Rethinking Women's Leadership in Agrifood Systems: Pathways to Equality and Resilience

Women are key actors in agrifood systems, participating on and off farm at different scales and across the public sector, private sector and civil society. However, there is a “dramatic imbalance” between women’s enormous and essential contributions to agrifood systems and their leadership and decision-making power. This global pattern holds true in India, where women often decision-making power than their male counterparts. Multiple forms of discrimination (for example, related to caste, ethnicity, disability and age) often overlap or intersect with gender inequalities, increasing the challenges for certain groups of women to claim their rights to participation and representation.

Women’s leadership and decision-making at all levels constitute an under-researched pathway to gender equality, justice, and other desired outcomes of agrifood systems development. In response to this, there is a strong push for more targeted research on and investment in interventions that support women’s participation in decision-making and leadership at all levels. Supporting financial and partnership commitments to enhance women’s leadership in agrifood systems constitutes a key part of the global ‘Commit to Grow Equality’ process led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

In India, stakeholders from civil society, NGOs and the private sector have expressed interest in developing and scaling interventions that enhance women’s leadership in agrifood systems such as through value chain initiatives or natural resource management and governance. In response, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT under the CGIAR Initiative on Gender Equality organized an expert roundtable on ‘Advancing Women’s Leadership in Agrifood Systems’ from September 11-12 2024 at the Bangalore International Centre, India.