Women key to building world free from hunger, poverty: FAO

A high-level meeting on gender held on Friday at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations headquarters here emphasized that reducing gender inequality was key to achieving sustainable development goals.

The meeting was launched by the FAO, the EU Commission and the Slovak Presidency of the Council of the European Union in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Food Programme (WFP), and UN Women.

The meeting aimed to address the structural causes and consequences of gender inequality in rural areas and identify the main challenges, gaps, opportunities and collaborative actions for unleashing the potential of rural women and girls to end hunger and poverty.

FAO Director General Jose Graziano da Silva said women were the backbone of work in agriculture, they comprised 45 percent of the agricultural labor force in developing countries, with that figure rising to 60 percent in parts of Africa and Asia.

These numbers underscore the importance of ensuring that rural women enjoy a level playing field, according to the FAO director-general.

"It's all about opportunity. Evidence shows that when women have opportunities, the yields on their farms increase, also their incomes. Natural resources are better managed, nutrition is improved, and livelihoods are more secured," Da Silva said.

According to FAO's studies, across all regions, women are less likely than men to own or control land, and their plots are often of poorer quality. Less than 20 percent of the world's landholders are women. If women farmers had the same access to resources as men, the number of hungry people in the world could be reduced by up to 150 million due to productivity gains.

"Therefore, rural women are key players in the effort to achieve all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) -- but especially SDG2, freeing the world from hunger and malnutrition," Da Silva added.

"It is only through empowering women farmers that we can unlock the power of global food systems," Denise Brown, director of emergencies at WFP said, adding that supporting women farmers was essential in creating resilience, building stronger businesses, and advancing food security in the long term.

Maria Noel Vaeza, director of programs at UN Women, told participants that closing the gender gaps in agriculture could provide multiple development dividends, including gender equality for rural women, food security and poverty reduction, improved climate management, and peaceful societies.

Neven Mimica, EU Commissioner for international cooperation and development, emphasized that to get serious about putting an end to poverty and hunger once and for all, stepping up support for rural women as an investment in families, communities, wider society, and the planet was needed. Endit