FAO statement at 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women - Interactive dialogue 'Addressing the global gendered impacts of current emergencies on food security and nutrition'

67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women - Interactive dialogue

'Addressing the global gendered impacts of current emergencies on food security and nutrition'

As prepared for delivery

Emergencies rarely happen in isolation: Shocks and stressors are commonly overlapping and build on each other in complex and interconnected ways, making coping harder.

Coping mechanisms and resilience to shocks and stressors are shaped by gender inequalities. Shocks and crises have a large impact on women’s livelihoods in agrifood systems. In many countries, these shocks and crises occur in contexts of highly pronounced gender inequalities. For example, acute crises – such as pandemics or strong weather shocks – happen on top of chronic disparities, such as those related to the gender-based inequalities in access to assets, services, opportunities and decision-making processes.

This is particularly true in rural areas, where poverty, inequality and climate change are inextricably linked, resulting in increased vulnerabilities for rural people, particularly women and girls.  These vulnerabilities are driven by multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination linked to gender, but also to age, ethnicity, health, disability and economic status, among others.Increasing women's resilience to shocks and stressors is critical to achieve improved food security and nutrition and thus SDG 2 targets.

I want to discuss three types of shocks today: COVID-19, climate change and conflict.

The COVID-19 pandemic increased food insecurity globally, but the impact on women was especially acute, leading to a widening gap between men and women’s food insecurity. More than 939 million women aged 15 or older experienced moderate to severe food insecurity in 2021, compared with 813 million men in the same age group.  The gap grew from 1.7 percentage points prior to the pandemic in 2019, to 3 percentage points in 2020, and reached 4.3 percentage points in 2021. The widening gap was mostly driven by the increases in Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia. 

Data and analysis that will be released on 13 April in FAO’s new report on the Status of Women in Agrifood Systems suggests that women in rural areas and men and women in the 25-34 age group have been disproportionally affected since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Secondly, with regards to climate change, gender inequalities are significant in countries facing high exposure to extreme climate events, such as SIDS, and poverty is widespread. Rural women and men’s differentiated livelihoods, responsibilities and rights, largely shaped by gender norms and social structures, influence the nature of their climate risk sensitivity.

Adaptive capacity is determined and shaped by a range of socioeconomic and institutional factors, with gender inequality playing a key role, particularly in areas most exposed to climate risks. Women and men differ in their access to the productive inputs and technologies needed to adapt to climate change. Rural women, who have limited resilience capacity, often have to resort to short-term coping strategies at the expense of their long-term resilience to climate shocks and stressors.

Overcoming gender inequality is therefore key and indispensable step in strengthening climate-resilience.

Third, building the resilience of agri-food systems is vital, given the increasing rates of hunger and food insecurity in recent  in contexts conflict. Food insecurity, malnutrition and undernutrition are all increasingly concentrated in settings affected by armed conflict.  Conflicts and instability have been a major driver of the increasing prevalence of hunger, particularly in the Near East and North Africa since 2012.  

Evidence shows that women are often more vulnerable to acute food insecurity as they continue to face additional risks, barriers and disadvantages due to their gender. Conflicts, peacebuilding, food security and nutrition, and gender equality are interlinked, with complex causal relations.

To conclude, it is key to strengthen the underrated nexus Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) and Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) policy domains, which often remain disconnected at country and international levels. FSN objectives are rarely reflected in gender-related policies, and GEWE concerns are often missing in FSN policies. 

Finally, it fundamental to collect up to date and reliable sex-disaggregagated data, particularly in emergency contexts, to inform sound policies, programmes and investment plans in the agrifood sector.