FAO statement at the 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women - General Discussion

67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women - General Discussion

Video message by Ismahane Elouafi, FAO Chief Scientist

Innovation cuts across all dimensions of agrifood systems - from primary production and post-harvest handling, to processing, to transportation, to marketing, and consumption.

We all agree that women are the backbone of rural economies and contribute to the development of the agri-food sector as a whole, especially in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). At the same time, millions of rural women continue to face considerable gender-based constraints in access to innovative agrifood system  solution, but also to assets, to finance and to knowledge.

There is a growing body of evidence demonstrating that innovation can foster rural women’s economic empowerment by creating decent jobs and improving women’s access to services and to markets. Moreover, innovative technologies can reduce women’s work burden and promote access to productive resources and to services.

Innovation and technologies can help produce gender-sensitive statistics to inform evidence-based policymaking and to contribute to the identification of institutional and policy roadblocks to gender equality. 

However, innovation can also generate new problems, and it does not necessarily benefit all equally at the same level. Unless properly designed and properly implemented, innovation interventions can worsen existing inequalities and can create new challenges for rural women. This is because agricultural innovations tends to be operationalized separately from other innovations, and with very limited or no consideration of the needs and capacities of rural women and rural girls. 

Thus, it is important to recognize not only the opportunities, but also the challenges. Efforts must be made to ensure that innovation benefits women and men equally. Ensuring that no one is left behind must be central to all innovations. Gender equality is also one of the guiding principles of our first-ever FAO Science and Innovation Strategy that was endorsed by the FAO Council in June 2022.

We also need more engagement from development actors for addressing the root causes of gender inequalities through innovative gender-transformative approaches, which should be an integral part of all rural transformation interventions and programmes.

Gender-transformative approaches should embrace science, technology and innovation and should place women and youth at the centre of the agrifood transformation agenda. FAO is emphasizing digitalization and innovation to ensure that agrifood systems are attractive to women and girls, and that they possess the necessary skills and knowledge to allow them to use emerging technologies and innovation at large in agriculture. 

For example, FAO has developed, with partners, a range of apps that will allow young farmers in Rwanda to monitor and improve their farm operations, their sales and purchases.

The FAO Office of Innovation established the Global Network on Digital Agriculture and Innovation Hubs, to support its members to foster innovation within their digital agriculture ecosystem, with a special focus on women and young entrepreneurs.

More concretely, we have piloted the Talking Books, an initiative in Uganda which utilizes inclusive digital tools and easy-to-use gadgets (called the Talking Books) which are audio devices that allow people with low or no literacy to receive training in a dynamic way. I’m very happy to say that this initiative has engaged more than 8,000 farmers on issues directly related to women's land rights and climate change mitigation measures. 

To conclude, FAO believes that bringing together agrifood innovations and gender equality principles represents a powerful way to address long-standing development problems. Innovation that does not consider how gender relations shape all areas of life will not achieve its full potential. Similarly, gender equality actors can learn from innovation processes to refine their vision for equality. 

Thank you for your attention.