What Works for Women: Proven Approaches for Empowering Women Smallholders and Achieving Food Security

"...despite their wealth of knowledge and capacity, women farmers are neglected by policy makers, often not being recognised as 'productive' farmers. Their farm work is frequently unpaid or undervalued; they tend to be excluded from decision-making; and they do not have equal access to land and other resources, credit, markets, education, extension services and inputs."

"What changes do we need to empower women smallholders and achieve food security?" In an effort to address this question, 9 international development agencies produced this briefing to share the lessons learned based on their experience of promoting gender equality and working with women smallholders and rural women over many decades. The involved agencies are: ActionAid International, CARE, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Find Your Feet, Oxfam, Practical Action, Save the Children, and Self Help Africa.

Lessons from working with women smallholders:

1. Collective action is key to economic and social empowerment - "In some contexts, women-only groups can provide 'enabling spaces' where marginalised women can gain self-esteem, confidence and skills by creating a space for them to identify their needs, understand their rights and begin to articulate their demands. Women-only groups can also provide a step towards wider participation in mixed groups and other decision-making forums. For example, in Northeastern Brazil, women farmers have created a forum through which they exchange their knowledge and experiences on agroecological farming, while strengthening their identity as rural women and building their self-confidence....Politically, it served to unveil the diverse types of oppression suffered by women..."
2. Access to productive resources is essential - In addition to secure and stable access to productive resources including land, water, forests, and fisheries, as well as access to inputs and appropriate financial services, it is noted here that women need appropriate extension services, training, technologies, and access to appropriate marketing facilities.
3. Economic empowerment is not enough, underlying gender inequalities must be challenged - "...women's economic empowerment must be accompanied by measures to address broader gender issues including power imbalances, gender stereotypes and discrimination against women. Among and between both men and women, activities that promote discussion and mutual understanding of issues such as gender roles, unequal workload, rights and responsibilities are important for raising awareness, informing programmes and policies and ultimately addressing gender inequality....[I]n Bangladesh, it was found that by addressing the causes of deeply-entrenched power inequalities between men and women, poor sanitation and poverty, in addition to direct nutrition interventions, led to a significant reduction in child stunting; the stunting among children between 6 and 24 months old was reduced by 4.5 percentage points per year..."
4. Disaster resilience and risk management approaches must be gender-sensitive and integrated with development interventions - The briefing contends that, in addition to taking part in local-level mitigation and adaptation projects, women can play a key role as advocates for change. For example, in India, thousands of women farmers were mobilised in a campaign by the Deccan Development Society (DDS) and the Millet Network of India for the inclusion of millets in the definition of food grains in the National Food Security Bill and the decentralised public distribution system.

The paper concludes with a number of recommendations to help close the gender gap in agriculture. They are divided into: (i) recommendations for national governments - example: "Engage women in policy-making and planning processes at all levels, for example by establishing quotas and targets for women in decision-making roles, legislating to remove barriers, and encouraging the establishment of effective collective structures that are gender-sensitive", and (ii) recommendations for multilateral and bilateral donors - example: "Support and engage actively with women's civil society organisations and networks (such as farmers' groups and women's cooperatives) and facilitate their systematic inclusion and participation in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of agricultural research, policies and programmes."