Enable women’s agency to improve food systems
Despite women’s central roles in food systems globally, women have few rights to resources
“Women are central to food systems and yet they face numerous structural barriers that prevent more resilient and sustainable practice. We need to overcome these barriers to unlock better and fairer food systems. This report outlines clear suggestions on how to recognize and strengthen women’s agency in policy and practice.” Prof. Nitya Rao, Director of the NISD
Women play a vital role in our food systems but their potential to make those same systems more resilient and sustainable is often overlooked. A new report released today by the NISD, based on an Independent United Nations Food Systems Summit Dialogue, outlines strategies to build women’s agency as a pathway to improving food systems.
The report comes out of a UNFSS Independent Dialogue entitled Women’s Agency and Gender Equity in Food Systems that was held on the 10th of June 2021. The event was organised by the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development (NISD), Bharat Krishak Samaj, Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS) and TIGR2ESS.
“Women make up a majority of small farmers worldwide and are critical for transforming food systems. Yet, their contributions are rarely recognised. We hope to identify grounded approaches towards recalibrating food systems that actually enhance women’s agency.” Ajay Vir Jakhar, Chairman, Bharat Krishak Samaj
Women’s agency in food systems
Agency can be defined as the capacity an individual has to independently make choices and take action on critical issues affecting their lives. For food systems, women’s agency signifies their control over what food is produced, processed, distributed, and consumed.
Despite women’s central roles in food systems globally, women have few rights to resources, including land, money and labour, are under-represented in decision-making bodies, and their knowledges ignored. These factors restrict the ability women have to make healthy, resilient and sustainable choices to feed themselves and those around them. Women’s lack of representation also means that their challenges go unaddressed in food systems policy. Instead, steps need to be taken to represent women in policy, remove the structural barriers they face and support their agency. Such changes are an integral path to fairer, more resilient global food systems.
Recommendations to support agency
The Dialogue cohort consisted of 90 participants, facilitators and rapporteurs. Over five areas of discussion, the participants identified the following common paths to improving women’s agency:
Support collective agency
Women operate as farmers, consumers and food systems workers. Collectivisation and mobilisation of women around these roles can help them exercise their agency despite structural constraints. Successful examples include cooperatives and self-help groups of women in the Global South. In larger urban contexts, labour unions also provide opportunities to mobilise women across larger interest groups.
Enable social entrepreneurship
Many women face barriers to economic activity and financial independence. These barriers can be addressed through encouraging social enterprises that employ gender transformative approaches. Social capital is an essential part of these enterprises and so building networks, skills, advisory support, finance and market linkages, need to an integral part of such approaches.
Provide access to resources and entitlements
Women cannot exercise agency without unmediated access to social and economic resources. Such resources might include land, water, commons, housing, finance, knowledge, extension and technology. Policy needs to be enacted that ensures women have rights to these resources. These rights must be substantive and not merely nominal.
Invest in strengthening capacities and skills
The lack of access to resources also prevents women, especially in the Global South, from developing non-traditional skill sets including financial literacy, the use of digital tools for marketing, and leadership, amongst others. These same women also face time and mobility burdens to reach sites of new learning. Governments should enable women to join capacity building programmes and include support with child care, transport and doorstep extension.
Involve, engage and sensitise men in challenging social norms
A range of social and cultural norms constrain women’s agency, while also impacting their health, physical safety, nutrition, employment, burden of work and reproductive autonomy. These can only be effectively challenged by sensitising and engaging men, alongside harnessing the power of women’s collectives to make change. Men are needed as allies to champion and mainstream gender issues and support women’s empowerment. This greater engagement and inclusion of men can be actioned through gender sensitive policy and training.
Represent women in policy and leadership
Women are under-represented in institutions, policy, finance, research and grass-roots leadership. Women need to be represented fairly at all levels of leadership and policymaking to strengthen their agency. Currently they are represented by men who lack the lived experience and understanding of the challenges they confront, leading to ineffective solutions. Having more women in leadership roles can also further support and enable other women to gain such positions and develop further agency.
Ensure gender-sensitive research and policy
A gender lens must be incorporated into research, data and policy. Research agendas and methodologies need to be more gender-transformative, and ask critical questions around existing gender norms and relations. Gender disaggregation of data is essential to this process, deepening our understanding of the challenges women face. Combined, this approach can contribute to policies that mainstream and address women’s concerns.
These findings are adapted from the UNFSS Independent Dialogue titled, Women’s Agency and Gender Equity in Food Systems.