More than half a billion women have joined the workforce over the past 30 years. Women also make up 40% of the agriculture labor force. And nearly 600 million girls are growing up in the developing world. These are big numbers that prove women are a powerful force for change. According to the World Bank, countries with greater gender equality are more prosperous and competitive.
Progress cannot be made if half a country’s talents are never developed or utilized. For societies to thrive, women and girls must have access to education, healthcare and technology. They must have control of resources, land and markets. And they must have equal rights and equal opportunities. Closing these gaps can unlock human potential on a transformational scale.
If we’re going to end hunger in our lifetimes, we need to empower women. Across developing countries, they make up 43 percent of the agricultural labor force.
Many of them are smallholder farmers, and from paid employment to trade and marketing, women participate in all aspects of rural life. They raise crops and animals, collect water and wood for fuel, and care for family members. And women are more likely to reinvest their income back into their families to improve education, nutrition and health.
Yet, women farmers are not as productive as men due to less access to land, markets, farming technologies, fertilizer, credit and training. That’s a lot of untapped potential. We know that if women had equal access to opportunities and resources, they could increase their yields and feed more hungry people in the world. In fact, if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase their farm yields by 20-30 percent, feeding an additional 150 million people.
We know that when women flourish, families and communities do too. That’s why we’re empowering women by:
- Promoting women’s leadership in agriculture
- Fostering policy changes that increase women’s land ownership
- Strengthening women’s access to financial services