The Cost of the Gender Gap in Agriculture Productivity

15 October 2015. Rome. UN Women, UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative and the World Bank launched a joint study on International Day of Rural Women 15 October 2015. This study costs the gender gap in agriculture productivity in Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda.

THE COST OF THE GENDER GAP IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY in Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda provides further evidence that reducing the gender gap translates into significant poverty reduction and improved nutritional outcomes. The study is the result of a collaboration between UN Women, the UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative, and the World Bank and will be launched at a side-event at the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) to be timely held

• The report provides a unique quantification of the costs in terms of lost growth opportunities and an estimate of what societies, economies and communities would gain were the gender gaps in agriculture to be addressed. The gender gap costs Malawi USD 100 million, Tanzania USD 105 million and Uganda USD 67 million every year. Closing the gender gap could lift as many as 238,000 people out of poverty in Malawi, 119,000 people in Uganda, and approximately 80,000 people in Tanzania every year. The findings of the report are striking and send a strong signal to policy makers in Africa as well as development partners that closing the gender gap is smart economics.
• The report also provides guidance as to the factors that must be targeted in order to close the gender gap by improving opportunities for women farmers. It concludes with a set of general policy recommendations of how women’s empowerment, agriculture productivity and economic growth can be addressed in an integrated manner and thereby contributes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals at the national level.

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“Gender in Climate-Smart Agriculture,” (96 pages) the latest module of the Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook, was launched during a side event of the 42nd session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in Rome. The publication provides comprehensive guidance on mainstreaming gender in climate-smart agriculture (CSA).

Based on recent research, evidence and experiences with CSA, the new module features good practices, innovative approaches, tools and technologies to help ensure that men and women benefit equally from CSA interventions and investments. It is aimed at a wide range of development practitioners, decision makers and other stakeholders in government, civil society and the private sector.

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