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Gender-responsive policy-making and budgeting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) provides countries with policy and governance support in building sustainable food and agricultural systems. As the world’s leading forum for policy dialogue, it also provides evidence that can form the basis for policymaking at national, regional and global levels, as countries work to prioritize challenges, implement decisions and monitor the effectiveness of their interventions.

FAO supports the generation of intergovernmental agreed treaties, declarations, norms, standards and voluntary guidelines, and strengthens the capacities of policy-makers for inclusive, transparent and effective decision-making and actions.

Women and girls are critical agents in the fight against rural poverty, hunger and malnutrition and in building resilient livelihoods. Despite their key role in agriculture, in all regions, rural women and girls continue to face numerous constraints, which affect not only their own well-being and that of their families but also undermines the productivity of the agricultural sector. The gender gap is imposing real costs in terms of food and nutrition security and social and economic growth.

FAO is supporting partners to reach their full potential in enabling more effective and inclusive agricultural and rural development processes and achieving long-term results in poverty reduction.

Gender-responsive policies are crucial to achieving sustainable agriculture and rural development, as they enable women and girls to participate fully in and benefit equally from socioeconomic opportunities. Yet national governments and relevant stakeholders often lack the technical knowledge and skills, such as data disaggregated by sex and the capacity to carry out a gender analysis, and to support the formulation of gender-responsive policies and strategies. As a result, gender equality and women’s empowerment considerations are not integrated, and the needs and aspirations of women and girls remain inadequately addressed in agricultural policy frameworks. This results in the perpetuation of gender disparities and the economic marginalization of rural women and girls.

Often, even when there is a political commitment towards gender equality, the insufficient investment in gender-responsive policy interventions can minimize positive impacts on the livelihoods and empowerment of rural women and girls.

FAO supports governments in developing policy frameworks and strengthening the capacities needed to achieve gender equality and the economic empowerment of rural women, as part of their efforts to end hunger, reduce food insecurity and malnutrition, and foster sustainable agriculture. FAO promotes a systematic inclusion of the gender equality principle throughout the policy cycle, from the analysis of the problem to policy formulation, the design of results indicators, budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

FAO advocates for the inclusion of gender perspectives in global frameworks and standards as well as policy dialogues on agriculture, food security and nutrition. Through the Committee on World Food Security, it supports countries to include gender equality considerations in agreed principles and international standards for food security and nutrition. FAO also develops gender-sensitive indicators to be integrated in data collection systems related to agriculture, food security and rural development.

  • National and sectoral policies, legislation and investment plans for food security and nutrition need to consider women’s roles and contributions to better respond to their specific needs and challenges.
  • Gender-responsive policies can foster economic growth, food security and sustainable rural development. By ensuring that rural men and women enjoy equal rights and opportunities in life, these policies represent an effective means to close the gender gap in agriculture.
  • FAO is strengthening the capacities of agricultural policy-makers to design and implement food security and agricultural strategies that incorporate the needs and aspirations of rural women and girls.

  • Policies, programmes and investment strategies related to agriculture, food systems and rural development need to address gender issues. This will close the gender gap in rural settings and accelerate rural women’s economic empowerment.
  • Laws related to land need to be revised with new legislations implemented to strengthen women’s rights.
  • National programmes need to be developed to ensure that all female rural workers have formal working documents.
  • Governments and development partners need to address the gender gap in access to productive resources, services, decent employment and markets, in order to achieve sustainable poverty reduction and inclusive, efficient, resilient and sustainable food systems.
  • Collect and analyze sex and age-disaggregated data to produce the evidence base to support planners and decision-makers with the formulation of gender-responsive policies and programmes, and the monitoring of gender impacts.
  • Development practitioners and agricultural advisory services need to document and disseminate good practices for raising incomes and providing better employment opportunities for poor and vulnerable rural men and women.
  • Facilitate a policy dialogue among stakeholders from different sectors to promote inclusive agricultural investment models.
  • Policy formulators need to identify and address the specific needs and priorities of young men and women in rural areas and invest in their employment opportunities.  

FAO works with partners in regional policy dialogues, supporting the implementation of regional gender strategies. Some partnerships include the African Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the European Commission on Agriculture, the Economic Community of Central African States, the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States, and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

FAO collaborates with national partners to include gender equality and women’s empowerment objectives in agriculture-related policy processes. By advocating for rural women’s rights to productive resources, services and economic opportunities and combining advocacy work with technical support, FAO assists countries with the formulation of gender-equitable agricultural policies, legislation and investment strategies. These are backed by strong political commitments and sound regulatory frameworks.

FAO assists countries in fulfilling their political commitments to improve the status of rural women and supports governments in implementing and reporting on their progress towards the recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

FAO has provided technical support to countries, such as Botswana, Guatemala, Kenya, Rwanda, Sri Lanka and Tanzania, to formulate gender-responsive national agricultural and food security policies and strategies. FAO has also advocated for rural women’s specific rights to access productive resources, services and economic opportunities, in line with the commitments of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).