PROGRESS REPORT 2025
Women are at the centre of our agrifood systems, playing a fundamental role in both agriculture and off-farm employment. Yet they face numerous obstacles, structural inequalities and discriminatory social norms that limit their potential and leave them marginalized in some of the most vulnerable employment positions. Gender inequalities in particular increase the vulnerability of women and girls to shocks and crises, such as economic downturns or extreme weather events.
Ensuring equal access for women in agrifood systems to resources and assets, and equal pay for the same work as men, would not only benefit women’s households and communities but also improve economies, food security, nutrition and resilience.
This first report from the Commit to Grow Equality (CGE) initiative comes at a crucial time for gender equality and women’s empowerment in agrifood systems: just five years from the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) deadline, many goals, including SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 5 (Gender Equality), are off track and unlikely to be met. And as the United Nations, civil society and others gather at the 69th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York on the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Beijing Platform for Action, concentrated and scaled action to reduce gender inequality could not be more pressing. The commitments highlighted in this report attest to the collective will of partners to transform agrifood systems, and the lives of women and girls in the process. While there is still a long way to go, CGE is an important first step to make agrifood systems work better for women everywhere.
Commit to Grow Equality is the first multistakeholder initiative that shifts the spotlight directly onto the role of women in agrifood systems. It calls for partners to make gender equality and women’s empowerment the key objective of agrifood system interventions.
The process brings together governments, philanthropy, businesses, multilateral agencies, civil society organizations and others to leverage investments and partnerships towards improving agrifood systems for women. The suggested investments and approaches are underpinned by research from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on successful ways to empower women and close gaps between women and men in agrifood systems.1 These approaches have been shown to be promising pathways for improving incomes, food security, resilience and women’s agency.
“The equality and empowerment of women and girls must be a core component of sustainable agrifood systems. Ireland is proud to be part of the Commit to Grow Equality initiative, and fully supports its effort to bring the international community together to champion gender equality in agrifood systems”SIMON HARRIS TD
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ireland
The Commitments Matrix presents six overarching commitments and a series of thematic commitments (divided into five categories) which are available for CGE partners to associate with. Partners can also propose other commitments which are not explicitly captured, as long as there is evidence that they represent important steps to close gender gaps and increase women’s empowerment in agrifood systems.
The matrix and accompanying progress report enable the aggregation and tracking of diverse efforts to empower women in agrifood systems – leading to better policies and bigger investments, as well as opportunities for synergies.
OVERARCHING COMMITMENTS
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Commit to Grow Equality is an initiative led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
This publication was produced with financial assistance from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine of Ireland. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of FAO and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the Irish Government.
Required citation:
FAO. 2025. Commit to Grow Equality: investing in the future of women in agrifood systems – Progress report 2025. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cd4123en
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