Gender-based differences in rights, resources, and responsibilities often leave women and girls particularly vulnerable to malnutrition, poor health, and excessive workloads. Additionally, gender intersects with other social categories, including age and ethnicity, resulting in differential access to opportunities, resources, and rights among members of different social groups, which increases inequalities and constrains progress on development outcomes. Understanding how gender and other social differences shape individuals’ rights and well-being is central to IFPRI’s mission to provide research-based policy solutions to reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.
What is gender? Gender refers to the socially defined differences between women, men, girls, and boys. It is inclusive of norms, behaviors, roles, and characteristics, as well as the relationships between people of different genders. Social inclusion for development refers to increasing opportunities, access to resources, and rights among members of marginalized social groups to improve their access to and participation in sustainable, equitable food systems. Gender and other social categories (such as age, ethnicity, and caste) intersect, resulting in further unequal access to opportunities, resources, and rights among members of different social groups.
Attention to gender equality and social inclusion is integral to IFPRI’s research across all research topics. IFPRI collects data, develops metrics, and generates important findings on how gender and other social categories relate to food and nutrition security, land tenure, power, and resource allocation within households and communities. We also examine the role of gender and social inclusion in agricultural development projects, market development and trade, institution building, natural resource management, and poverty reduction, as well as links between gender and climate change. Additionally, our evaluations of development and social protection programs investigate the impact of different interventions on women’s and children’s nutrition and intrahousehold relations, including on intimate partner violence.
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IFPRI’s work on women’s empowerment includes the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, the first comprehensive tool for measuring women’s empowerment and inclusion, now widely used and adapted for development programs, as well as several affiliated tools designed for specific types of programs and sectors. A new tool, the Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS), is a shorter, more nimble tool designed for multi-topic surveys.
Our work on the intersection of gender with other areas of inclusion runs deep. Our collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation aims to generate evidence in support of innovative, digitally-savvy livelihood opportunities for youth, especially young women, while reducing post-harvest losses across agrifood systems in Africa. We have also investigated the role caste plays, by looking at how it may affect program delivery, gender differences in aspirations, as well as perceptions of empowerment.
IFPRI’s research on these topics is closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 1, SDG 2, and SDG 5, and all the CGIAR Impact Areas, especially Gender Equality, Youth, and Social Inclusion.
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