“If we genuinely want to champion the transformation our food systems, we must champion gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls within agrifood systems. Ireland is pleased to work with international partners and organizations in this effort, including through our support for the Joint Programme on Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment.”SIMON HARRIS TD
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ireland
[O4] As one of the funding partners of the Joint Programme on Accelerating Progress Towards the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women (JP RWEE), Ireland commits to contribute to the programme’s sustained implementation.
n/a
n/a
Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is a key priority for Ireland’s foreign policy. A Better World (2019), Ireland’s international development policy, establishes gender equality as one of four core policy priorities and recognizes that gender equality is fundamental for the transformation required to achieve the SDGs and reach the furthest behind first.
Ireland recognizes the importance of gender equality for food systems transformation and places particular importance on raising the profile of gender transformative approaches and on increasing the potential for youth involvement in agrifood systems.
Ireland also recognizes that inequitable access to nutritious diets, nutrition services and positive nutrition and care practices has compounded global gender inequality.
Ireland implements a comprehensive approach to progressing gender equality and women’s empowerment in agrifood systems and rural development through its domestic and international efforts. Notably, Ireland’s international development cooperation programme works with partners around the world to advance long-term development programmes that promote women’s economic empowerment, access to health and education, food and nutrition security, improved humanitarian response and disasters preparedness, and climate change adaptation.
Demonstrating its continued commitment to advancing gender equality, Ireland has recently stepped up its efforts by supporting the launch of FAO’s CGE initiative. Through its financial support to CGE, Ireland has fully embraced the initiative’s mission to drive and accelerate gender equality and women’s empowerment in agrifood systems.
In 2024, Ireland also became one of the partners funding the JP RWEE and contributing to its sustained implementation.
The JP RWEE is a global initiative designed to boost rural women’s livelihoods, rights and resilience through an integrated approach that promotes their social, economic and political empowerment. Together with Ireland, the programme is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The JP RWEE is the result of the collaborative efforts between FAO, IFAD, WFP and UN-Women. The joint implementation has allowed the programme to benefit from and leverage each organization's unique expertise to advance gender equality in rural areas. In line with CGE’s overarching objectives to scale up partnerships and catalyse increased commitments to accelerate gender equality in agrifood systems, the JP RWEE represents a great example of strengthened collaboration and upscaled efforts to this end.
Ireland’s support for the JP RWEE builds on other supported initiatives that focus on women’s economic empowerment in agriculture and rural development. This includes a partnership with IFAD and the Irish League of Credit Unions investing EUR 1.5 million over three years. The initiative supports the financial inclusion and access to financial services among rural women in Ethiopia, Rwanda and the United Republic of Tanzania.
Ireland’s recent investments and scaled up efforts align with the country’s overall vision of a prosperous, just world free from hunger, and will ultimately boost women’s rights, economic autonomy and leadership for better and more efficient agrifood systems.
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
The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.
The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO.
© FAO, 2025
Some rights reserved. This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.en).
Some rights reserved. This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution- 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.en).
Under the terms of this licence, this work may be copied, redistributed and adapted, provided that the work is appropriately cited. In any use of this work, there should be no suggestion that FAO endorses any specific organization, products or services. The use of the FAO logo is not permitted. If a translation or adaptation of this work is created, it must include the following disclaimer along with the required citation: “This translation [or adaptation] was not created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAO is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this translation [or adaptation]. The original [Language] edition shall be the authoritative edition.”
Any dispute arising under this licence that cannot be settled amicably shall be referred to arbitration in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). The parties shall be bound by any arbitration award rendered as a result of such arbitration as the final adjudication of such a dispute.
Third-party materials. This Creative Commons licence CC BY 4.0 does not apply to non-FAO copyright materials included in this publication. Users wishing to reuse material from this work that is attributed to a third party, such as tables, figures or images, are responsible for determining whether permission is needed for that reuse and for obtaining permission from the copyright holder. The risk of claims resulting from infringement of any third-party-owned component in the work rests solely with the user.
FAO photographs. FAO photographs that may appear in this work are not subject to the above-mentioned Creative Commons licence. Queries for the use of any FAO photographs should be submitted to: photo-library@fao.org.
Sales, rights and licensing. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and print copies can be purchased through the distributors listed there. For general enquiries about FAO publications please contact: publications@fao.org. Queries regarding rights and licensing of publications should be submitted to: copyright@fao.org.
Cover photograph: © FAO/Peter Safari; © Patrick Zachmann/Magnum Photo for FAO; © FAO/ Jafaar Al Merei; © FAO/Gilles Sabrie; © FAO/Javid Gurbano
