REPORT: Gender, diversity and power in the global food system

5 October 2021. The establishment of the Global Food 50/50 initiative is a response to broad stakeholder demands for a global food system that is accountable for progress towards gender equality. This event marks the launch of the inaugural Global Food 50/50 Report, which reviews the gender- and equity-related policies and practices of 52 global food system organizations as they relate to two interlinked dimensions of inequality: inequality of opportunity in careers inside organizations and inequality in who benefits from the global food system.

The Report shows that organizational commitment to gender equality is high, and that over half of organizations are transparent about their policies on shaping diverse, inclusive and equitable working environments for people. The latest data also suggest, however, that rhetoric may be used as a substitute for action. Leadership remains disproportionately male and dominated by nationals of Europe and North America. The report asserts that the skewed distribution of power and privilege is undermining global efforts to reach the Sustainable Development Goals.

This policy seminar will present the findings of the report and explore how this new accountability mechanism can power a broader movement to demand more equitable and inclusive organizations across the global food system.

• Johan Swinnen, Director General, CGIAR-IFPRI
• Kent Buse, Co-Founder and Co-Director, Global Health 50/50
• Jemimah Njuki, Director for Africa, CGIAR-IFPRI (Presentation)Results of 2021 Global Food 50/50 Report
• Sonja Tanaka, Coordinator, Global Health 50/50 (Presentation)
• Keynote Address: Agnes Kalibata, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to the 2021 Food Systems Summit
• Jamille Bigio, Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment, USAID
• Lawrence Haddad, Executive Director, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) (Presentation)
• Rick White, Chair of the Private Sector Mechanism of the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS)
• Vicki Wilde, Senior Program Officer, Gender and Agriculture Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)
• Closing Remarks Sarah Hawkes, Co-Founder and Co-Director, Global Health 50/50
• Moderator Katarlah Taylor, Events Manager, CGIAR-IFPRI

Resource:
Global Health 50/50 and IFPRI (2021),

The Global Food 50/50 Report 2021. 37 p.

• The primary aim of the Global Food 50/50 Report is to catalyze faster progress towards this vision by enabling enhanced accountability driven by rigorous evidence. A second aim is to increase recognition of the role that gender plays in the food system for everybody — men and women, including transgender people, and people with nonbinary gender identities.
• This Report presents measures of how well an initial sample of global food system organizations are acknowledging and addressing gender as a determinant of opportunity, access, and participation in the global food system. It shows that organizational commitment to gender equality is high. Over half of the organizations are transparent about their policies for shaping diverse, inclusive, and equitable working environments.
• The data also suggest, however, that rhetoric may be used as a substitute for action. Organizational leadership — CEOs and board chairs — remains disproportionately male and dominated by European and North American nationals.