Markets and Trade
Gender equality is essential to achieve FAO’s mandate of a world free from hunger, malnutrition and poverty. FAO is committed to achieving equality between women and men in sustainable agriculture and rural development for the elimination of hunger and poverty. The Markets and Trade Division (EST) contributes to FAO’s objective to ensure that women and men have equal rights and access to agrifood markets, trade and decent work, and equal control over the resulting income and benefits, in alignment with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
EST provides technical support to Members Countries in the implementation of evidence-based gender-responsive programmes, policies, strategies, and practices to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in agrifood markets, value chains and trade. This support includes gender analyses, gender-sensitive knowledge generation and dissemination, sharing best practices, multistakeholder dialogues, and capacity-development initiatives, among others. These activities contribute to FAO’s goal to ensure that promoting gender equality and eliminating gender-based discriminations are effectively pursued at all levels of FAO’s work programme and organizational culture, in compliance with the FAO Policy on Gender Equality 2020-2030.
Key messages
| Agrifood trade is an engine for sustainable and inclusive development,
leading to social and economic outcomes that are potentially conducive
to gender equality and women’s empowerment. |
| Gender inequalities create constraints to women’s access to domestic and
international agrifood markets and impact agricultural value chain
development, trade performance and economic growth. |
| By removing gender barriers to domestic and international trade, gender-responsive agricultural and trade policies foster a more gender-equitable trade environment and promote an inclusive market-led transformation of the agricultural sector. |
Highlight publications on gender
Gender publication collection
Rapport Spécial - Mission conjointe d’évaluation des récoltes et de la sécurité alimentaire au Niger
04/02/2013
La mission conjointe CILSS/FAO/FEWSNET/PAM a visité le pays du 22 octobre au 9 novembre 2012. Durant la première semaine, les experts et représentants de la FAO, du PAM, du CILSS-AGRHYMET et de FEWSNET en collaboration avec les responsables des ministères, ont adopté le programme de travail de la mission et ont tenu des séances de travail avec les services nationaux intervenant dans le suivi de la campagne agricole, la prévision des récoltes et la sécurité alimentaire. Une rencontre a été organisée avec le Groupe de travail pluridisciplinaire (GTP) à laquelle ont assisté les représentants de la Direction de la protection des végétaux (DPV), la Direction des cultures vivrières (DCV), la Météorologie nationale, le Système d’alerte précoce (SAP), le Dispositif national de prévention et de gestion des crises alimentaires (DNPGCA), les Systèmes d’information sur les marchés de bétail (SIM Bétail) et sur les marchés agricoles (SIMA) et la Direction des statistiques agricoles (DSA). La Mission a bénéficié de l’appui de toutes les directions centrales et régionales des Ministères de l’agriculture et de l’élevage ainsi que l’appui des autres services et ministères sollicités.
Structural changes in the sugar market and implications for sugarcane smallholders in developing countries
01/01/2013
World sugar has experienced a number of trade and policy changes. Their impact on the sugar sector and stakeholders in developing countries has yet to be fully understood. For developing countries such as Ethiopia and the United Republic of Tanzania, which have the potential to expand sugar production and exports, understanding the impact of current and prospective trends in the world sugar market on the income and wages of smallholders and workers can provide useful insights into the contribution of the sugar sub-sector to development goals. This paper employs econometrics and simulation techniques on household survey data to analyze the effect of a set of policy and market scenarios on employment and income of stakeholders (smallholders, workers) in the sugar sub-sectors of Ethiopia and the United Republic of Tanzania. The study reviews the current state of the world sugar market, discusses the likely impacts of various market and trade policy scenarios, and identifies the linkages between the macro level changes and earnings of small stakeholders. The key findings are that changes in international markets have limited effects on smallholders’ income, mainly because of the low supply response of smallholders in the face of relatively high elastic global supply. The increase in border price of sugar is beneficial to small farmers if the opportunity cost of land is low, or if domestic agricultural prices become more flexible.