By Jong-Jin Kim

(read: Time to recognize women’s critical role in agriculture (1))

To “walk the talk” at FAO headquarters in Rome, the Director-General, Dr. QU Dongyu, recently announced the establishment of an Office for Youth and Women. Building on the work of the Women’s Committee, the Office will continue, among other things, to provide a “safe space” to discuss topics affecting women in the Organization, such as gender parity, sexual harassment, and parental leave provisions.

The Office will also promote advocacy, communication, innovation, and outreach through regular dialogue forums to better connect female colleagues around the globe, exchange experiences on specific themes of common interest, and learn from successes from FAO and other organizations in empowering women in the workplace and beyond. It will further strengthen visible leadership and accountability of managers for gender mainstreaming through its “She Matters” initiative geared toward fostering transformational leadership for women’s empowerment and the welfare of female staff at all levels of the Organization.

Worldwide, we see that discriminatory norms often expect women to take on most of the unpaid care work, exacerbating gender disparities in labor markets — both rural and urban. Globally, women dedicate 3.2 times as many hours to unpaid care work as men do. But in the Asia and Pacific region, the ratio is four-to-one. There is a need for acknowledgment, alleviation, and equitable distribution of unpaid care labor, as well as better and more accessible care systems. This will help foster transformative changes to support families, urban and rural, in enhancing their livelihoods and well-being.

But we need to take that critical step beyond fostering and supporting. We need to invest in women’s technical and leadership skills to support their entrepreneurship and income generation, including creating and strengthening existing networking and learning platforms.

FAO’s Regional Gender Strategy and Action Plan for Asia and the Pacific has identified the need to mobilize the participation of both men and women to transform our agrifood systems through an equitable distribution of responsibilities. Creating inclusive spaces for dialogue and reflection is vital for empowering women and reshaping power dynamics across different levels. FAO supports Farmer Field Schools and relevant actions targeted at women in field projects as an inclusive approach to engaging both men and women.

FAO is committed to closely collaborating with its member nations and development partners in Asia and the Pacific to achieve gender equality in a sustainable agrifood systems transformation. Gender equality is indeed a collective endeavor, and we all have a part to play in advancing towards achieving gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls — one of the SDGs (SDG5). As we reflect on this International Women’s Day, let us not only recognize the challenges but also reaffirm our commitment to action. Let us unite our efforts, amplify our voices, champion change, and “Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress” towards a more equitable and sustainable agrifood systems transformation.

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Jong-Jin Kim is Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.