* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Although women comprise about half of the potential workforce in the world, limits on women’s access to employment, to resources, and to fair compensation mean that this workforce is often underutilized. The 2010 Global Gender Gap Report, released by the World Economic Forum at the end of last year, noted that “[w]hile closing gender gaps is a matter of human rights and equity, it is also one of efficiency.” The report found that there is a correlation between gender equality and GDP per capita, meaning that as women’s economic attainment, political empowerment, educational opportunities, and access to healthcare become better, a country’s economic competitiveness improves.
On May 17th, the FAO released a report that, among other things, shows the relevance this correlation has for the agricultural sector. The State of Food and Agriculture report featured a section called “Women in Agriculture: Closing the gender gap for development.” This section highlights the fact that women comprise “43 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries,” yet have less access than men to resources and opportunities. This lack of access results in concrete economic costs. When women are unable to access the same inputs, like seeds, fertilizer, and tools, as men, they are unable to use the land as efficiently as possible, and therefore have lower yields than men. The report found that if women had the same access to these opportunities as men, they could “raise total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5—4 percent,” resulting in a reduction in hunger worldwide.
These findings show that one of the keys to increasing food security and improving the economic outlook of developing countries is to empower women. The Global Gender Gap Report posits that some of the best ways of closing the gender gap are educating girls, increasing women’s participation in the labor force, and increasing women’s participation in the leadership of their countries. The State of Food and Agriculture encourages the same general goals, adding that legal reforms such as eliminating discrimination, recognizing customary land rights, and adjusting bureaucratic procedures can improve women’s access to, and security in, land, thus making it more likely that they will be able to invest in that land.
The Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights is working to close the gap by increasing women’s security in land and land-based resources through law and policy reform, through research, and through innovative pilot projects. More information on these projects can be found on the Center’s website at http://www.landesa.org/women-and-land/.
Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights
An initiative of Landesa, the Center for Women’s Land Rights champions the untapped potential of women and girls to transform their communities. With secure rights to land, women and girls can improve food security, education, health, and economic development for themselves and their families.
