Supporting women to transform food systems and deliver the SDGs

by Martina Fleckenstein, Global Head of Policy, Food, WWF and Cheryl Margoluis, Executive Director, CARE-WWF Alliance

In an era characterized by pressing environmental concerns, women are emerging as powerful agents of change in the global effort to address climate change, biodiversity loss and sustainable development. Central to how our food systems operate, their pivotal roles in implementing the Rio Conventions for Climate, Biodiversity and Land, alongside their contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), underscore the crucial importance of women in forging a more sustainable and equitable future for all.

Women as Agents of Change

Women make up about 43% of the world’s agricultural workforce. Women have long been stewards of their natural surroundings, with generations of traditional ecological knowledge passed down through the ages. They have demonstrated remarkable leadership in the adoption and expansion of agroecological practices that enhance climate change resilience and biodiversity conservation. And their active participation in agroforestry, sustainable water management, and seed conservation has resulted in tangible benefits for ecosystems and communities.

Women’s contributions also extend beyond the fields. According to the World Bank, 58% of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in sub-Saharan Africa are women owned. Female entrepreneurship has been on the rise across the region, particularly in green businesses that can contribute to nature-based solutions, supported by organizations like African Change Maker. Furthermore, women often spearhead community-based conservation efforts, establishing and managing local conservation areas, seed banks, and wildlife sanctuaries. Initiatives like Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, FARN play a fundamental role in safeguarding biodiversity, mitigating the loss of critical species, and maintaining the balance of ecosystems.

Yet, as shown in the Gender snapshot 2023 from UN Women, there are still huge gaps in global gender equality. Women have historically faced numerous barriers in accessing resources, knowledge, and decision-making power in the agricultural sector. And in sub-Saharan Africa, only 37% of women have a bank account, compared with 48% of men. Just 20% of women-owned SMEs report access to institutional finance, a funding gap of about US$ 42 billion. Women are still underrepresented in decision-making processes related to environmental policies, land-use planning and budgeting at all levels. While participation is a fundamental right in itself, there is also evidence that diversity in decision-making leads to stronger outcomes overall.

Closing the gender gap

Women need to be supported and championed through innovative policies and measures that recognise women’s equal access to land, resources and tenure security — especially in rural areas. To close the gender gap there needs to be an integrated, holistic approach to advancing gender equality, involving multi-stakeholder collaboration and sustained financial backing. Neglecting to amplify efforts and invest in gender parity jeopardizes the entire 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

All three Rio Conventions — the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) — include gender provisions reinforced by subsequent COP decisions. Moreover, all three Rio Conventions have adopted a Gender Action Plan (GAP) or a Gender Plan of Action (GPA). The integration of gender considerations into actions against biodiversity loss, climate change impacts and desertification will maximize the results of interventions and lead to gender-sensitive policy- and decision making, re-confirmed in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (Target 23)

To support women’s leadership, the following actions are required:

• Take steps to advance innovative policies and measures that recognise and support women’s rights to land and tenure security and equal access to resources as enabling conditions for effectively combating desertification and land degradation — especially in rural areas.
• Foster collaboration and synergies across the Rio Conventions for mainstreaming gender, strengthening women’s land and resource rights, and developing gender-responsive and gender-transformative measures while building associated capacities of all actors as relevant.
• Continue to support systematic documentation of specialized women’s knowledge such as women’s innovations and practices that women have historically employed to maintain soil fertility and biodiversity and to mitigate the impact of drought and desertification. Such knowledge is a foundation for more effective and gender-transformative, evidence-based policies for agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and the environment.

Drawing on decades of expertise in landscape restoration and climate science, and in collaboration with Indigenous peoples and local communities, civil society organisations are working closely with local communities to help accelerate the implementation of the plans proposed by the UN groups. For instance, the new CARE-WWF Alliance initiative Sowing Change is a new kind of livelihood-to-leadership initiative in which women lead their communities to identify local solutions to climate-induced challenges.

In addition, WWF and partners have been working with government and local communities to help improve livelihoods, restore forests, mobilise community members to make natural resource management more sustainable, and enable women to participate in local decision-making processes and stand up for their rights.

To forge a more sustainable and equitable future, we must recognize, champion and support women as change agents in these critical agendas. By doing so, we can enhance our collective efforts to protect biodiversity, mitigate climate change, combat land degradation and work toward a world where the SDGs are not just aspirations but achievable realities for all.