Definition:

Integrated Programmes for gender equality and empowerment  is a multifaceted policy instrument designed to advance gender equality and empower women and girls through leveraging social protection, agriculture, and other relevant sectors.

This instrument focuses primarily on actions that can advance the empowerment of women and girls by addressing the existing structural gender barriers in access to and control over resources, access to services, knowledge and technology, access to decent employment and education, meaningful participation in decision-making at all levels, and the unequal burden of unpaid care work, among others. This is achieved through combining complementary interventions such as social protection or agriculture alongside additional services and resources that address the multi-faceted barriers women and girls face.  

Rationale:

Integrated programmes for gender equality and empowerment are important because they address structural barriers that limit women’s and girls’ access to resources and opportunities, thereby enhancing their capacity to contribute to and benefit from poverty and hunger reduction efforts.

Key interventions:

The following is a non-exhaustive list of examples of key areas of intervention guided by this instrument.

• Equitable land and natural resource rights for women: The focus is on initiatives that protect and advance women's secure tenure rights and access to and control over land and other natural resources, including through:
  • The formulation and implementation of gender-responsive policies and legal frameworks;
  • Land recordation initiatives;
  • Capacity development and sensitization of policy-makers, land administration officials, the judiciary and local authorities;
  • Women’s participation and leadership in governance of land and natural resources, policy-making and climate action (e.g., Women’s land rights).

• Financial inclusion for women: Addressing gender inequalities in financial inclusion is key to promoting women's economic empowerment. This can be achieved by identifying and addressing social norms that limit women's adoption and use of financial services, and working with financial service providers and policymakers to develop products and services that meet women's specific needs, including, for example, group-based and alternative approaches to collateral, and strengthening women's financial literacy and bankability.

• Grants, subsidies, tax incentives for women-led agrifood enterprises: Support through grants, subsidies and tax incentives promotes the growth and sustainability of women-led agrifood enterprises. Gender-responsive fiscal policies, promoting the business case for investment in the agrifood sector, and building the business planning capacity of women-led enterprises are examples of initiatives in this direction.  

• Women’s collective action and group membership: Supporting women to form and/or participate in producer organizations and cooperatives helps improve their access to markets and strengthens their economic empowerment, in addition to promoting their bargaining power, leadership and agency. The focus is on initiatives that promote women’s collective action through group membership, and strengthen women's organizations including through capacity building, access to knowledge and leadership training, to promote better access to markets and services (e.g., Gender-responsive Rural Market Access and Producer Organizations).

• Gender-responsive advisory services (GRAS): GRAS can play a key role in making information, skills, knowledge, new technologies and other productive resources accessible to women producers, enhancing their access to economic opportunities and promoting their confidence. The focus here is on technical assistance to enable government and service providers to formulate and deliver GRAS, and promote women’s better access including through gender-transformative approaches that address discriminatory social institutions and gender norms.

• Access to innovation and technology: Facilitating women’s access to technology and innovation can boost their productivity, efficiency and economic opportunities. The focus is on improving women's access to and use of technology and innovation, and on the design and delivery of gender-responsive technologies and innovations, including digital technologies, and climate-resilient agricultural practices. The role of women in fostering innovation, including through traditional and indigenous practices, is also promoted (for example through  gender mainstreaming of Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization (SAM) strategies and policies).

• Empowering women through trade: Trade has the potential to significantly increase the role of women in the economy and reduce poverty and inequality. Enhancing women’s access to agricultural trade and markets is key to their economic empowerment. This can be achieved through:
  • Developing and implementing gender-responsive agricultural trade policies;
  • Facilitating and promoting the participation of women and women-led micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) cooperatives in policy discussions;
  • Providing capacity building – including on digital literacy – to women traders and agripreneurs;
  • Developing gender-responsive infrastructure at border crossings to address the needs of women traders and create a safer, more accessible trading environment; and
  • Addressing the systemic challenges, including social norms, harassment and gender-based violence, facing women agripreneurs and traders.

• Gender-responsive public procurement: Establishing quotas and preferential channels for women in public procurement in agricultural value chains has the potential to benefit women producers, entrepreneurs, women business organizations and governments. Activities can include training for women and government stakeholders, awareness raising on inclusive procurement strategies for economic development, analysis of barriers and opportunities for women’s participation in public procurement.

• Gender-responsive food security programmes: Women are still disproportionately food insecure compared to men. Gender-responsive and gender-transformative food security programs can:
  • Raise awareness of women's roles in household nutrition and food security;
  • Ensure women's and girls' secure access to nutritious food for better health, including during pregnancy, breastfeeding, growth and development; and
  • Promote better awareness and distribution of roles and responsibilities in food supply, preparation and distribution.

• Unpaid care and domestic work: Although unpaid care and domestic work are essential to the well-being of individuals, communities and societies, they remain undervalued. Throughout the world, women and girls shoulder most of the care and domestic work, with often negative consequences for their well-being, and economic and social development. The focus is on policies, programmes and services that promote the recognition and support of unpaid care and domestic work, including in rural areas, through services and infrastructure that address women's time poverty, promote a better division of care roles and responsibilities and enable women to participate more fully in economic, political and social life. In addition, the provision of public services that support caregivers improves the well-being of families and enables women to pursue education and employment opportunities.