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
Ms. alessia priolo