Opinion: Food systems must work better for the women working in them

Hunger is rising and acute food insecurity is rising even faster — and women are disproportionately affected. Between 2019 and 2021, the gender gap in food insecurity has more than doubled. Fixing these problems is an urgent international challenge, one that must be placed high on the agenda for ministers and policymakers gathering at the meetings of Group of Seven and the larger Group of 20 major economies, International Montetary Fund, and World Bank right now. Increasing poverty driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, high food prices, the war in Ukraine, the accumulating impact of the climate crisis, conflicts, and economic slowdowns are all powerfully negative forces on the accessibility and availability of food for all. Gender discrimination There are also structural factors, notably discriminatory norms faced by women that reduce their households’ productivity and resilience. For example, women and girls are four times more likely to be tasked with collecting water when there is none available at home. Heat stress, which will likely increase in frequency, leads to a greater reduction of hours worked in agriculture for men than for women. Those examples highlight that action can be taken. Concrete initiatives to empower and give agency to women working in the world’s agrifood systems, on which half the world’s households rely, offer the prospect for strong multiplier effects. That gender equality is the right goal to pursue regardless has already been agreed with Sustainable Development Goal 5. The good news is that helping women in agrifood systems achieve it will bring fruit in the form of greater food production, as well as improved nutrition and better lives for all. Making agrifood equitable Women have always worked in agrifood systems, and it is time that we make sure agrifood systems work for women. This is especially necessary in the lowest-income countries. A significantly larger share of working women in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are engaged in agrifood systems than working men. However, while tolerating lower land productivity, women have lower ownership rates, less secure tenure, fewer production assets and less access to credit and regulatory rights, and lower wages than men, and for them to occupy a more vulnerable and exhausting role is not just unfair but unaffordable. Transformation is inevitable. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that closing gender gaps in the factors that drive wages and productivity would generate additional global economic activity worth nearly $1 trillion dollars, nearly a third of Africa’s GDP, with the bulk of the gain going to countries most vulnerable to hunger. FAO has just published The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems to help decision-makers frame the problems and work on implementing effective solutions. Clear gains Focusing on agrifood systems, which include off-farm activities involving the storage, transportation, processing, marketing and retail distribution and disposal of food, is a pioneering step. Direct employment in agricultural production typically declines with development, while related off-farm jobs will be increasingly critical. Our research also revealed how women in agrifood systems tend to occupy vulnerable irregular, informal, part-time, low-skilled and labor-intensive roles. They are often absent in the most lucrative parts of the value chain or in crops with export potential. And, strikingly, women were far more likely to lose their jobs during the first year of the pandemic: 22% of women lost off-farm agrifood jobs, compared to only 2% of men. Fixing these problems will not be simple and will require engaging all kinds of stakeholders, and absolutely including men and boys. Yet evidence shows progress is eminently feasible. For example, an important randomized control trial in Côte d’Ivoire showed that inviting both husbands and wives to agricultural extension training on an important export crop led to higher investment, increased adherence to the agreed action plan, and better division of formerly gendered tasks. Everyone gained. Renewed commitment Successful transformation will rely on real and targeted commitment. Today around two-thirds of bilateral aid geared to agricultural and rural development has a gender lens applied to it, but only 6% treats gender as fundamental in the design of the project. Making the empowerment of women an explicit focus of development interventions would improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people. This is an opportunity that the influential decision-makers meeting this week in Japan and Washington D.C. must not miss. Visit Food Secured — a series that explores how to save the food system and where experts share groundbreaking solutions for a sustainable and resilient future. This is an editorially independent piece produced as part of our Food Secured series, which is funded by partners. To learn more about this series and our partners, click here.