Speaker
Description
In the gender and food systems framework (Njuki et al. 2022), food system drivers are anchored in a gendered social, political, institutional, and economic system with structural gender inequalities that shape individuals’ and households’ risks and vulnerabilities. These drivers in turn influence the three main components of food systems – value chains, food environments, and consumer behavior – and their outcomes. This talk will explore the interrelationships among an array of food systems outcomes--diet, nutrition, and food security outcomes, economic and livelihood outcomes (primarily in agriculture), environmental outcomes (including natural resources outcomes), and well-being outcomes—and women’s empowerment and gender equality. I will then focus on the measurement challenges involved in examining the linkages between women’s empowerment and gender equality and these food system outcomes. Drawing on our work developing the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), I will discuss how the WEAI has been adapted to measure specific aspects of food systems related to market inclusion and health and nutrition, as well as ongoing work related to environmental outcomes and livelihoods both within and outside agriculture. I will assess how much progress has been made in measurement and analysis, and end with identifying research gaps and opportunities for future work.
