FAO statement at World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought 2023 – High-Level Event 'Her Land. Her Rights: Advancing gender equality and land restoration goals'

Excellences,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

FAO is pleased to co-organize this event together with the UNCCD, which provides an opportunity to discuss how to advance gender equality and land restoration goals on World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought 2023. 

Restoring land is essential to reducing poverty and hunger.

95% of our food is produced on land,

Two billion hectares of which is deteriorated worldwide.

This affects 34% of the world’s agricultural lands due to the impacts of the climate crisis, and an ever-growing demand for food security.

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is an opportunity for farmers, governments, consumers and other partners, to scale up efforts,

To support the transformation of global agrifood systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable,

And to increase food security improve the livelihoods of millions of farmers – particularly for women in developing countries.

The FAO report on The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems sets out that in Sub-Saharan Africa agrifood systems account for 66% of women’s employment,

And in South Asia, 71% of women work in agrifood systems.

However, there are significant gender gaps.

Women are more food insecure than men as consumers.

Women find it harder to access land and other resources and services as producers.

Women have less ownership of land than men.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

To restore and grow fertile land, we need to grow equality.

At FAO we know that women are agents of change, at the forefront of production supply chain, and restoration.

This is why FAO and the UNCCD produced a technical guide to advance the implementation of the “Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security”.

This guide took us a step further to closing the gender tenure gap.

To continue in this direction we need:

First: policies and legislation for women’s meaningful participation in decision-making processes related to land at national and local level;

Second: to transform land administration systems and access to justice to make them gender responsive; and

Third: to work in partnership with farmers across governments, civil society, academia and the private sector.

FAO has been working on a number of initiatives and projects to advance these actions.

For example, FAO’s Action Against Desertification in support of Africa’s Great Green Wall initiative has provided a platform to empower rural women in land restoration over one hundred thousand hectares in the Sahel.

Let us continue to work together to support more women involved in land restoration,

And to promote the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind.

Thank you.