياسات ممنهجة تهدف إلى سيطرة الشركات الكبرى والسيطرة على اقتصادات العالم الثالث.

المعرفة النسوية المتوارثة

ثانياً - الجزء 2 - المبادئ الرئيسية التي تستند إليها الخطوط التوجيهية

اقتراح إضافة فقرة:

إن المعرفة التي أنتجتها النساء وتوارثنها لأجيال، من تعريف النباتات البرية وتجميعها وإنتاج الطعام وإنتاج البذور وحفظها وغيرها من أنواع المعرفة، هي معرفة ذات قيمة ولها تأثيرها اليوم في محاولتنا الحفاظ على تنوّع أساليبنا الزراعية وفهم النظم الأيكولوجية. إن معرفة النساء بالزراعة والطبيعة ليست مهمّة للجماعات الريفية فقط، بل هي أساسية لمعرفة تأثير التلوّث والاحتباس الحراري والتغييرات التي تشهدها المناطق المختلفة على مستوى الأعشاب والنباتات والحشرات والحيوانات المتوقّعة في كل موسم. وتجميع النساء الفلسطينيات للنباتات البريّة مثالاً على هذه الممارسة، ويشكّل منعه من قبل الاحتلال شكلاً من أشكال الترهيب الثقافي البيئي والاقتصادي، لما يشكّله هذا النشاط من دعم اقتصادي لعائلات هذه النساء، ولبناء علاقة انتماء بالأرض، ولتعزيز نقل المعرفة النسوية بين الأجيال.

Food sovereignty is a political issue

First - Part 1 - Introduction

A.1 Background and rationale

Food sovereignty is a political issue: we cannot see the right to food separate from economic rights. The endorsement of food sovereignty as a political issue is necessary today as a result of the clarity of the relationship between neoliberal economic policies and successive crises at the level of food sovereignty. Far from the few examples, what threatens food sovereignty is man-made, planned and systematic policies aimed at the domination of large corporations and the control on third world economies.

Inherited women knowledge

II - PART 2 - KEY PRINCIPLES OF THE GUIDELINES

Suggestion to add a paragraph:

The knowledge that women have produced and passed down for generations, from the identification and collection of wild plants, food production, seed production and conservation, and other types of knowledge, is valuable and has an impact today in our attempt to preserve the diversity of our farming methods and understand ecosystems. Women's knowledge of agriculture and nature is not only important for rural communities, but is essential to know the impact of pollution, global warming and changes in different regions on the level of herbs, plants, insects and animals expected in each season. Palestinian women’s collection of wild plants is an example of this practice, and its prevention by the occupation constitutes a form of cultural, environmental and economic intimidation, because this activity constitutes economic support for the families of these women, building a relationship of belonging to the land, and promoting the transmission of women’s knowledge between generations.

Message from the facilitator

Dear FSN Forum members and dear participants in the CFS gender regional consultations, 

I am back to you for a brief update.

Yesterday we concluded the last of the six regional consultations, the one for North America. Also this one saw a very qualified participation, and the discussion was very stimulating and full of ideas. I will tell you more about it in the next digest.

Today, in fact, I want to inform you that the consultation report for the regional consultation on the Near East and North Africa (NENA) is available on our web page, both in English and Arabic.

The NENA consultation saw 74 participants from the different constituencies of the CFS: representatives of the region’s governmental institutions, civil society and the private sector, as well as international organizations, and academia.

We were honored by the presence of three keynote speakers: Ms Dina Douay, Director of the Women, Family and Childhood Department of the League of Arab States; Ms Ekram El-Huni, Regional Programme Coordinator, UN Women; and Mr Naoufel Telahigue, IFAD Country Director.

There was general consensus that the Zero Draft is comprehensive and clear, but some additional key challenges and gaps have been identified by the stakeholders. I will point out some of them.

Participants raised concerns about the challenge of implementing the Guidelines in the region because of the lack of constitutional basis for the Right to Food in many countries. They noted that the fact that the Guidelines are voluntary makes this even more challenging, given the lack of policy foundations and often poor political will. Participants stressed the need for concrete measures to ensure the Guidelines are effectively translated into practice. The need to mobilize investment funds and networking to implement the Guidelines in addition to securing political commitment and engagement of civil society was raised. 

Another comment related to implementation on the ground and the need to engage men as allies in the process of empowering women, enabling them to understand why this is important and how it will benefit everyone. It is important to do this in order to address any potential tensions that may arise if men perceive they have to give up some of their own privileges. 

Furthermore, participants stressed the need to address and acknowledge the tensions between statutory and customary laws in relation to gender equality – just because a law exists does not mean it will be respected. This is true for issues such as land ownership. 

There was also a call for a more transformative approach to the Guidelines, and to go beyond a presentation of the issues and problems and also present success stories and lessons learned on what works within and outside the region.

There was a critique about ‘gender washing’, where commitments on gender are not translated into action. For example, a recent study of 51 food and agriculture organizations showed that although 90 percent had gender policies in place, most of them did not support these policies with structures or processes. Only one third had gender strategies and 70 percent of the CEOs were male and were mainly from high income countries. 

In this last week of the online consultation, I would like to launch one last challenge counting on your experiences and expertise: what in your opinion can be the solutions to overcome the obstacles highlighted by the participants of the regional consultation for the NENA region? What are the necessary policy actions and concrete measures to ensure the Voluntary Guidelines are effectively translated into practice? Could you share success stories and learning on what works within and outside your region?

Grateful of your attention and active participation, I am looking forward for your feedback on these crucial questions.

With my best regards,

Marina

The text captures the main challenges, includes the core principles, and covers the key policy areas.

Further discussion on the following sentence in Part 3.6, paragraph 102 is proposed: “Agriculture is one of the most hazardous occupations given exposure to agrochemicals,…"

Unless there are studies that substantiate it, a major review of the following sentence in Part 3.5, paragraph 91 is suggested “…as women are custodians of knowledge of the local seeds and plants that are vital for food and agriculture - and related issues, women having unique knowledge and skills to help respond to climate change effectively and sustainably."