The Third Committee - Advancement of Women, the General Assembly at its 78th session, 4 October 2023

Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues,

I am honored to be able to address this meeting on behalf of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN.

Women and girls living in rural areas represent over a quarter of the global population, representing a major source for future economic and social development. However, rural women and girls continue to face the multiple disadvantages of poverty, hunger, malnutrition and gender-based discrimination.

FAO’s vision is a world where rural men and women are equal and have equal opportunities to make choices that free them from hunger, malnutrition and poverty. Therefore, gender equality and the advancement of women are central to FAO's work to achieve food security for all.

FAO recently launched The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems report. The report offers extensive new data and analyses about the challenges women face particularly in rural areas.

• Globally, 36 percent of working women and 38 percent of working men are employed in agrifood systems.
• However, women’s jobs tend to be marginalized and their working conditions worse off –informal, part-time, low-skilled, or labour-intensive.
• Women also have less secure tenure of land, limited access to credit and training, and voice in decision making.
• These inequalities, along with gender-based discrimination, result in a 24 percent gap in productivity between women-managed and men–managed farms of equal size.
  

The report also shows that gender equality and women’s empowerment reduce hunger, boosts the economy, and resilience to shocks like climate change.

• Closing the gender gap in farm productivity and wage in agricultural employment would increase global GDP by nearly $1 trillion and reduce the number of food-insecure people by 45 million.
• Furthermore, if half of small-scale producers benefited from development interventions that focus on empowering women, it would significantly raise the incomes of 58 million people and the resilience of an additional 235 million.
  

So how can the gender gap in agrifood systems be closed?

• First, we must understand that policies and programmes have differential impacts on women and men. We need to promote the collection and analysis of high-quality gender data to inform policy decisions.
• Second, gender equality must be guaranteed on paper and in practice. Women need to be able to buy, sell or inherit land, open bank accounts and borrow money, to sign contracts and receive social protection benefits.
• Third, women and girls must have the same equal access to education and information. Building their human capital is of the best investments for just and resilient societies and economies.
• Fourth, public services and improved technologies must help free up women’s and girls’ time from drudgery, such as carrying water or fetching firewood.
• Fifth, we need to do more to transform harmful gender norms, roles and relations; and redistribute power, resources and services more equally between women and men.
  

Women have always worked in agrifood systems; it is time that we made agrifood systems work for women. FAO is committed to working together with Member Countries, UN agencies and other partners to achieve gender equality and accelerate women’s empowerment, thereby improving food security and nutrition for all.

Thank you.