Devex Dish: The women powering the world’s farms

You probably have a woman to thank for at least some part of the meal you’re going to eat today.

The data backs that up: Women produce 50% of the world’s food, but the percentage climbs as high as 80% in some lower-income countries. Women make up 43% of the global agricultural labor force, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, but in the “least developed countries,” as many as two out of every three women are employed in farming.

And that’s not to mention that women are disproportionately tasked with preparing food and — where it is necessary — women and girls are usually responsible for fetching water.

But less than 15% of all landowners worldwide are women. And though they disproportionately prepare meals, women and girls are more likely than their male counterparts to be food-insecure.

“I often say gender equality and food systems are in an unhappy marriage — one needs the other, but somehow it's not working for either of them,” Jemimah Njuki, chief of economic empowerment at UN Women, told Devex last September. She encourages policymakers to integrate women’s empowerment into their decision-making, including by getting financing to women driving food systems change at the local level.  

That kind of integration is increasingly urgent. An FAO report out this week shows that climate change disproportionately affects farms and rural households run by women in low- and middle-income countries, and they’re often discriminated against as they adapt to extreme weather events. Called “The unjust climate,” it found that female-headed rural households lose an average of 8% more of their income during heat waves and 3% more during floods compared to male-headed households — totaling a staggering $37 billion in financial losses due to heat stress and $16 billion due to floods across all lower-middle-income countries.

“Considering the significant existing differences in agricultural productivity and wages between women and men, the study suggests that if not addressed, climate change will greatly widen these gaps in the years ahead,” FAO says.

With International Women’s Day coming up on Friday, it’s worth interrogating these massive disparities — and considering how to change them.

Background reading: Why fighting for gender equality will help save the food system

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Nip it in the bud

With so many women employed in the world’s agricultural sector, there’s another threat: sexual violence and exploitation.

A recent BBC documentary highlighted the pervasive issue of sexual abuse on tea farms in Kenya. And sadly, it’s the tip of the iceberg. “In many rural areas, violence against women isn’t even recognized as abuse, and women lack access to information about their rights. Trusting the police is often uncertain, and reporting crimes can lead to job loss, a risk many financially struggling women cannot afford,” Joky François and Elizabeth Kiende Njenga of the Rainforest Alliance write in an opinion piece for Devex.

They highlight how they’ve worked with farms — including those featured in the documentary — to build transparent, trustworthy systems for detecting, preventing, monitoring, and remediating violence and harassment, among other human rights violations.

Opinion: How to address pervasive violence against women in agriculture

Not the reel deal

The World Trade Organization failed to reel in an agreement on fishing subsidies at its recently concluded ministerial in the United Arab Emirates, leading civil society groups like the World Wide Fund for Nature to warn that there is a significant risk that global fishing stocks will be depleted.

Back in 2022, it seemed like WTO members were on track to address some of the key issues around overfishing, reaching an agreement to deal with some of the biggest problems on the seas, including illegal and unregulated fishing and overfished stocks. But 110 members need to ratify that agreement for it to come into place. At last count, only 71 had.

The measure is in danger of expiring if 39 more countries don’t come on board within four years of the agreement’s passage.

At the latest meeting, there was a push to address additional issues, such as the subsidies that cause too many vessels to fish the same stocks and overfishing. Pacific Island nations were pushing for an outright cap on fisheries subsidies.

But the discussions were torpedoed by a handful of members, including India, who argued that there were too many loopholes for nations with large fishing industries.

Related op-ed: To end illegal fishing, we need transparency now

Lights, camera, glasses

How do you actually make people care about hunger in the Horn of Africa, particularly when so many other crises are competing for attention and donors? The NGO Save the Children along with the Hungry for Action campaign turned to virtual reality, using the technology to transport viewers to Somaliland and embed them within a family facing the effects of drought.

The idea isn’t just to inform people about the region’s hunger crisis, but to build a connection with the people who are trying to survive the desperate conditions, reports Devex contributor Gabriella Jóźwiak. That might make viewers more prone to help find solutions to the crisis — or to support the organizations that are. And VR might be just the tool to do it, with evidence showing that it provokes a more intense reaction than watching a video on a flat screen.

It does come with its challenges though, including costs that are much higher than traditional campaigns. NGOs will have to consider whether the investment is worth the potential engagement.

Read: How virtual reality takes donors to the heart of development causes (Pro)

ICYMI: How the response to hunger crises has changed since Ethiopia’s famine

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Chew on this

At least 15 children in northern Gaza have died of malnutrition and dehydration and the entire Gaza region is on the brink of famine, the Health Ministry in Gaza has warned, as Israel continues to limit aid reaching the region. [CNN]

An organization in Brazil is fighting the twin problems of increasing hunger and massive food waste by redistributing nutritious products to the people who most need them. [The Guardian]

Are alternative crops realistic? James Gerber, a senior scientist with climate solutions nonprofit Project Drawdown, explains that farmers are likely to plant whatever crops get subsidies. [AP News]