Explore gender research resources for gender equality in food systems from your preferred vantage point. Gender equality is a cornerstone of future food systems, and International Women’s Day 2021 offers an important moment to make that message heard.

One full year after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are wiser to the important leadership roles women hold in global food systems. Yet, much remains to be done to ensure that women enjoy the same rights, benefits and opportunities as men.

System shocks, such as COVID-19, may undo much of the gender-related progress made over the past decade. As we look toward the United Nations Food Systems Summit later this year, we must make the case for including women on equal footing with men, in food systems dialogues, development and in reality.

Only when both women and men are able to contribute to food systems equally can they successfully nourish families, communities and entire nations, today and in the future.
Governing land and landscapes
Given their different roles, responsibilities and access to and control of resources, the costs and benefits of land restoration are likely to differ for men and women.

In Indonesia, national forest tenure reform policies and programs still give little consideration to gender equality and women’s empowerment. There is no one single approach to reforming forest tenure practices to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment, but a recently published practitioner’s guide offers insights on how to promote gender-responsive forest tenure reform in community-based forest regimes.

Although forestry is widely considered a masculine domain, most literature on gender and development focuses on the role of women, not men; a new book addresses the gap. Trade in non-timber forest products in the Congo Basin is a source of cash income for women and men, but gender-disaggregated data on the benefits remains poorly captured. Overall, forest-dependent women are particularly vulnerable to the socio-economic effects of COVID-19, but are playing key roles in their households’ and communities’ responses to the pandemic.

In Mali, forest reforms and rural woodfuel markets managed by cooperatives created opportunities for women and young men to increase their economic autonomy, while a seedbank run by Maasai women in Kenya provides livelihoods opportunities and helps restore degraded rangelands.

Finally, the Ramsar Convention, on the wise use of wetlands, has been updated to recognize the need for balanced participation of both women and men. More from the link above