We support the EU global commitment to end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition through a dedicated, reinforced science-policy interface and a fostered inter-policy dialogue.
This section contains a selection of international policy guidance documents and toolkits on gender equality in food systems.
The European Union (EU), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) launched the Joint Programme on Gender Transformative Approaches for Food Security and Nutrition (JP GTA) in 2019.
Funded by the EU, the JP GTA has developed a theory of change common to the three United Nations Rome-based Agencies for conceptualising and carrying out gender equality work with a transformational and sustainable impact. The main outputs include:
A Compendium compiling 15 good practices on gender transformative approaches (2020);
A Guide on formulating indicators to measure changes in gendered social norms in the context of food security and nutrition (2021);
The Guidelines for measuring gender transformative change in the context of food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture (2023).
The JP GTA was inspired by, and contributes to, the implementation of the EU Gender Equality Strategy and gender action plans, in particular the Gender Action Plan (GAP) III
The Gender transformative framework for Nutrition (GTFN) is a Canadian-led, evidence-based conceptual model that expands the potential of nutrition programs to tackle gender inequalities. The Framework leverages existing literature and theoretical frameworks by applying systems thinking to critically examine the multi-sectoral drivers of malnutrition, while placing empowerment and gender equality at its centre.
The International Food Policy Institute (IFPRI) and academic, civil society partners and institutional partners have developed a series of indicators designed to measure women empowerment:
The Women’s Empowerment in Agrifood Governance (WEAGov) is an assessment tool developed by IFPRI and partners to help evaluate the extent to which women are empowered across the policy cycle related to agrifood systems. WEAGov provides a way for national policymakers, civil society organisations, and researchers to identify gaps and opportunities to raise women’s voice and agency at different stages of the national policy cycle and provides a basis for monitoring progress in women’s empowerment in agrifood systems governance and related indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) launched in 2012 by IFPRI, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), and USAID’s Feed the Future. Since the original WEAI release, multiple versions of the WEAI have been developed. The Abbreviated WEAI (A-WEAI) is a shorter version of the original that can be used in population-based surveys to measure women’s empowerment. The Project WEAI (Pro-WEAI) instrument, under development, seeks to measure women’s empowerment within project-specific contexts, and includes optional modules tailored to livestock and/or nutrition and health programs. The pro-WEAI for market inclusion (pro-WEAI+MI), still under development, is intended to measure empowerment across agricultural value chains. WEAI-related materials – research instruments, protocols, publications, are available on the WEAI Resource Center website.
The Women's empowerment in fisheries and aquaculture index (WEFI) measures the empowerment, agency and inclusion of women in fisheries and aquaculture contexts in an effort to identify ways to overcome those obstacles and constraints. WorldFish, KIT Royal Tropical Institute and index experts collaboratively developed it. The WEFI draws largely on the WEAI but is tailored to aquaculture and fisheries contexts in addition to capturing information on agriculture.
The Women's Empowerment in Nutrition Index (WENI) is a nutrition-centred metric of empowerment that can be used to measure, track and identify barriers to nutritional empowerment
This series of agenda-setting briefs reviews research on key gender and inclusion themes related to food, land, and water systems. The eight briefs align with the CGIAR Science Programs: (1) Better diets and nutrition, (2) Breeding for tomorrow, (3) Digital transformation, (4) Multifunctional landscapes, (5) Policy innovations, (6) Scaling for impact, (7) Sustainable animal and aquatic foods, and (8) Sustainable farming. Each brief reviews the current state of knowledge and key challenges, identifies established and emerging research methodologies, and outlines frontier gender research priorities, including key research questions.
The Nutrition, Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Brief (2022) includes practical suggestions on how nutrition can be mainstreamed as part of gender-transformative approaches, as well as strategies that aim to empower women increase gender equality and improve the nutritional status of both women and children, addressing multidimensional drivers of malnutrition across a range of sectors. The Equality, equity and nutrition Brief (2022) provides strategies for effectively reducing inequalities related to nutrition.
The Quick Tips Series provides practical advice and guidance for staff in the European Commission and European Union (EU) delegations on how programming and support across multiple sectors can contribute to improved food security and nutrition outcomes.
INTPA has developed a series of guidelines to accompany the EU Gender Action Plan II (2016-2020). Each guideline has a section and appendixes that provides guidance and guidelines on specific topics. Because Women matter (2017) guides the reader through the steps required to integrate gender dimensions in an investment and the process of a gender analysis, and provides insights for gender sensitive and transformative projects implementation. Women’s Land rights matter (2018) complements the previous note, deepening the analysis on the importance of promoting women’s land rights as a precondition to empower women and reduce poverty. Closing the gender gap through agrifood value chain development (2021) provides an overview on how to incorporate a gender-responsive approach in the design, implementation and monitoring of value chain development projects
This Resource Guide and Toolkit offers a starting point for those wishing to deepen their understanding and apply an intersectional approach to their work. It aims to provide conceptual clarity, a practical framework and tools for reducing compounded and intersecting inequalities faced by people experiencing diverse and compounded forms of discrimination.
The Reach, Benefit, Empower framework has been invaluable in guiding gender considerations in programming, ensuring that projects carefully consider their goals, and then move from ambition to implementation to evaluation. The framework makes it easier to see how projects claiming to “empower” women may only manage to “reach” them, such as through training, without actually verifying if the activities benefit or empower them. The addition of “Transform” to this framework (RBET for short) emphasizes the need for deeper structural or normative changes to create more equitable systems. In this brief the authors explore how to get the most out of the RBET framing in relation to securing women’s land and other resource rights.
Practical guide: Advancing value chains through gender transformative approaches
This technical note of FAO is offering policymakers and practitioners step-by-step guidance on applying gender transformative methodologies to agrifood value chain analysis, with the goal of improving women's economic participation and gender equality (Advancing value chains through gender transformative approaches. Technical note).
Back to online resources on "Gender Equality and Food Systems".
10 Mar 2026 | 31 Mar 2026
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