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Knowledge4Policy
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  • Publication | 2022

Nutrition, Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment

This paper includes practical suggestions on how nutrition can be mainstreamed as part of gender-transformative approaches, as well as strategies that aim to empower women and  increase gender equality and improve the nutritional status of both women and children, addressing multidimensional drivers of malnutrition across a range of sectors. These include measures in different sectors, such as agriculture, livestock and fisheries, social protection, education, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Regarding agriculture and food systems the papers recommends: (i) support food systems to improve diets and nutritional status of women through tackling gender inequalities, by promoting their equal access to sufficient diverse, safe and nutritious foods that meet dietary needs and food preferences, as well as to resources and services. These include land, water, livestock, fisheries, financial services, tools and technologies, knowledge, training and extension services and the development of policies to address gender inequities; Empower female smallholder farmers and women-led small farm businesses to produce diverse and nutritious foods and to access markets for these through the establishment of women farmer associations and cooperatives; (iii) ensure a ‘do no harm’ approach in the design of interventions, through an in-depth understanding of gender dynamics in agriculture and food systems, to ensure interventions do not disproportionately overburden women (e.g. in terms of workload). See the complete Nutrition Quick Tips series here (https://capacity4dev.europa.eu/info/nutrition-quick-tips-series_en)