In this study, we systematically review the literature on adoption factors and impacts of labor-saving technologies (LSTs) by smallholder and women farmers in developing countries. 85 articles are included in the review after meeting strict selection criteria through a search across several electronic platforms. We highlight several research gaps that need future research focus. Future research should include gendered differences in factors such as – comparing extension models, social networks, and farmers’ underlying technological perceptions. We show the need for designing and providing access to gender-friendly LSTs suited to the context. While there are clear impacts of LST adoption on labor and productivity, few studies examine negative consequences such as labor-displacement. Further examination of these trade-offs and differential impacts on welfare dimensions across gender is needed. Our results indicate implications for future research and policy regarding incorporating gender differences in designing, promotion, and adoption of LSTs to reduce women’s work burdens and to enhance welfare outcomes.

This summary report is the outcome of a virtual knowledge exchange on good practices in corporate gender equality mechanisms and gender mainstreaming programmes, organized in July 2020 by the United Nations Rome-based Agencies – FAO, IFAD and WFP – in the framework of the Joint Programme on Gender Transformative Approaches for Food Security and Nutrition (JP GTA) with the FAO Women’s Committee.

The reports gives a special focus on the Gender Awards created by IFAD in 2013 to showcase, celebrate, reward and increase the adoption of successful ways of promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in IFAD projects.

This Maldives Country Gender Assessment of Agriculture and the Rural Sector (CGA-ARS, or CGA) provides evidence of gender inequalities in the agriculture and rural sectors of Maldives, highlighting rural women’s needs, challenges and priorities. It also analyses country-level achievements, and shortfalls in closing existing gaps towards the pursuit of gender equality. The report provides information to the Government of Maldives on the current situation and guidance to decision makers on how rural development and investment initiatives may affect gender roles and relations, positively and/or negatively. It also provides data on facilitating women’s empowerment and their access to resources and opportunities.

Globally, rural and indigenous women fare worse than rural men and urban women and men on almost every indicator for which data are available. Although they share common challenges such as rural location and gender-based discrimination, rural women and girls are not a homogeneous group. The opportunities and constraints they face differ across their lifetimes, contexts and circumstances, and are influenced by location, socio-economic status and social identities associated with attributes such as indigenous origin and ethnicity, age, disability, migrant or refugee status.

The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, also known as “Beijing + 25”, provides an excellent opportunity for governments, civil society, the United Nations system and all development actors to take stock of progress made towards gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

This document highlights key facts as well as some good practices from the members of the IANWGE network in the thematic areas of education; food security and nutrition; health; access to and control over land and other productive resources; leadership, decision-making and public life; social protection and services; care and domestic work; gender-based violence; and resilience in the context of climate change and fragility.

Gender equality is essential to achieve FAO’s mandate of a world free from hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. The Organization recognizes that persisting inequalities between women and men are a major obstacle to agriculture and rural development and that eliminating these disparities is essential to building sustainable and inclusive food systems and resilient and peaceful societies.

In alignment with the priorities set by the international agenda, the FAO gender equality policy, first endorsed in 2012, provides the Organization with a corporate framework to orient its technical and normative work towards clear gender equality objectives relevant to its mandate. The Policy recognizes that a gender-responsive organizational environment is necessary to achieve progress towards these objectives. It, therefore, includes a set of minimum standards for gender mainstreaming to ensure that gender dimensions are adequately addressed in all organizational functions, from results-based management to staff learning and evidence generation. Recognizing that all staff has a role to play in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment, the Policy establishes a shared accountability framework that clearly outlines responsibilities for its implementation across the Organization.

The Compendium is a product of the Joint Programme on Gender Transformative Approaches for Food Security and Nutrition implemented by FAO, IFAD and WFP and funded by the European Union. The compendium of 15 good practices of gender transformative approaches (GTAs) includes the individual templates of the 15 good practices, provides a synthesis of the main features of the 15 GTAs presenting the core characteristics of 15 GTAs and describing the implementation arrangements, implementation cycle, the potential results of GTAs and their key success factors and challenges. It also includes ideas as to how GTAs could be taken to scale.

As a new debt crisis is hitting the global South, aggravated by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and economies will face growing difficulties and challenges to deal with climate emergencies, adaptation, and mitigation. As we have seen in the past, debt crises tend to have a negative impact on women’s rights and gender equality, mainly through the implementation of austerity measures. Additionally, the climate emergency also has specific negative impacts on women’s rights and gender justice. The article explores the cumulative impacts on women of debt and austerity dynamics on one side, and climate crisis on the other. Also it proposes responses to the economic, social, and environmental crisis we are living, that address both debt and climate risks in a comprehensive, systemic, and feminist approach.

IFAD’s technical assistance programme INSURED (Insurance for rural resilience and economic development) has been building knowledge about how to strengthen women producers’ access to climate risk insurance. Working with partners, INSURED supported research, and fieldwork in Ethiopia including group discussions with smallholders about insurance options. A checklist was drawn up for insurance designers and implementers to help them reach out to women every step of the way.

The GSMA Connected Women programme works with mobile operators and their partners to address the barriers to women accessing and using mobile internet and mobile money services. Connected Women aims to reduce the gender gap in mobile internet and mobile money services and unlock significant commercial opportunities for the mobile industry and socio-economic benefits for women.

This report documents some good practices and lessons learned from around the world with a specific focus on emergency and humanitarian situations. It highlights a few successful FAO’s interventions on resilience building and gender mainstreaming.

The information in this report can be used as good practices that can help increase resilience of livelihoods in a gender-equitable manner. They can also be used for advocacy, to engage policy makers and practitioners to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in resilience and humanitarian.